ADM 612 - Leadership

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ADM 612 - Leadership

• Lecture 17 Catalytic Leadership

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Forming Working Groups Bringing People Together
to Address the Problem

• The second task of public leadership is then to
  engage people in addressing the problem,
  convening the diverse set of people, agencies,
  and interests.
• Stakeholders convene around a problem or issue
  rather than a solution.
• Requires some initial agreement by key
  stakeholders.

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Forming Working Groups

• Looking beyond the usual suspects.
• Steps.
• A comprehensive list of all stakeholders is
  generated.
• Knowledge holders who can contribute to the
  problem-solving process are identified.
• A small core working group, coalition, or
  initiating committee is developed based on such
  criteria as resources, perspectives, and power.
• After the core working group is convened and key
  outcomes are agreed upon, additional participants
  are identified to join the problem-solving effort.

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Forming Working Groups

• The larger community of interests.
• Who is affected by the issue?
• Who has an interest in or has expressed an
  opinion about the issue?
• Who is in a position to exert influence
  positively or negatively on the issue?
• Who ought to care?

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Forming Working Groups

• Two ignored groups.
• Knowledge holders.
• They assist discussants to present their concerns
  and options in more informed ways and with
  greater technical sophistication.
• They can level the playing field by equalizing
  access to information.
• Knowledge holders can raise new or taboo issues
  that other are reluctant to raise.
• Knowledge holders with more systemic perspectives
  can stimulate a broader analysis of the
  interconnected problem.

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Forming Working Groups

• Two ignored groups.
• Ripple-effect stakeholders.
• Second or third-order (ripple effects) impacts.

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Forming Working Groups

• The right balance of stakeholders and knowledge
  holders.
• Individuals who make things happen.
• People who can facilitate or ensure
  implementation of decisions by the working group.
• Criteria for stakeholder power.
• Access to key decision makers.
• Credibility, a history of committed action, and
  good contacts.
• New, fresh ideas Background expertise
  Flexibility.
• Resource control and an ability to dedicate
  money, time, and people to address to the issue.

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Forming Working Groups

• The right balance of stakeholders and knowledge
  holders.
• Individuals who think outside the box.
• People capable of frame breaking.

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Forming Working Groups

• Varied sizes of successful working groups.
• A critical mass who emerged from the stakeholder
  assessment, but no magical size.
• Large enough to include those considered critical
  to implementation, but small enough to be
  creative.
• Three rules for successful efforts.
• Do not start without considering all the
  potential stakeholders and knowledge holders
  (ripple effect).
• Include in the core working group those that can
  make things happen, those that can block things
  from happening, and can contribute to making the
  best decision.
• Create multiple tiers of participation, such as
  consultative forums.

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Forming Working Groups

• Eliciting the Participation of Key Individuals.
• An interest or stake in the issue and the issue
  is urgent. (Most critical)
• A sense of interdependence. (Most critical).
• The convener is credible and the other
  stakeholders belong.
• They have the skills or insights to offer.
• The effort is likely to produce desirable results
  is worthy of their expertise and energy.

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Forming Working Groups

• Convening the first meetings.
• Safe space for informal explorations (neutral).
• Legitimate process of proceeding.
• Clear purpose.
• Ground rules.
• Decision-making process.
• Representation.
• Proxies.
• Relationship of core working group to other
  external agencies.
• Logistics such as minutes and record keeping.

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Forming Working Groups

• Legitimate process of proceeding.
• Norms.
• How to respond effectively to differing
  perspectives, etc.
• How to ensure equal airtime in group discussions.
• How to stimulate continued mutual learning among
  group members.
• How to build in social time.
• Clear roles.
• Appropriate sequence of activities.

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Forming Working Groups

• Public leadership summary.
• Engaging people in the effort.
• Identify the full spectrum of stakeholders and
  knowledge holders.
• Enlist core working group members and design
  multiple levels of participation to ensure a
  broader reach.
• Convene the first meetings and invest in
  beginnings.

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Forming Working Groups

• Key questions.
• Who are the stakeholders, knowledge holders, and
  other resources?
• Who can make things happen in this issue area?
  Who can block action?
• Who are appropriate newcomers or outsiders with
  unique perspectives?
• What is an appropriate critical mass to initiate
  action?
• Who should be invited to participate in the
  effort to address the issue?
• How can core participants, once identified, be
  motivated to join the collective effort?
• What other forms and levels of participation
  could generate quality ideas?
• How can first meetings be convened to create a
  safe space and legitimate process for problem
  solving?

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Creating Strategies

• Essential conditions for effective working
  groups.
• A core of committed and motivated group members,
  with sufficient skills and knowledge, who do not
  relinquish their organizational autonomy or
  institutional independence.
• A unifying purpose based on agreement on desired
  outcomes that identifies the desired results the
  group hopes to achieve.
• A deliberative form of interaction with
  agreed-upon norms that enhance mutual learning
  and conflict resolution, stimulates learned
  leadership, builds trust, and is facilitated by
  both personal and electronic linkages.
• A structured, credible process of strategy
  development that is custom-tailored to the
  context and situation and that allots sufficient
  time to problem defining and redefining.

