leadership - W.K. Kellogg Foundation

KELLOGG

LEADERSHIP

FOR COMMUNITY

CHANGE

Crossing Boundaries, Changing Communities

Lessons In Collective Leadership

KELLOGG FOUNDATION VISION TO INNOVATIVE IMPACT

Exploring new possibilities through collective leadership

K 2 • Kellogg Leadership For Community Change

ellogg Leadership for Community Change (KLCC) was launched by the Kellogg Foundation in 2002 to promote and nurture collective and culturally appropriate leadership in communities across the country.

Crossing Boundaries, Changing Communities is a core philosophy of the work, urging the inclusion of non-traditional leaders from diverse backgrounds in the collective decision-making processes of their communities. Traditional models of leadership are often out of step with the demands of contemporary communities. Increasingly, diverse populations must find ways to share power, resources and decision making. We operate from the premise that while many 21st century communities are eager to shape new visions for themselves, they often lack the relationships and collective leadership experience required to realize these visions. This work helps community leaders cultivate the relationships and expertise they need to improve the neighborhoods in which they live. We acknowledge that conventional approaches to training leaders often overlook important community voices. To ensure a diversity of community perspectives, the program capitalizes on a variety of social, economic, cultural and experiential criteria to identify program participants. After selecting a diverse cohort of fellows in several communities nationwide, we work with these leaders to develop collective leadership skills, and provide opportunities for them to exchange best practices and resources while advancing a new collective vision for their communities.

Ultimately, the Foundation’s goal is to strengthen communities by helping individuals who are already engaged in community stewardship to recognize themselves and others as leaders, and then develop the collective leadership expertise needed to work across a range of backgrounds and perspectives. The hope is that the work will yield leadership models that are appropriate to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. The first of three planned sessions began two years ago and focused on improving teaching and learning in six communities around the country. The lessons learned from Session I challenge current thought on leadership. They suggest that community leadership is in a better position to improve teaching and learning when it includes representation from formal institutions (such as schools) and informal networks. Session I demonstrates that local community-based leaders, working collectively around a shared vision, can move beyond salient community tensions to help improve the life and vitality of their communities. The following report highlights what we’re learning with this exciting leadership development program. This summary report is based upon the findings of a comprehensive evaluation process conducted under the direction of Kellogg Foundation Director of Evaluation Dr. Teresa Behrens and lead evaluation consultant Dr. Maenette Benham, professor of educational administration at Michigan State University. We invite you to take a closer look at what has been a worthwhile endeavor so far and encourage you to check back with us periodically as we move forward with future sessions. ▲

Gail McClure Vice President for Programs

Rick Foster Vice President for Programs

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he inaugural session of Kellogg Leadership for Community Change (KLCC) began in 2002. The first session mobilized participants around the theme: Strengthening Public Will and Action Towards Quality Teaching and Learning. Under the direction of six local agencies, roughly 25 fellows from each site (more than 100 in total) participated in this trailblazing session.

lead evaluator for the session and a professor of educational administration at Michigan State University. The evaluation process applied qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the program at the local and national levels and was conducted throughout the term of the session. To read the full Session I evaluation report, visit: www.klccleadership.com EXPECTED OUTCOMES

This leadership program differs from the Foundation's previous leadership development programs in that it emphasizes collective rather than individual leadership development, embracing the belief that shared leadership nurtures individuals and communities. Session I participants worked to develop the social and cultural literacy that would enable positional and nonpositional leaders from different segments of a community to come together and work toward the common good. The fellows also worked to nurture collective leadership within their communities and then use collective action to create systems change. Their primary objective was long-term leadership development that is collective, action-oriented and involves a critical mass of practitioners within diverse communities. The content of this report is based on a comprehensive evaluation report prepared by Dr. Maenette K. Benham,

Each of the six sites was expected to make progress in the following areas: ■ Emergence of collective leadership to effect change; ■ Development of a diverse body of community change agents; ■ Initiation of a sustainable community culture of collective leadership; ■ Participation in, contribution to, and strengthening of a national learning exchange; and ■ Identification of lessons learned to assist others with replication efforts. The sites also sought to enrich the Foundation’s learning about leadership development. ▲

3 • Kellogg Leadership For Community Change

Introduction


Collective Leadership Components What do leaders need to know? ollective power — individuals working as partners to make a difference — is at the root of relevant and sustainable change efforts. Leadership is about building trusting relationships and alliances as well as managing tasks to achieve goals. In the practice of collective leadership:

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■ Leaders identify an achievable goal for their communities and then collectively develop strategies for achieving it.

