Building Collaborative Leadership from the Ground Up

Introduction (Sonia Ospina)

Khary Lazarre White, Brotherhood / Sister Sol

1. How did the organization respond to the challenge of needing to address the concerns of girls and women when it began as a leadership model for boys?
2. How and why did the Brotherhood/Sister Sol pay particular attention to issues of gender? How does this continue to play a role in the work and/or leadership of the organization?
3. What are the limitations or challenges of the "Directors Circle" approach? To what extent would you consider such an approach in leading a group or organization?
4. What would you say are the benefits of having the members of the "Directors Circle" also engaged in direct service?
5. Lazarre-White talks about "inventing new approaches while standing on the shoulders of those who came before." What do you think are the implications of this statement for leadership in general, and for a collaborative approach to leadership more specifically?
6. In the context of how the Brotherhood/Sister Sol pays attention to gender in its work, critically reflect on this issue. Provide examples of the extent to which groups and organizations in your experience have dealt with this issue.
7. In your judgment, what makes this organization an example of collaborative leadership? What are its features and/or what is the organization trying to address through a collaborative approach?

Margie McHugh, New York Immigration Coalition

1. How does the New York Immigration Coalition approach an institution such as the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, with whom McHugh admits having a "love-hate relationship?" How does McHugh seek unlikely allies to attain her organization's goals? Why might it be important to engage allies?
2. Describe an instance of an organization building a base of allies - and unlikely allies - based on your own experience. Why did the organization build allies? What were the reasons for doing so with unlikely allies?
3. NYIC embraces the idea that conflict is part of its process and work given the diverse people and organizations with which it works. What are your thoughts about how conflict helps (or hinders) what a group is trying to accomplish? What role does leadership play in handling and/or avoiding conflict?
4. This model of collaborative leadership focuses on coalitions. McHugh comments about "brittle agreements" on certain issues without "honest dialogue." What do you think she means by this statement? Describe a situation where this phenomenon might occur (either a hypothetical situation or based on your own experience).
5. What do you think is the role of leadership in keeping a coalition together and its members engaged and moving forward?
6. McHugh argues for asking people to "test their comfort level" and the conditions required for individuals or groups to do so. Think about this in the context of your own current or prior work and describe a situation in which you were asked to "test your comfort level." What conditions helped - or hindered - your ability to do so?
7. In your judgment, what makes this organization an example of collaborative leadership? What are its features, and/or what is the organization trying to overcome through a collaborative approach?

Christine Kaufman and Ken Toole, Montana Human Rights Network

1. Christine Kaufman and Ken Toole speak about the importance of an organization's core values as distinct from specific issues. What is the difference between values and specific issues?
2. The co-directors speak a great deal about the importance of core values as essential to their coalition work. What are your reactions to the centrality of values - over issues - as the "heart" of their work?
3. The interviewees suggest that coalitions can be "a mile wide and an inch deep." What do they mean by this? Describe (or imagine) a scenario, based on your own experience, that illustrates this idea. What are the implications of a "mile wide and inch deep" coalition?
4. What do you think of the Network's decision not to cultivate support from groups that are ideologically opposed? Does this run counter to the idea of forging bonds with "unlikely allies?"
5. In what ways does MHRN's co-director approach compare to other shared directorship approaches with which you are familiar (for example, that of the Brotherhood/Sister Sol)? What are the reasons that the organizations you are thinking about employ their respective approaches?
6. MHRN's directors assert that they cultivate a culture of risk-taking. Based on your own experience, what are the pros and cons of risk-taking? What is the role of leadership with respect to risk-taking?
7. In your judgment, what makes MHRN's approach an example of collaborative leadership? What are its features and/or what is the organization trying to overcome through a collaborative approach?

Janet Keating, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

1. As Janet Keating attests, building a coalition can be slow, time-consuming, and often requires risk-taking. How can leaders assure forward momentum while hearing from all members? What risks might be involved?
2. The organization has a great deal of faith in processes - Keating cites the consensus-building process to encourage agreement and the process of finding leadership in unlikely places. What do you think are the challenges and benefits of paying attention to processes (how you get things done) versus outcomes (the result of your actions)?
3. Keating also mentions how different groups use different language to make sense of the same problems (i.e., religious groups versus environmental groups). How might an issue draw more strength using the views and ideas of more than one group?
4. Keating says that people on the fringe, or outside the general structure of government, are those willing to act to create change. To what extent do you agree with this assertion? What kind of leadership do you think it takes to mobilize people on the fringe?
5. What are the implications for leadership of the phrase, "build trust by the spoonful, lose it by the bucketful?"
6. Keating suggests that democracy requires democratic organizations, and this has implications for leadership. To what extent do you agree with this argument? Describe (or imagine) an organization or group that does - and/or does not - embody this idea.
7. In your judgment, what makes this organization an example of collaborative leadership? What are its features and/or what is the organization trying to overcome through a collaborative approach?

Nobuko Miyamoto, Great Leap

1. What do you think of the Sacred Circle approach? What are its features and components? What resonates for you?
2. What do you think is the relationship between leadership and creating safe spaces? Miyamoto describes traditional leadership as focused on control; to what extent do you agree or not with this assertion?
3. Great Leap focuses on concepts like inclusiveness, diversity, unity, and discovery. What role do these concepts play in leadership processes in general, and collaborative leadership specifically?
4. How important is cross-cultural understanding to enacting leadership? In your own experience, what role has cultural understanding played with respect to accomplishing organizational or group goals?
5. To what extent do you think creativity and artistic expression play a role in leadership and organizational or group tasks? Based on your experience, describe (or imagine) a scenario in which artistic expression played a role in accomplishing some goal.
6. Consider the concepts of safe spaces, cultural understanding, and artistic expression. How might you apply the practices that Great Leap employs to address pressing concerns faced by an organization you know?
7. In your judgment, what makes this organization an example of collaborative leadership? What are its features and/or what is the organization trying to overcome through a collaborative approach?

General discussion questions about collaborative leadership

1. The organizations in this theme cooperate in devising solutions to meet their constituents' needs. In one sentence each, describe each organization, its community's needs, and its core solution.
2. What are some of the challenges of working in a collaborative organization? What types of challenges might arise from having more than one person in charge? What are the benefits?
3. What are common links, or themes, that appear in the five interviews about collaborative leadership? Describe the key characteristics of collaborative leadership as you see them.
4. Based on the five interviews, how would you define collaborative leadership? What surprised you? In what ways are you still skeptical?
5. What are the key lessons or insights you find based on this set of interviews? Why or how might you apply aspects of this theme in your own life or work?
6. What questions remain for you about leadership, collaborative leadership, or the organizations in this set of interviews?
7. The narrator suggests that social change demands "special leadership." In what ways do the interviewees reflect a special kind of leadership?
8. Does the notion that leadership should reflect the values of the organization resonate for you? Give some examples from your own experience where organizations have (or have not) achieved this.
9. Based on your own experience with organizations, groups, or movements, to what extent do you agree with the idea that leadership is not a "solitary burden," but rather a shared challenge?