The Leadership Development Paradigm is Changing - Yippie!

A new paradigm for leading social change is emerging; a worldview acknowledging the importance of leadership that is life-affirming, inclusive, and sustainable. The transformation of social change leadership culture is a response to beliefs, practices, and teachings that are passed on from one generation of social change workers to the next; beliefs which ultimately determine the quality of life, leadership practices, organizational practices, and efforts of professionals working for social change. Leadership paradigms and approaches by nonprofit leaders often reflect the lack of possibilities for action that are bound by old ways of thinking and being in the sector. (1) Today, practitioners and scholars have a better understanding that “leadership development is not about filling a gap but about igniting a field of inspired connection and action.” (2)

Leadership development opportunities for nonprofit leaders are an increasing phenomenon and have been successfully able to (3):

· Impart specific skills and provide learning experiences;
· Provide opportunities for respite;
· Encourage leaders to reflect on practice;
· Increase the visibility and prestige of nonprofit leaders; and,
· Create a network of contacts.

In the last five years professionals who fund, run, and study leadership development opportunities for nonprofit professionals have conducted groundbreaking research. Their research has explored the possibilities and limitations created by different types of leadership programs. The majority of leadership development opportunities focus on individuals, supporting them to “develop critical skills that make them more effective leaders in their organizations." (4) While this theory of change has had success, it is limited in terms of large systems change because the emphasis remains on individual leadership development. In 2010, the socio-political and economic climate requires a new approach that necessitates leaders thinking differently about how change occurs and how nonprofit professionals develop themselves and work with each other.(5) Leadership practitioners, funders, and scholars now advocate that networks of nonprofit leaders are better positioned to affect systems and social change when using a paradigm that understands the value and benefits of leadership development that focuses on teams, organizations, communities.(6)

Increasingly, there is an understanding that leadership is a process grounded in relationships that are fluid dynamics, non-directive, and non-unilateral. This is a fundamental shift away from a paradigm only advocating leadership as the skills, qualities and behavior of an individual who exerts influence over others to take action or achieves a goal using their position and authority. (7) According to Leadership for a New Era, a consortium of individuals invested in the leadership development field and who have specific experience with nonprofit leaders, three fundamental shifts must occur to broaden and sustain the effectiveness of leadership development opportunities. (8) From:

Individuals to Communities	Organizations to Networks	Silos to Partnerships
Leadership is a relational process that occurs in groups, communities, and networks.	Leadership in networks is relational, collective, bottom-up, and emergent.	Leadership recognizes that multi-stakeholder approach that cut across sectors and disciplines in required.

The work that has been cultivated over the last ten years on leadership development has played a significant role in the paradigm change that is occurring in this field. What is important to note is that the approach used to study leadership development has modeled the very change that is occurring, making the work, for me, have more legitimacy because of its coherency between theory, general ideas, and action.
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(1) Gutierrez, R. (2008). Life-Affirming Leadership: An inquiry into the culture of social justice.

(2) Scharmer, O. (2009).Ten propositions transforming the current leadership development paradigm.

(3) Ford Foundation. (2007). Grant Craft: Practical wisdom for grantmakers.

(4) Meehan, D., Reinelt, C. (2010). Leadership for a New Era Series: A new leadership mindset for scaling social change. (www.leadershipforanewera.org)

(5) Meehan, D., Reinelt, C. (2010).

(6) Meehan, D., Reinelt, C. (2010).

(7) Meehan, D., Reinelt, C. (2010).

(8) Reinelt, C. (2010). Leadership for a New Era: The future of leadership groups, networks, and partnerships. (www.leadershipforanewera.org)

Taking My Own Medicine

The one year anniversary of my first vipassana is quickly approaching and I find myself with a deep desire to sit and be silent.  I actually spend most of my days in silence, working from home with just me and my pets...but the silence and sitting, of course, is not the same. When my husband has time, he comes home for a lunch visit and that is always a welcomed break.

In Arizona the weather is still blistery hot.  The monsoons have appeared to offer our leathered skin some moisture; a different type of reprieve than air conditioning.  I have been spending a few afternoons a week in my cousin's pool, laying on my back, water slowly filling up my ear canal while I look at the blue sky with puffy gray and white clouds rolling in from the east.  The cool water provides a gentle way to regain full range of motion from my rotator cuff surgery.  It is my water therapy.  These afternoons have temporarily replaced my swimming practice, which for all intent and purpose, was my most cherished contemplative practice which has been gone for months.  I suspect that the intentionality of getting in my car, changing into a bathing suit, slowly entering the water, and gently reclining on my back while observing the pain in my shoulder has re-ignited an inner calling for engaging in more intentional, and regular, contemplative  practice and has me thinking about that first vipassana, my work in encouraging social justice workers to practice, the concept of "taking your own medicine", and the ability to hold compassion for self.