■ Leaders realize that they must learn new ways of thinking and doing to ensure that the work of the team is contextually and culturally relevant.

How can community-based, collective leadership be defined?

■ Leaders know how to guide discussions about differences and similarities of vision among group members in order to derive a common vision. ■ Leaders are aware of how to engage in respectful as well as critical collaborative processes in order to arrive at a shared meaning. ■ Networks of allies are essential, therefore, leaders network effectively to build alliances with influential community members and groups in order to persuade them to support the common vision. ■ Communication with the general community is frequent so that people know what the group is working on and what the successes are. This can increase community awareness and help to build public will for a project. People like to be involved in successful endeavors.

■ An evaluative process is necessary to support the efforts of the leadership partners in attaining their goals.

Community-based, collective leadership is the result of a process that brings together a diverse community of people to create change. The process begins with a shared dream that forms the heart of a group of skilled and passionate individuals. Collective leadership emerges from relationships people have with one another. Community-based, collective leadership engages communities in activities that can effect sustained and systemic change by entwining leaders, partnerships and networks of individuals and organizations around the focal institutions that need development or change. Interrelationships will pull and push individuals, collectives and fellowships. Community contexts of history, cultures and politics affect and influence these interrelationships. Understanding how these elements intersect and are mediated is required in order to identify the effective leadership capacity of the community.

What exactly is leadership at the community-based, collective level? ■ Leadership is relational: the group as a whole is a leader just as members within the group can be leaders within the group. ■ Leadership emerges out of specific situations: the process of defining vision and setting direction, as well as exercising influence over other people and organizations, becomes a shared function of the group.

Session I communities found that leaders were best equipped to influence change when they learned and understood the complexities of community context (history, culture, demographics, politics, economics, etc.). Leaders cannot be effective in addressing a situation unless the full picture is brought into focus. Otherwise, different community members who might have participated or given good feedback could be alienated unintentionally. Being fully involved in community action means that the whole community, not fractions of it, must be understood. A common concern should be developed out of this learning. The importance of people and place should be recognized. ■ Leadership is transformational: it is grounded on the concept of and commitment to social advocacy and social justice. This is a cyclical process; it does not happen once and end. Instead, the leadership continues evolving as communities change. As groups grow and move, they continue to learn and relearn about their community.

Session I participants found that before individuals can come together to work for the collective good, leaders must work collectively to identify and put into perspective the pertinent issues facing the community. Clarifying these issues and continuously articulating and reinforcing them helps leaders distinguish between group action and individual action. Individuals comprise the group, but more is accomplished when every individual in the group is dedicated to reaching the same basic goals. ▲

“Community-based, collective leadership is the result of a process that brings together a diverse community of people to influence the work and outcomes of a particular community institution.”


What are the principles of leadership?

Collective Leadership at Work


The communities participating in KLCC Session I all focused on an educational goal. The lessons they learned, however, can be applied to any number of issues in a community that needs a different type of leadership.

What Happened in the Session I Communities? Over the span of 18 months, people from all walks of life within each of the six Session I communities came to know and trust one another and work together on their locally conceived approach to improving teaching and learning in their community. Changes occurred at the grassroots level in how various populations communicated with one another; how they articulated and framed their vision for the future of the community; how they resolved conflict for the collective good; how their community infrastructure changed to become more inclusive; and how they plan to continue to work together toward an improved community.

