The Cave of Evil: How Star Wars is like Case-in-Point | By Seth Bate

Increasingly, the CCSR Leadership Initiatives team and the Kansas Leadership Center faculty team use a teaching approach called “Case-in-Point.” It was developed by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky but I’m guessing it doesn’t always resemble exactly what they had in mind.

As Chris Green, project director of case studies describes it, Case-in-Point rests on a simple yet provocative idea: “Leadership, although difficult to teach, can be learned in a dynamic classroom setting when participants experience, in the moment, some of the very conditions that make exercising leadership so challenging and dangerous in the public sphere.” Chris wrote a brief guide for participants; I’d like to explore what Case-in-Point requires from the front of the room.

Preparing to walk in front of a roomful of people for a Case-in-Point conversation reminds me of the scene in the movie, The Empire Strikes Back in which Jedi Master Yoda instructs his trainee, Luke Skywalker, that it is time for Luke to enter a dark and scary place. True Star Wars geeks know that, in later books, this spot earned the name, “The Cave of Evil.”

Luke asks, “What’s in there?” “Only what you take with you,” Yoda replies.

On my best days, the Case-in-Point discussions I introduce create space for many ideas, observations and interpretations to enter the room. Some of them I start; many I hear and challenge; and others I just listen to. I follow Yoda’s advice to “keep your concentration here and now where it belongs.” I fulfill my role, which calls for me to be curious, unrattled and sometimes challenging, even in long moments of silent ambiguity.

If you know Empire, however, you know that Luke’s trip into the Cave of Evil was a terrifying failure. He grabs a blaster and a light saber. “Your weapons, you will not need them,” Yoda warns. Luke ignores him. He ends up blindly striking at the ominous figure he finds inside, using the weapons he has come to rely on.

Some days I give in to the ambiguity. I take the group’s discomfort personally. My selfish need to fulfill expectations gets in the way of my role.

Those days, my Case-in-Point relies on a utility belt full of gimmicks. I look for moments when I can soundly make a point, perhaps earning some respect for my expertise or reassuring the group that they are getting something out of our interaction. I rely on my weapons instead of trusting in the participants, the approach and the process.

Leadership development and Jedi training require more effectively managing self. This includes distinguishing your role from your self. Doing this may prove most difficult when fulfilling your role may scare you and the people around you.

“Decide you must,” Yoda said, “how to serve them best.”

One resource for learning more about Case-in-Point teaching and other approaches to leadership development is Leadership Can Be Taught by Sharon Daloz Parks.


This article was also posted today on the Kansas Leadership Center blog.

Managing Volunteers by Amy Delamaide: Part Two

Picture courtesy of Sanberdoo

Organizations responsible for managing volunteers should think about the experience from the volunteer’s perspective. These are questions I have before volunteering for an event or organization for the first time:

• Where should I go? At what time should I be there?
• What will I be doing?
• Who will give me instructions about what I am doing?
• Who do I call if I can’t be there?
• What information are event participants receiving? Will I have a copy of that same information?
• What do I need to bring with me?
• Will there be food and drink available if my shift is over a meal time?
• What should I wear? Do I need to bring or have any special materials, clothing, or equipment?

Preparing a volunteer packet with the answers to these questions inside, along with the information that event participants receive, will help your organization have well-prepared volunteers who contribute to the success of your event.

What else does your organization do to prepare volunteers for service? We’re interested in your thoughts.

Elements of Executive Transition Planning

Tom Adams, president of TransitionGuides™, is impressed with the work and mindset of nonprofit organizations in Kansas.

“I think Kansas is sweet. The nonprofit leaders I’ve met care passionately about their work and their community – just kind of a no-nonsense, let’s-get-it-done approach to things,” Adams says. “I think there are many areas in which Kansas has led the region and the country in attention to leadership development.”

Adams has been a valuable voice as CCSR has developed a multi-pronged approach to helping nonprofit organizations plan for the transition of long-time or founding executives:

CCSR will provide subsidized succession and executive transition services to identified nonprofits.  This will include:

Succession Basics: Emergency Backup Plan and Succession Policy
The purpose of an Emergency Backup Plan is to define and clarify short- and long-term unplanned executive absences, clarify who decides such an absence is occurring, and to state who assumes the functions and roles of the executive during the absence.  The service will be provided as a stand-alone capacity building activity provided to individual organizations or incorporated into some if not all strategic planning packages. Succession policy supports this plan, institutionalizing best practices and insuring succession plans are regularly reviewed and updated.      

Departure Defined Succession Planning
Departure Defined Succession Planning includes assessment of strategy, financial, systems, management/staff, board and executive readiness. Work in these “readiness” areas involves preparation for the transition, an organizational review and subsequent succession plan development, and plan implementation support.             

Executive Transition Management
The goal of executive transition management is to hire an executive who meets the current and future leadership needs of the organization. In addition, the organization’s board and staff should be well-prepared to work with the new executive.
   
