margy-jean malcolm community conversation inc conference dunedin october 2013

Margy-Jean MalcolmCommunity Conversation Inc

ConferenceDunedin

October 2013

Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

WHY are you engaged with conservation?

WHAT do you want to achieve? HOW are you going to achieve

it? WHO do you need to engage?


Rethinking our understanding of “good leadership” amidst the complexities of community engagement

Leadership as learning to shape vision and action together

Leadership as a living system in constant movement


“ the process of building relationships with community members who will work side-by-side with you as an ongoing partner, in any and every way imaginable, building an army of support for your mission, with the end goal of making the community a better place to live”

(Hildy Gotlieb, 2007)

Community Engagement as both a process and an outcome from leadership perspective … the journey and a destination


Ambiguous ownership and interdependence of multiple stakeholders

Clarity of shared vision, mission and values

Building trust and engagement around thinking, learning and acting together


Vulnerable Powerful questions Process focused Co-creating ‘our’

vision together Enabling diverse

pathways Shaping next steps Enabling self-

organising, decentralised systems

Strong Decisive answers Outcomes focused Inspiring and

engaging followers around ‘your’ vision

Building consensus Shaping strategic

plans Organising

structures and systems


Four inter-woven layers to pay attention to as we discern, how to lead amidst complexity Personal Relational Structural Cultural

Ten ideas for working with the paradoxes of leading amidst the complexities of community engagement


Bring curiosity, a learner, ‘not knower’ mind to everything.

Engaging with wise questions to find a way forward

Multi-sensory noticing to help see what is unfolding

Let go of the need for power and control and the fear of the unknown

and unknowable. Intentionally redistributing power in how you lead and engage people

The power of small actions to produce big outcomes

What do I need to be doing (or letting go of), to enable the leadership

contribution of the many to this system? Influencing – enabling – self-organising


Facilitate inquiry within and with others Ongoing cycles of noticing, reflection, reading patterns, sense-making, exploring possibilities, designing

temporary support structures and learning-informed action steps

Leverage uncertainty, messiness, diversity, tensions, discomfort,

disturbance and paradoxes as the driving energy for learning, change

and innovation.

Shape insightful questions to support sense-making through the unknown.

Offer encouragement for others’ to step out into the unknown and into their potential.

What are the counter-intuitive possibilities that could emerge out of

these tensions?

Keeping the system in movement, not stuck


Stacey’s Agreement and Certainty Matrix adapted by Mark Cabaj, Tamarack Institute

Hig

h

AG

REEM

ENT

L

ow

High CERTAINTY

Low


Create temporary support structures, agreements and roles

Discern together when and how these need to evolve organically into new forms

Maximize connections with across every level of the system.

The power of peer learning interactions beyond traditional roles, hierarchies and

boundaries , exchanging information, energy and assets

Avoid over-specialisation of roles (e.g. of people, organisations)

Apparent duplication may be a vital excess in the system needed for adaptation in

turbulent times, not an inefficiency.

What mix of structure and more organic ways of working do we need

for now?


Build a strong collaborative inquiry culture of ‘doing with’ in preference

to ‘doing for’. Step up, alongside and back, to redistribute power, to support

resourcefulness, to enable the growth of the leader in everyone

Welcome diversity of people, perspectives and practices as a rich

resource for learning and adaptation. Diversity increases the range of possible pathways forward

Co-create common vision, values and culture for working together – and

then shape practical, achievable action steps as you go.

Commonalities: WHY, HOW – supporting Diversity: WHAT, WHO


Embrace the paradoxes with a learner’s inquiring curiosity and a leadership ability to facilitate inquiry together

Keep learning and discerning appropriate leadership responses for whatever the level of complexity of your community context: Influencing- Enabling- Self-organising

Think leadership as living systems, not just individuals – past, present, future patterns, rhythms and movements –find and work with where the energy is

“It’s not the answer that enlightens but the question” (Eugene Ionesco)


Cabaj, Mark Cabaj, M. (2011) Situational Leadership and Management http://www.inspiringcommunities.org.nz

Gleick, J. (1987). Chaos: Making a New Science. London: Heinemann.

Gotlieb, Hildy (2007) Community Engagement Arizona: Renaissance Press

Inspiring Communities (2013) Learning by Doing: community-led change in Aotearoa NZ. New Zealand Inspiring Communities Trust.

Johnson, S. (2001). Emergence. London: Penguin. Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R., & McKelvey, B. (2007). Complexity

Leadership Theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era. The Leadership Quarterly, 18(4), 298-318.

Wheatley, M., J. (1992). Leadership and the New Science: discovering order in a chaotic world. San Francisco: Berrett Koehler.


http://www.inspiringcommunities.org.nz/

margy-jean malcolm community conversation inc conference dunedin october 2013

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