The following site summaries are the results of an evaluation process employed to help understand how the model of community-based, collective leadership fared in a real-world setting. The experiences of two sites, Buffalo and Montana, are highlighted in greater detail in case studies beginning on page 7. All of these summaries are offered as examples of what the KLCC process yielded in the Session I communities. The significant questions asked throughout the evaluation process were:

Does this model really work to help effect change? If so, how? ■ EASTERN CIBOLA COUNTY, NEW MEXICO: Applying the KLCC principles of collective leadership,

two Pueblo and two Hispanic communities — at odds with one another for more than 400 years — found a mechanism for collaboration. They are now bringing their distinct cultures into a common curriculum for the schools through the creation of a county-level department of education. The new department will provide the various community groups a place of collaboration through which they can interpret state policy from the framework of their own community and in a manner that best serves their culture and values. ■ MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA: Each of five cultural enclaves (Hispanic, Anglo, Hmong, African and African American) struggled to cross the boundaries within their own cultural community that prevented them from seeing themselves as part of the larger community. The unifying thread for the five groups was to recognize and acknowledge that even within a cultural community, work must be done to understand and build bridges across the differences within that culture. The change they all ultimately experienced was moving from being focused on their own internal differences to recognizing that they could have greater impact if they united across cultures to move toward a common objective. By the end of the program, the participants proudly announced that although “we started the program as five groups, we are graduating as one.” ■ NORTHWESTERN, WISCONSIN: Underemployed and low-income adults, many of them female, spread across five rural communities discovered that they could be more effective by working together to help create meaningful life-long learning opportunities —

including adult education and economic development support — through distance learning and other collaborative mechanisms. ■ EDCOUCH-ELSA, TEXAS: The work of the Llano Grande Center fellowship affected the other five Kellogg Leadership communities by demonstrating the power of youth in convincing adults to try on new thinking and approaches to existing problems. Inspired by Llano Grande, all of the Session I communities were motivated to recruit and engage youth to join and invigorate their leadership groups. An

adult member of the New Mexico team explained why she is pushing to involve more youth: “They’re the ones that can move mountains. Through them, we get the adults. I see the youth from Llano Grande; it’s amazing what they’re doing.” In each case, there was a rekindling of the creativity, spirit and hope within the Session I communities. The energy and mechanisms created at each of the sites are leading to a renewal of the public commitment to improve teaching and learning for this and coming generations. ▲

The Situation Flathead is a reservation in which most of the land was given to white settlers in the early 1900s. In the Ronan School District, about half the students are American Indians. At the start of the Kellogg Leadership for Community Change session, there was one American Indian teacher in the district. The community was divided — the unspoken rules that everyone knew without it being said were: some events,

jobs, and activities were for whites, and others were for American Indians. American Indian students were dropping out of school in disturbing numbers.

The Intention In their written application to the KLCC program, the Flathead community team described the cultural divide as an impediment to improving opportunities for increasing the quality of education in their community. As they gained leadership skills to further define their vision of


Flathead Creating Reservation, Montana ‘Gracious Space’ for New Community Dialogue

the future and design their approach, they became clearer in their goal of reducing the drop-out rate for American Indians by bringing in new voices, honoring the power of diverse cultures, and shaping a shared long-term commitment to creating a community and educational system where all students could be successful.


Action and Results Salish Kootenai College, the host agency for the fellowship on Flathead Reservation, formed the steering committee to guide the program’s development. The steering committee included representatives from key organizations concerned with education — the tribal government, the school district, the college, the vocational school and various human service providers. They created a fellowship of American Indians and non-Natives, including students and elders, positional leaders, and those who had been previously disenfranchised. Fellows from the Flathead Reservation community met three times a month as they created “gracious space” (which is both a spirit and an organizational tool that creates opportunities for deeper listening and understanding, welcomes diversity, and encourages the creative potential of disagreement or diverse views) and struggled to understand the perspectives of those with whom, ordinarily, they would not interact. They discussed their pain and began healing together as they created a shared understanding of what leadership

meant for their group. They changed the original framing — reducing the drop-out rate of Indian students — to the more positive and inclusive goal of creating a supportive school climate that welcomes all youth and encourages them to succeed and graduate. The Fellowship researched why students were leaving school. They had a presence in the schools on a weekly basis — including welcoming day activities, supporting Indian clubs and school spirit activities, and showing appreciation for teachers. They developed radio spots with students talking about other students that they admired. Fellows participated in parades, community events, and school board meetings. They created a family room to welcome parents into the school, a mentoring program and a peer mediation program. After 18 months of intensive work by a fellowship designed to embrace their community’s diversity there are signs of change. For example, the school district has engaged in a cultural assessment to evaluate current programs and determine if more changes are needed and, for the first time, the school district will enroll students for kindergarten at the Head Start program that serves Native American children. Despite an unusual number of youth related tragedies in the community, there was a slight increase in the Native American graduation rate. Joyce Silverthorne, the head of the Tribal Education Office, reports that the types of conversations that now happen at Ronan schools “occur in no other district on the reservation.” She is eager to see the leadership spread to other districts. Fellows have begun attending conferences and workshops to share their lessons.

