| As described in their
request for proposals, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation is sponsoring a set of national
dialogues on leadership during a two-year period beginning in March 1998. These sessions
are opportunities for Food Systems Professions Education (FSPE) grantee institutions and
their partners to engage in productive, purposeful conversations about leadership issues
affecting institutions that are learning to respond more effectively to the challenges of
ongoing change. These dialogues constitute forums in which participants can share
experiences about leadership, discover possibilities for furthering leadership development
in their "home settings," and shape specific strategies to turn these
possibilities into realities. Complex
and Adaptive Living System
The overall concept for this set of dialogues is based on a
"complex and adaptive living system" philosophy about change and leadership in
and among organizations. The Complex and Adaptive Living System is summarized in the
following statements.
Change is a response to shifts in context -- it is learning.
Because continuous change responds to an ever-shifting context, it leads to continuous
learning. While context is comprehensive and all-encompassing, change is personalized in
its delivery and focused in its design. Therefore, an approach that works in one area may
not be effective elsewhere, although the context is similar for each. Different approaches
may be effective in the same area. Adaptation occurs in a living system by finding
multiple ways that work, and not by seeking the right answer.
Context, which provides the impetus for change, extends to
everything, everywhere at once. Local responses may be unique, yet they affect the whole.
Having an awareness of the whole -- feeling part of an endeavor bigger than oneself --
increases the potential to move the learning gained in response to a local situation far
beyond the point of experience. Hence, change is both local and global, which is one way
to describe complexity.
Leadership Dimensions and
Collective Leadership in the Living System
There are multiple dimensions to leadership. At its essential
level, leadership relates to each pursuing his/her own mission in life unabashed and
unabated. In this respect leadership is personal. Leadership in an organization is
comprised of a set of qualities and characteristics demonstrated by people whose roles,
relationships, and responsibilities within that organization allow and support those
qualities and characteristics. In this case, leadership is individual. However, in complex
interrelationships between and among several organizations that are working together
leadership becomes a shared responsibility.
When leadership is shared, the qualities and characteristics of
individual leadership, which are shaped by the culture and circumstances of the
institution represented, give way to a greater interest in exploring possibilities, looking for ways that work, engaging in multiple learning
experiences, and enjoying influence across multiple organizations. This is the realm of
collective leadership. This form of leadership is at the heart of complex and adaptive
living systems.
The National Leadership Dialogues:
Assumptions
Three assumptions guide the set of leadership dialogues. First,
change is constant. All FSPE grantee institutions and partners have been and continue to
be engaged in multiple processes that assist them to continuously adapt to an
ever-shifting context. These dynamics are a constant; hence, change is a constant.
Second, the scope of FSPE efforts is comprehensive. FSPE is a set
of integrated, vision-led change strategies intent on significantly improving the speed,
degree, and efficacy with which working relationships are formed, patterns of
communication are conducted, and decision-making is done within and among grantee
institutions and their partners. FSPE complements any other change efforts underway or
initiated later; in total, they affect the whole of those organizations involved.
Third, each project is unique. The strategic choices in design
and delivery made by clusters of FSPE grantees and their partners, while having commonly
held characteristics of context, relationship, and approach from one cluster to another,
are unique responses that cannot be blindly replicated or automatically transposed to
other contexts.
The National Leadership Dialogues:
Design Strategies
By drawing on the philosophy of change and leadership outlined
above, there are three design strategies participants can expect to experience during each
leadership conference.
FSPE Affiliation. Although intended to complement existing
or future processes directed towards improving institutional responsiveness, the primary
linkage for the Leadership Initiative is with the FSPE Initiative. At this time, plans
call for the Leadership Initiative to unfold during two phases extending across a
five-year period.
The first phase, lasting approximately two years, will increase
understanding about those collective leadership examples emerging from complex
institutional settings and will raise the capacity for each institution to experiment with
these and other possibilities.
The second phase, extending across a three-year period, will move
from concept to action by developing and implementing strategies for introducing
collective leadership models throughout FSPE grantee institutions and their partners. This
five-year period coincides with the shift of the FSPE initiative from Phase II to Phase
III -- a period where changes within the grantee and partner institutions will demand
focus on leadership issues and challenges. The critical transition period critical between
Phase II and Phase III necessitates that FSPE to be featured prominently in the design and
delivery of the leadership dialogues.
Non-Expert Models. Finding ways that work means there are
no right answers. While there are always those who have expertise to contribute in any
given situation, they by no means have the best or only solution. Collective leaders are
explicitly learners, people who have an insatiable curiosity about possibilities, an
unwavering commitment to make a difference, and a clear intent that others participate in
and benefit from what is being learned. Expect the design and delivery of the dialogues to
underscore collective leadership characteristics by doing the following:
- blur the lines between participants, presenters and facilitators during each dialogue
event;
- extend an open, ongoing invitation for all who so choose to help create and to share
ownership of each event as it unfolds and from one dialogue event to the next; and,
- assist those with specific expertise to share it within the spirit of co-learning rather
than being staged as "talking heads."
The National
Leadership Dialogues: Learning Through Action
In order for a set of dialogues about leadership to have
relevance and meaning, it must be compelling, purposeful, useful, experimental and provide
continuity from one dialogue to another. To this end, expect each dialogue event to offer
the following four qualities:
Context Setting. Given that many attendees will likely be
different from one session to the next, it will be important to have an introduction to
collective leadership and institutional change that can be repeated in each session. This
will give participants a sense of history, a common starting point, and a shared construct
to carry them through the balance of the session and then share with previous attendees
back home.
Discovering Possibilities. As participants engage in a
variety of interactions during the course of a dialogue event, ideas will emerge that
garner their commitment to further explore back home. This movement of ideas from concept
to actuality constitutes a set of experiments from which more learning will occur. If
these experiences are shared at the next dialogue event, community learning ensues and a
powerful example of collective leadership is shown.
Skill Building. When attendees leave a dialogue event,
they need to feel confident that the possibilities for experimentation they identified
during the session can be acted upon successfully in their home institutions. This
confidence comes from having skills and materials sufficient to share what was learned
and, ultimately, enroll others back home in a collective effort that turns possibilities
into reality. Some part of each session will be devoted to raising the capacity of
individuals to affect this.
Creative Disruption. Oftentimes, attendees at conferences
are not given opportunities to experience learning approaches outside the traditional
pedagogy of text and talk. The use of fine art, performance art,
graphic art, and dance are four examples of other ways to prompt learning along
non-traditional paths. Because of the infrequent and unexpected use of these approaches,
they disrupt typical patterns of thinking and thus can be perceived as counterproductive.
We intend to re-conceptualize these events as creatively disruptive alternatives, but
purposeful creative expressions of relevant ideas broaden and accelerate learning.
Conclusion
By clarifying our approaches, assumptions, and intentions, we
wish to include you in a flexible, dynamic, and highly progressive community of
co-learners and co-leaders. We welcome your participation and look forward to getting to
know you better.
WorkSpan, Inc.
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