  

Last year on October 23, 2009, I flew to North Carolina to be picked up by a total stranger who over the next few days I would speak to once or twice. Most of our interaction was carried out by glancing down towards the ground watching each others feet shuffle by.  Although once I passed by him and could not help but look at him in his face because he had a smile from ear-to-ear, with the look of an innocent child who had just experienced the mystery of unequivocal joy.

When I made the choice to go to my first vipassana I had no idea what I was getting into.  I had been wanting to go to this type of retreat for some time and was happy to find a dear friend, Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey, co-lead one with his teacher, Michele McDonald.  Jesse is a gentle soul whose rough human edges, that we all have, soften as each year passes.  His commitment to his practice shows through his eyes which are clear and sparkle with light.  Over the years, I have come to know Jesse better and knew I could trust him in co-creating this space for me to be.  I have learned that trusting people to create the space for learning is as important as is trusting one's self in being able to handle whatever learning will come in that space.

Since those first ten days of honorable silence, spider webs hold a completely different significance for me.  The vipassana was held at the Stone House, a place I consider my home away from home.  This refuge for activists has a large pasture surrounded by a tree-lined path.  Each day I would take walks on the path wet with moisture.  I would return to my cabin with wet pants and blades of grass stuck to my ankles.  For the first few days I seemed to run into long silky threads made from spiders trying to get from one place to another.  One time I saw a spider who held the illusion of being suspended in the air because I could not see the thread which he occupied.  I had seen that once before in when I had lived in Mexico.  Like then, I just stood and stared; except this time I laughed really loud at how beautiful it was.  Each time after that when I would aimlessly run into these long sticky and seemingly invisible threads I would shutter and let out a little "eek!".  I could not get the thread off my hair, hands, and shirt fast enough...on some level my wonder of the natural beauty of the spider's work turned to disgust of having this sticky substance on me.  At some point, I held up my hands to the sky and said aloud, "Okay! I surrender to whatever the hell you are trying to teach me with these damn webs!"

The next day, I recline on a dock jetting out into the small pond; hands behind my head, not thinking, knees bent, lower back comfortable, and eyes closed**.  I felt the air blow across my face, lift my hair gently around my forehead and cheek.  My breath came and went gentle and natural.  The sun light felt soft on my whole being.  As the wind picked up and I opened my eyes to see a completely in tact spider web floating across the sky.  I could hardly believe I was seeing something so extraordinary while doing something so seemingly mundane.  In truth, the only reason I even saw the web was because the way the sun was gleaming on its threads.  I laughed to myself thinking about how insight is like this...at first it can be overwhelming, it is often fleeting, only available when there is sacred illumination simultaneously with one's eyes are "fully open".  Even now, I think of how incredibly, incredibly captivating the complexity and simplicity of that spider web was.  I think about how it is easy to allow insight to enchant us instead of inform us...the idea that being enchanted takes less discipline that allowing ourselves to be informed.


This year I cannot go to the vipassana held by Jesse and Michele because of a work commitment.  I am disappointed.  I am looking around for other opportunities that are closer to home.  My hope is to find a community who understand (and practice) that the full value of insight meditation takes place through actions off the cushion.  If I cannot find such a community, I will just have to co-create one with others.


**This is a drawing my friend Cassandra created while she was listening to me tell her my experience.

Inclusive Social Change for Social Justice Comes in All Shapes

For many years I was constrained about who I considered to be a social change worker*. I, like many others, felt that social change workers only took the form of the first line folks, such as community organizers. So this meant people who were working for social justice through other means were not potential partners or allies, including people who worked for social justice through business were out. Today, I think across the board, there is a more sophisticated understanding of who is a social change worker. We acknowledge that there are many previously unrecognized components (e.g. advocacy, scholarship, spiritual) and levels (e.g. personal, organizational) to social change. To be effective we are required to learn about each other, to build authentic relationships with one another, to figure out how to leverage being allies, and respect each other's contributions to social change working for social justice.

I am grateful to all my colleagues and peers over the years who lovingly pushed me to cultivate a more expansive view of what working for social justice can, not should, look like. It is in this spirit that I present a video celebrating the Hitachi Foundation's work for social justice over the last 25 years. As a consultant, I have worked with the Hitachi Foundation for nine year's with two of their key programs. It was through them that I learned a lot about thinking bigger about social change for social justice.

*In my dissertation, Life-Affirming Leadership: An Inquiry into Social Justice (2008), I defined social justice worker as:

People whose work actively and intentionally seeks social justice; social justice activists, social justice change agents, and social justice organizers are examples. The term social justice worker reflects a shift in my awareness and acceptance of modern activist culture and social change work, acknowledging that social justice workers hold a variety of positions and take various approaches (advocacy, organizing, fundraising, philanthropy, etc…) towards actualizing transformation that result in social justice. Unlike the words “activist”, “organizer”, and “change agent”, the term social justice worker is less likely to be misappropriated by individuals and organizations promoting change who do not work towards social justice based in human and civil rights.