The Future The Flathead Reservation fellowship continues to have a committed steering committee and a core group of energized fellows who feel that they have only begun. The networks of the steering committee have been added to the fellows’ networks,

increasing capacity of the whole Fellowship to work in the community. The group is proud of its accomplishments and is clear that there is much more to be done. The Fellowship looks forward to continuing the Family Resource Room begun in the middle school, expanding the mentoring program and offering other activities that create a welcoming environment in the schools. With an eye toward long-term sustainability, the fellows are strategizing to identify continued funding support, have started to expand their group, and are beginning to think about how to mentor new leaders who will join them to make their community a place that values education and where every child can be successful. ▲

The Situation Buffalo is a city with a great past and a challenging present. The city has faced a decade of decline with decreasing population, loss of jobs, and loss of funding for public services. Its schools have faced financial crisis and — during the course of the session — were taken over by a state control board. Despite the dramatic action, Buffalo residents carry a strong sense of place and community, and a pride in their diversity and culture. Buffalo’s neighborhoods are a quilt of diverse ethnic cultures, with most people living near others who look the same or carry the same heritage. In putting together the community team, it was important to create the most inclusive group possible — representing various neighborhoods, ethnic backgrounds, ages, and socioeconomic situations. In fact, one partici-

Engaging Community to Collectively Shape the Future pant remarked that she had never seen such a diverse group assembled in her many years of watching community leadership programs. The shared passion for children and education made it possible for the team to transcend differences and turn their energies into a strong, collaborative effort.


Buffalo, New York

The Intention As with each Session I applicant, the Buffalo community indicated that there were several key educationrelated issues — such as the funding crisis facing the local school system, teacher training and support, and after-school programs — that they wanted to address. During their participation, the Buffalo fellows worked to further define their vision and design a plan for strategic action. Ultimately, they opted to change the paradigm for how the community can shape school board elections and labored to increase funding for after-school programs.


Action and Results At the end of 18 months, the fellowship had done what many had formerly considered nearly impossible: they had become active participants in Buffalo’s complex school system and made a real difference. Building on the work of their host agency, The Public Policy and Education Fund of New York/Citizen Action of New York, the Buffalo fellowship coordinated a collaboration of after-school program providers, the school district, labor unions, and the mayor’s office to prepare a proposal that increased Buffalo’s allocation of 21st Century Fund grants from $150,000 to $1.5 million. When the entire nine-member school board came up for election, the Buffalo Community Fellowship created Your Voice, Your Choice, a voter participation campaign and community process for identifying and articulating attributes the community desired in its school board members. The resulting checklist provided a reference for voters to use in evaluating school board candidates. Embraced by the school board, the newspaper and the community, this checklist was widely distributed in English and Spanish. The fellowship also

supported a get-out-the-vote effort, and the election saw a significant increase in voter turnout. One fellow used the tools learned during the Kellogg Leadership session to help organize the Hispanic community to influence how boundaries were drawn during the redistricting process. For the first time, there is now a Hispanic member of the Buffalo school board. For Buffalo, their successes were the result of a strong existing approach to citizen action coupled with the framework, impetus and training offered in the Kellogg Leadership session. The Buffalo team used the Theory of Change as a foundation from which they were able to articulate their own vision. Using a variety of mutual learning and sharing techniques, the Buffalo fellowship moved from being a group of strangers to a unified team and is now recognized as a collective source of leadership throughout the Buffalo area.