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Creating Strategies

• Core of committed and motivated group members.
• Getting the right mix.
• Unified purpose based on agreement on desired
  outcomes.
• End-outcome as magnet for collaboration.
• Nonhierarchical guidance mechanism.
• Caution against ambiguous group visions.

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Creating Strategies

• Deliberative form of interaction that enhances
  mutual learning.
• Process of mutual learning.
• Shared leadership.
• Personal and electronic communication linkages.
• Spiral of rising trust.

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Creating Strategies

• Loosely structured yet credible strategy
  development process.
• Identify outcomes.
• Explore multiple options.
• Identify and agree on multiple strategies.

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Creating Strategies

• Identifying desired results and outcomes.
• Problem defined as desired outcome or result.
• Quality of ongoingness required.
• Membership of working group reassessed.

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Creating Strategies

• Exploring multiple strategies.
• Insights, not just information, needed.
• Personal insights revealed through stories and
  anecdotes.
• Underlying interests among group members.
• Specialized knowledge shared.
• Individual mental models revealed and discussed.
• Visual incorporation of individual mental models.
• Catalytic impact of articulating mental models.
• Core issues clarified and redefined.

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Creating Strategies

• Generating multiple options and strategies.
• Strategic portfolio of multiple, reinforcing
  strategies.
• Inventing and crafting new strategies.
• Gaining commitment on multiple strategies.

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Creating Strategies

• Public leadership summary.
• Build and nurture an effective working group.
• A core of committed and motivated group members.
• A unifying purpose targeting outcomes and
  results.
• A deliberative group process that enhances mutual
  learning.
• A structured, credible process that allots time
  for problem defining and redefining.
• Promote and facilitate strategy development.
• Identify outcomes.
• Gain shared insights and explore multiple
  options.
• Identify and commit to multiple strategies.

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Creating Strategies

• Key leadership questions.
• What do we hope will be the outcomes and results
  of the strategy or actions?
• Where is there conflict? Is it on the ultimate
  goals and outcomes, or is it on the strategies
  and means to reach the goal? What are the
  underlying interests driving the conflict?
• What are the underlying assumptions or mental
  models shaping how this public problem is
  approached or perceived?
• What are the multiple strategies that can be
  included in a strategic portfolio on which the
  working group can agree?

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Sustaining Action

• Implementing strategies successfully what works
  and what doesnt work.
• Indicators of successful implementation.
• Progress toward outcomes.
• Relationships among key stakeholders.
• Policy learning.
• Personal goals of group members.

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Sustaining Actions

• Common barriers to implementation.
• Turf barriers.
• Communication and language barriers.
• Lack of enabling mechanism.
• Limited leadership.
• Pressure for immediate results.

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Sustaining Action

• Sustaining action during implementation of
  strategies.
• Commitment and support from key decision makers.
• Multiple champions.
• Constituent support and advocacy coalitions.
• Commitment of resources.
• Interorganizational enabling mechanisms for
  collective action.
• Cyclical nature of interorganizational
  arrangements.
• Variety of structural options.

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Sustaining Action

• Sustaining action during implementation of
  strategies.
• Rapid information sharing and feedback.
• Rapid and continuous feedback.
• Outcome-based information and feedback system.
• What results?
• What intermediate outcomes?
• Who is responsible for collecting data?
• Who should use the information?

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Sustaining Action

• Sustaining action.
• Rapid information sharing and feedback.
• Method to identify and select benchmarks.
• Benchmark measures should
• Reflect results.
• Monitor implementation and track progress.
• Consider multiple perspectives of stakeholders.
• Be reasonably easy to gather.
• Be reliable over time.
• Come from credible sources.
• Be understandable and useful to a non-technical
  audience.
• Communication network.

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Sustaining Action

• Sustaining action.
• Role of network facilitators.
• Relationships built on trust.
• Value of small successes.
• Commitment to learning.
• Importance of spiraling back.

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Sustaining Action

• Public leadership summary.
• Building commitment and political support.
• Find multiple champions and prime movers.
• Develop support for power holders.
• Build constituent support and advocacy
  coalitions.
• Mobilize and allocate resources.
• Institutionalizing cooperative behavior.
• Create enabling mechanisms and action vehicles.
• Support self-organizing groups as they focus on
  the outcome.
• Develop an outcome-based information system.

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Sustaining Action

• Public leadership summary.
• Become a network facilitator.
• Maintain focus on desired outcomes.
• Develop and nurture relationships based on trust.
• Seek small wins and strategic opportunities.
• Maintain a commitment to learning.
• Spiral back to earlier catalytic tasks to build
  commitment.

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Sustaining Action

• Key leadership questions.
• What is the appropriate institutional structure
  or action vehicle to sustain attention, action,
  and feedback?
• How can the effort be kept outcome-oriented, not
  structure-oriented?
• How can we rapidly share data and information on
  progress, both internally and externally?
• How can the social network be maintained to
  facilitate implementation?
• Are there existing institutional barriers that
  need to be eliminated?