Leadership Development and Talent Management
This area includes activities designed to align resources and practices to support leader development; strengthen the capacity to manage leader development and talent management; make leader development a central part of annual operational and strategic planning; and create “bench strength” by expanding development and training opportunities for existing and emerging leaders.  CCSR will support these efforts with Kansas Leadership Center principles, competencies, and concepts.  CCSR will provide leadership training to address adaptive challenges faced by agencies.  CCSR will facilitate a planning process to help agencies meet the technical or management related challenges.  One important adaptive challenge to be addressed by organizations will be the intentional development of individuals of diverse cultures and ethnic backgrounds.     
   
Leadership Transition Coaching
CCSR will provide coaching specifically tied to executive transitions as a stand-alone service or as part of Departure Defined and Leadership Development/Talent Management proposals.  The current approach (Kansas Leadership Center Coach Training, 2010) used by CCSR will apply to this service context.      

As with other organizational planning, the biggest mistake organizations can make regarding transition planning is putting it off too long because of daily deadlines.

“Transition planning has great potential,” Adams says. “I think the challenge always for the no-nonsense leaders that we desperately need is to not overlook the important but not urgent work.”

To begin a no-nonsense sustainability review and examine your own organization’s need for transition planning, contact Amy Delamaide at CCSR, 316.978.6773.

National expert on transition planning consulting with CCSR

 Does the executive director (ED) of your favorite nonprofit organization remember The Beatles on Ed Sullivan?

Tom Adams visiting with Scott Wituk

That’s a wonderful memory, but it also might be a sign that he or she is considering retirement.

“A lot of people have a lot of investment in the work of a particular nonprofit organization. They’ve co-created something that’s very meaningful to them and the community,” says Tom Adams, president of TransitionGuides™.  “Unless attended to … there is the risk of it not going forward or not going forward successfully.”

For several years, the Wichita State University Center for Community Support & Research (CCSR) has helped nonprofits plan for and manage transitions of their executive staff. These transitions sometimes happen in unplanned scenarios – deaths or dismissals. Other transitions are planned, as the ED moves on to something else. Increasingly, these departure-defined transitions happen as EDs retire.

Thanks to a partnership with the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, Adams has visited CCSR three times in the last few months to share his expertise in executive transition planning. This is helping CCSR expand and refine its abilities to respond to this key issue for nonprofits.

Adams says, in light of the beginning retirement of the Baby Boomers who remember growing up in front of the Ed Sullivan show, this is a particularly important time for non-profit executives and board members to be aware of this issue. It will not be a one-size-fits-all solution, especially because economic conditions are an incentive for some EDs to keep working longer than they planned.

“[The economy] is leading to more creativity about more gradual transitions and phased retirement and in some cases creative continuation of a role that’s clearly defined and not a threat to the incoming executive,” Adams says. “I think we’ll see more and more creativity as the economy continues to improve.”

Intentional planning by the board and staff members of organizations allows these creative ideas to take shape intentionally, before the pressure of an announced (or unexpected) transition.

“There are a lot of long-term executives and founders,” Adams says. “I find that succession planning is getting deeper and deeper roots each year … and that smart organizations are planning ahead for transitions.”

In addition to planning for the transition of the executive role, Adams feels strongly that to remain successful, organizations must increasingly fill key professional and volunteer positions with younger, more diverse talent. It might help to remember that Ed Sullivan populated his show with all kinds of performers, including the brash young working-class moptops.

“There is a wonderful opportunity over the next 5 years to make some significant change if people come together around that,” Adams says.

To learn more about executive transition planning, look for Tom’s new book, The Nonprofit Leadership Transition and Development Guide. To begin a sustainability review and examine your own organization’s need for transition planning, contact Amy Delamaide at CCSR, 316.978.6773. We want to hold your hand!

Sustainability in Succession Planning

 "The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, said in a 2007 letter to shareholders that he has long had three internal candidates to succeed him as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, and had identified four potential candidates for the investment side of his job.

Last year, the company announced that it had hired Todd Anthony Combs, a young former hedge fund manager who may turn out to be the heir apparent on the investment side of the business.

Buffett, now 80, announced details of his succession plan in his typical folksy style, writing in the 2007 letter to shareholders: “I’ve reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death — abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term ‘thinking outside the box.' - Going somewhere? Some CEO exit strategies"

Most of us can appreciate an investor with a sense of humor… or perhaps not.

This quote does elevate a major concern for organizations as baby boomers reach an age of transition from work as they have known it to the next stage of their lives.

CCSR is doing a bit of thinking “outside the box” in response to the “silver tsunami” among nonprofit and governmental founders and executives.  We are reframing our strategic planning emphasis to introduce the idea of sustainability in a framework of succession planning and executive transition support.  

What does that look like?

To start with, WSU CCSR is conducting a study of current nonprofit leadership demographics and transition service needs among Kansas nonprofits.  The study will employ electronic surveys, key informant interviews and focus groups sessions.  This study will be conducted to better understand transition related trends in Kansas, to understand the extent of succession planning needs among nonprofits, and to determine the types of specific supports required to respond to trends.

Based on what we learn we plan to offer regional “cohort” workshops for agreed upon nonprofits which may include funders (of this proposal) and their grantees about succession planning in general and emergency back-up plan and policy development specifically.  Following cohort sessions, CCSR and TransitionGuides will offer follow-up assistance, where appropriate and requested, to individual nonprofits that are interested in follow-up assistance.