The Future The impact of the fellows’ work has already been significant in Buffalo and now extends far beyond the boundaries of city limits. The fellowship team is using what they’ve learned to create a report card that will provide follow-up accountability for the work begun with Your Voice, Your Choice, to expand working with the after-school provider network, and to mentor the next round of community leaders. The Public Policy and Education Fund of New York/Citizen Action of New York has incorporated lessons learned from the fellowship’s experience with leadership development, new ways of building partnership-based coalitions, and the use of gracious space into their organizations on a statewide basis. In addition, a new fellowship is emerging on Long Island for which the Buffalo group will provide mentorship and support. ▲

“At the end of 18 months the fellowship had done what many had formerly considered nearly impossible: they had become active participants in Buffalo’s complex school system and made a real difference.”

Applying the Lessons of the Fellows

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How does a collection of individuals move from the “I” to the “we” and become a collaborative group of leaders? The process of coming to embrace common goals and a shared vision can be complicated by the cultural environment of a community. History, geography, demographics, lineage, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic factors inform perspectives that shape the worldview of people residing in a community. Having an awareness of this will help group members better understand one another and how they are connecting with one another and the community at large. These sensitivities foster open communication, continued learning, and high but realistic expectations of one another. Understanding the interrelationship between context and culture, group members move beyond the ‘I’ and into the ‘we’ mindset and begin to see themselves as part of a larger whole.

How can community-based, collective leadership be developed and enacted to build community capacity and public will to create sustainable change? Balance must be achieved between personal learning and team-building skills to build trusting relationships. Participating leaders need to be able to understand and articulate their areas of competence and passion, com-

munication styles, and views of the community. They should participate in activities that help build individual and cultural self-esteem and should become comfortable communicating with one another in reinforcing and constructive ways. Knowing the group members and feeling good as individuals allows for the possibility of establishing, within the group, a strong sense of belonging and will result in feelings of relatedness. Successful groups emphasized high fluidity and high participation of group members in the direction-setting processes of their work. This can be achieved by: clearly defining roles and responsibilities through collaborative processes that establish ground rules for respectful discussion and debate; developing a shared vision of the group and community; articulating shared expectations of each member’s participation; maintaining frequent and easily accessible communication; establishing a positive group attitude and a no-titles, non-threatening climate in which unique experiences and expertise are acknowledged while egos are checked at the door. Groups that knew the cultures around them were better able to identify and assess relevant community issues and needs. Group members who become more aware of cultural differences are better able to use culturally appropriate means of communicating and advocating. In addition, as group members get to know the community, they also build alliances within it.


he fellowships all went through a trial-anderror phase, but each of them eventually landed on effective strategies for using a community-based, collaborative leadership model. Early in the process, evaluators asked the big question of whether or not this model actually achieves positive results. The answer, based on the experiences of Session I participants, is that this model is, indeed, effective. The question that follows, then, is this: how do groups use this model to achieve results? Below are some of the pivotal questions and points that should be kept in mind as groups coalesce into a vibrant force in their communities.


Learning and using strategic planning, sharing decision-making practices, learning policy and political assessment processes, employing developmental evaluation methods, and using effective facilitation and community organizing strategies are all part of teaching group members the tactical leadership skills they should eventually possess.

What structure can enhance community building and leadership for change? In cases where participants were most satisfied with their learning-leadership and social-advocacy experiences, the evaluators observed that the organizational structure was flat (not hierarchical), with key decisions being made and implemented in a collaborative manner. In addition, group members reported a deep sense of ownership of the values and ideals that guided the work of the organization, as well as agreement

with and support of shared norms that defined the activity and expectations of the organization. The organic and participatory nature of successful organizations was created by having: • Clearly defined and frequently articulated roles and responsibilities; • Transparent distribution of resources; • A set of defined expectations that held each member accountable to one another and to the overall project goals; and • Open avenues of communication across all levels of the organization.

How should members of a communitybased leadership group handle outsider/insider tensions? Theoretically, members of a community are insiders to any public institution in that community. In the real world, there is often resistance to those who are not part of the institution’s formal “insider” network (in the cases of some groups, this resistance often came from school administrations and school board members). Groups that overcame this resistance: • Began by learning how the resistant organizations functioned; • Established trust by building alliances with people in the organization one at a time; • Recognized the need to build alliances with other groups that had influence on the governance of the resistant organization; • Learned how to question critically yet respectfully while presenting ideas; and • Presented their ideas through both informal, conversational settings and formal, meeting-like settings.

