Shared Leadership: Why it Matters and How to Help Nonprofits Get There (October 2010)



Alliance Meeting Notes:

Group I. Recommendations about how to get started with a shared leadership model.

1. Identify "Why do this". What events or opportunity to enhance the work has brought the group here.
2. Walk through power structure and discuss what that means
3. Understanding what's currently in place: what is working and what needs to change for shared leadership to happen?
4. Create buy in with the staff, board and stakeholders
5. Provide training on shared leadership models.

Discussion:
Challenges:

• Concern about who is the main point of contact
• Slower decision making process
• Is the staff ready and capable of shared leadership?
• It involves changes much of the process

Benefits:

• Everyone is engaged
• Increased productivity, morale, buying
• Encourages more input from external stakeholders
• innovative thinking and different perspectives
• Better staff transition and succession

Group II. What culture supports shared leadership?
Different levels

• organizational culture
• subgroup culture
• external culture

What we say and do can be two different things. Culture is not always visible

Perception: External stakeholders have different views about shared leadership

Everyone has responsibility for the culture: Create the place you want to work. Ask the question: What do you want this to look like? (process, structures, values, etc.)

Sometimes capacity building will be needed to support shared leadership.

Group III: What structures do you need for shared leadership?

• communication: within a the group and to the board
• documentation: electronic. Be clear what repsonse you need, what info is required for a decision
• evaluation: 360 and board, report to different people
• roles/responsibilities: where are the boundaries, what is solo and what is collective? Is there something else?
• big picture checkin: who is the point person, know when you need meetings
• assessment: determine appropriateness, readiness
• alignment: align values and mission
• education:
• share data, e.g. case studies
• maintain mission focus
• cost benefit analysis

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Blog Post: What does collective leadership look like in an organizational context? (October 28, 2010)

By Deborah Meehan

More and more people are talking about collective leadership these days. It’s hardly a radical idea because it makes sense as people think about how things really occur and the role of relationships in change. In fact, many leadership programs are now focused on supporting collective leadership that helps a group move to action. I wonder how many of these leadership programs are adopting a collective leadership model among their staff. When it comes to collective leadership there are a lot of skeptics who roll their eyes as if it can't be done in an organizational context without being bogged down in endless efforts to reach consensus with nobody accountable. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine what does not yet exist, but fortunately there are organizational innovators charting new territory with stories to tell.

Earlier this month I was invited to join a team hosting a session on shared (or collective) leadership in an organizational context at the Alliance for Non Profit Leadership. It’s hard to be a champion of collective leadership and turn away from an opportunity to learn more about the thornier side of collective leadership and how to make it work in an organization. I invite you to visit the Leadership for a New Era site where we have posted the presentation from the session and discussion notes.

In the meantime I would like to share some of the things I learned in the process and some of the areas in which those of you interested in this topic can join the conversation. For the purpose of the conversation we came up with a definition of collective leadership that we developed by looking at the work of organizations changing the way they led. Shared leadership in an organizational context refers to the ways in which authority, responsibility and accountability are more broadly distributed to create opportunities for participation in leadership of the organization by more of its staff. Of course given the challenges of organizational change, we also felt it was important to talk about why it would be worth it to implement a shared leadership approach. What we have heard from people doing it is that adopting a shared leadership approach is that their values are actually more aligned with a shared leadership model and they feel like they are walking their talk, leadership is being developed throughout the organization without reliance on one or a few, the staff is more engaged and accountable, more creativity is being unleashed in the organization, the burden on the Executive Director is decreased and it’s more fun. We developed the framework below to help us think and talk about the examples of collective leadership in an organizational context and how it differs from traditional structures. We encourage you to work with us to help develop this into a useful framework.

We then took this tool and used it in case studies to demonstrate what it looks like on the ground. The example, near and dear to my heart, was the Data Center who we have written about before.



Everyone on staff participates one of three committees and each of these committees has one representative on the coordinating council (positions which are rotated). Each person reports on their work and is accountable to their committee. Staff members also participate in work groups. There are several unique innovations in the Data Center example which are not represented in the graph: everyone on staff has the same salary base, each person is responsible for 20 % of the administrative work and 80% programmatic work, positions are rotated, staff are supported by coaching as they learn new positions, and they have developed a strong leadership pipeline for people of color.
The challenges have not been surprising. The internal structure does not match with the expectations of funders who want a point of contact in an ED. Accountability had to be framed from the old context as “power over” others. And coordinating in any structure is challenging. Still the pay-offs were big. The organization has a higher level of buy-in from staff and board. They have developed leadership of color and the organization is more aligned with its values. Over the next couple of months I will encourage other members of the team to write about the organizations they profiled in the session presentation. I have drawn inspiration and practical ideas from their creativity and experimentation. I hope you will too.