Overview

• Day I: Introduce Evidence Based Practice and basic elements of the approach that would need to be applied in bringing this approach to the leadership development field
• Day 2: Apply an Evidence Based Practice approach and assess its value
  

Meeting Goals

• Introduce the EBP methodology to a diverse group of leadership development stakeholders
• Explore the potential benefits and challenges of an application of an EBP approach to leadership development
• Test the viability of an EBP approach through a practical application exercise
• Talk about what it would take for us to produce useful evidence for the field

October 14th 3:30PM - 8:00PM

I. Opening

A. Welcome: Our Annie E. Casey Foundation host provides an introduction to the topic
B. Review: Goals for the meeting, design and how we will work together
C. Group Introduction: Name, Organization. What piqued your interest in this meeting? What is one result you are passionate about achieving?

II. What is an Evidence Based Practice Approach?

A. PowerPoint introduction to EBP as a methodology, its benefits and limitations (see attachment below)
B. Case Study: An In-Depth Look at the Theory of Aligned Contribution and the Leadership in Action Program with Victoria Goddard-Truitt (see attachment below)

III. Exploring the application of an EBP approach in the field of leadership development

A. Small Group and Large Group Work:
As you think about your experience working with leadership development and the possible application of an EBP approach:

• What do you believe are the potential benefits of an EBP approach to leadership development?
• What do you believe are the possible limitations of an EBP approach?
• What would be required of us, or need to change in our approaches, if we were to adopt a more EBP approach? (e.g. creating a hypothesis, testing hypotheses, aggregating evidence in support of different hypotheses)
  

IV. First day wrap up: Review Plans for Friday

Assignment: Think about the result that you described when you introduced yourself and articulate your hypothesis about how you will achieve that result.

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October 15th An Evidence Based Practice Application Lab


I. Check in: What thoughts came up as folks reflected on yesterday’s discussion?

II. Review Plan for the Day (10 minutes)

III. An introduction to and Discussion of Leadership Development Hypotheses

• Presentation on the purpose and findings of an LLC survey on leadership hypotheses
  
• Review of leadership hypotheses on the EBP Wiki
• Questions to address:
• What do we notice about the hypotheses that we have generated?
  
• What makes a good hypothesis?
• What makes it testable?
  
• How do we develop good testable hypotheses for changes at the community, field, system, and population levels?
  

IV. Practical Application Exercise

A. Small Group Formation to explore the application of EBP, and formulate a hypothesis situated in the following contexts:

• Group I: Create a hypothesis that would predict the result of integrating a class, culture, and power analysis into the work of all leadership programs.
• Group II: Develop a hypothesis about a network approach to building community capacity
• Group III: Develop a hypothesis for global leadership work that builds women's leadership capacity

Instructions:

• Be as specific as possible about the results/changes that are sought
  
• Within the leadership strategy, be as specific as possible about the activity or necessary elements of the approach that produce the result
• If you are drawing from experiences of the group, share the stories about what this strategy looks like in practice
  

B. Large group sharing: What did you discover in trying to create your hypothesis?

C. What are key components of successful leadership approaches that seek to develop individual and collective capacity to achieve large scale outcomes?

IV. What are we learning from this process about the potential application of an EBP to inform decision making about investments and program design? (30 minutes)

• Can we create useful hypotheses across our LD investment strategies that can be applied and tested in different contexts? Are there evaluation approaches that would produce solid evidence?
• What would it take to create the conditions for more rigorous accountability for applying evidence-based practice and for significantly producing better results?
• How can we invest in and learn from communities of practice? How can communities of practice help establish the validity of a hypothesis?

V. Are you taking anything from this meeting that you could apply in your work? Are there ways in which we could support each other in this exploration?

VI. Meeting Closing and Reflections