Never overlook the value of external communications.

How do you engage the community and get people involved? One of the biggest frustrations for leaders is that it seems like the same people are always involved in the community, while the vast majority are content with inaction. The experience of the fellows suggests it is not that people are apathetic, rather, many do not know how to get involved or do not feel connected. Attending to the following may help stimulate involvement: • The basic survival needs of community members need to be met before anyone will get involved in a social change movement. It is a lost cause to advocate for change in a place where people are struggling to eat and stay warm. • In many successful cases, the process of building public will to act begins with building personal will of individual group members. By developing and defining relationships, individuals can then work to build public will. • Articulate a common goal. It is easier for people to get behind a focused group whose purpose is clear. • Start from scratch. People need to know the community’s needs and how to act. The What and the How of your concerns must be addressed, and appropriate context should be provided.

Take note of who is already involved and then ask: Who is missing? Make it a mission to locate these people and reach out for their ideas and energy. Sometimes all it takes is an invitation, especially if a community is one that has been historically plagued by exclusionary practices of any kind. Acclimate the community to the idea of change and try to get people comfortable with it. Don’t be discouraged; the experiences of the KLCC Minnesota group demonstrate that it takes time to cultivate the public’s will for change because it often means changing deeply embedded attitudes. The sense of belonging, bonding, finding common ground, and sharing passion leads to what the Montana fellows defined as the “we will” movement to engage community change. As this movement grows, more people will join. People enjoy being a part of something.

How can a project be sustained after the original funding is gone, or after the original people move on? A persistent worry among those involved in community change projects is sustainability. Burnout, evaporating funding, and the transition of people leaving the group all are common challenges. Planning ahead for these occurrences is a smart way to ensure that a project will continue even after its landscape changes.


The task of communications is absolutely integral to being heard and to achieving sustainability: leaders must understand that the successes of a group, the availability of members, and the group goal need to be conveyed. For community-based leadership to work, the community must know you exist. Leaders should: •Outline who they want to know about the organization. Think of how they can continue to broaden their audience. •Be able to convey the essence of the organization in a press release. •Make communication educational. What will an audience learn from reading or listening to a message? •Be frequent and consistent in messages. There are a lot of messages competing for an audience’s attention; to avoid being forgotten, an organization must not neglect communication opportunities. Don’t confuse the audience by sending out conflicting information.

Part of networking and learning about the community is figuring out where the fire in the community is located. Are people most fired up about issues of place, history, people, alliances, language, culture, future prosperity, or well-being? What do people really care about? Once the fire’s locus is identified, it becomes the group’s job to direct that passion by articulating these hot issues. This draws people out and fuels their spirit to serve.


Leaders can: •Invite new people. They bring new ideas, new energy, and new networks. •Maintain a position of fluidity and inclusiveness. This helps to build new alliances, and people often need to take breaks from the work and come back to help once they are refreshed. •Be sure that information is disseminated so the community is aware of what is happening and what the group’s needs are. A note to those in a small community: fellows in rural areas often found word of mouth to be better than the written word. •Engage in and offer community-based leadership training programs. •Use self assessment as a tool to identify strengths and growth areas of staff and new leaders. •Engage in collaboration. Don’t rely on collaboration with just a few because if those people leave, you are left with nothing.

“We have modeled the way that we wanted to be treated. We have met people where they are and listened even when it was very hard.” — Montana KLCC Fellow

•Make sure that there are at least a few highly self-motivated people in the group who can keep going by themselves when times get tough, and who can bring others along with them.

This seems like it will take a lot of time. Is it worth it to spend the time changing the leadership structure that is already in place in my community? In the beginning of their collective leadership work, all of the Session I communities reported quite a bit of frustration with time. Developing new ideas about leadership, changing their activities, and trying to learn about their communities’ cultures consumed a lot of time that they felt they didn’t have. They struggled with the perceived inactivity of building relationships within the groups and learning about themselves, the groups and the communities when they had the desire to do, to work and to change their communities. However, once the groups took the steps of learning about themselves and each other and formulating group visions, they ended up with a robust and holistic perspective of their community that influenced the content and process of their change work. In their final evaluations, the groups consistently reported that it was highly effective to take the time to build relationships before they started on their change work; the insights it provided informed the process and made them more aware of each step they were taking, and why they were taking it. ▲

— John Calvin Davis, KLCC Session I, Buffalo, NY

The Foundation gratefully acknowledges the following national and local site evaluators whose collective work forms the basis of this report: Maenette Benham, Matthew Militello & Richard Price ............................................National Evaluation Team Crystal Elissetche, Delia Perez & Miguel Guajardo....................................Edcouch, Texas Site Evaluation Team Shelly Valdez ..........................................................................Eastern Cibola County, New Mexico Site Evaluator Doug Ruhman ....................................................................................................Ronan, Montana Site Evaluator Danis Gehl ........................................................................................................Buffalo, New York Site Evaluator David Scheie ............................................................................Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota Site Evaluator David Johnson ........................................................................................Northwestern Wisconsin Site Evaluator


“Sometimes we try to do [community change work] ourselves. I’ve come to realize that it is much more efficient, and increases chances of success, if you can embrace and empower other folks, and share the leadership responsibility with them in an effort to accomplish a goal…”

The Road Ahead

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ollective leadership is a concept that fits well with our mission at the Kellogg Foundation because it is about assisting groups of individuals in marshaling their collective knowledge, talents and resources toward improving the quality of life for themselves and those around them. The Foundation has only begun to explore the possibilities of collective leadership. Our experiences in Session I have encouraged us to keep applying the lessons we are learning as we move into the next session. We know we are succeeding because we are generating more questions than answers about how to strengthen the collective leadership skills of community members. The communities where we work and the Foundation staff continue to learn together. The participants in Session I came from diverse cultural, ethnic, educational and economic backgrounds. They were old, young and middle-aged. They were positional and non-positional leaders as well as those who, prior to joining the fellowship, did not self-identify as leaders. What they all shared was a commitment to community and a belief that social change was not only necessary, but possible. What they accomplished in such a short period of time is remarkable and only the beginning of what we anticipate will be lasting change. Session I has affirmed our belief that in order to grow, institutions, like individuals, must be willing to change. Our decision to focus on collective leadership was an evolution in focus from our previous individual leadership development efforts. Participating in a new way of thinking is always exciting. The newness, however, also brings change and uncertainty. The Foundation wishes to thank the many fellows, host agencies, consultants, staff and board members who ventured into this new terrain with us. Session I has provided many lessons about leadership development, but we also have learned important lessons about our own institutional norms and customs. The Foundation is working to integrate those lessons into our systems and institutional culture, and is deeply grateful to our KLCC partners for giving us the gracious space to be an equal participant in the learning process.

Session II began in the spring of 2005. It includes five communities from around the country and is focused around the theme Valuing and Building Youth and Adult Partnerships to Advance Just Communities. Like Session I, Session II includes urban, suburban and rural communities. Each comes to the work with a set of unique attributes and challenges, but they share a commitment to exploring the possibilities collective leadership holds for enabling them to better their communities. Our goal for the session is to unleash the potential of youth and adults to engage together in shaping the common good by collectively building new pathways for youth to serve as social change agents. As we move ahead, we look forward to expanding the collective leadership learning community and invite our colleagues, friends and leaders everywhere to take the lessons outlined in this report and share them with those who might benefit from their application, and to also share their thoughts and reactions back with us. Knowledge shared is the fertile ground from which new possibilities emerge. The potential for discovery is great. Change is imperative. ▲

KLCC is a program of the

KELLOGG FOUNDATION VISION TO INNOVATIVE IMPACT

One Michigan Avenue East, Battle Creek, MI 49017-4058 For more information contact: Frank Taylor, Program Director Or visit us online at: www.klccleadership.org Email: [email protected] © 2005 Photos by Elizabeth Bettenhausen, Jim Blow, John Guthrie, Eddie Rios, Cheryl D. Fields and Randy Siner. Editing & Production services: Stephanie Pierce & Langhum Mitchell Communications. Design by XLR8STUDIOS. Job # LE 4367 Item # 1032