1 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE (CoP) QUARTER ONE REPORT

________________________________________________

STRATEGY & ENGAGEMENT/REGIONAL OPERATIONS TEAM PREPARED BY: CHERYL CAMACHO-LEWIS, SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR, COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE ANASTASIA MITROPOULOS-RUNDUS, ASSOCIATE, COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

2 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

Q1 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE REPORT/Q2 FORECAST EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE CHARGE: Communities of Practice will support Executive Directors to actualize their regional goals/national breakthrough goals as they work through critically important adaptive challenges of practice in collaboration with other Executive Directors. They will learn from and with each other and intensify their impact through ongoing, regular engagement with each other. In addition to accelerating learning and impact, Executive Directors will intensify their authentic connection to each other, making the work more joyful, empowering, and collaborative.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE GOALS (FY16) 1. Executive Directors who engage in Communities of Practice view them as a high leverage

professional development opportunity where learning is meaningful and accelerates their impact as leaders. (connected to TFA Breakthrough Goal #2)

2. Executive Directors who engage in Communities of Practice learn about each other and each other’s context more fully, develop trust and connection with their colleagues and expand a sense of community among Executive Directors. (connected to TFA Breakthrough Goal #1; Regional Operations Charge #3, #4)

3. Stories of CoP value will be explicitly named by Executive Director participants (specifically around learning, impact, culture/trust/community) and used to regularly refine and adjust course. (connected to Regional Operations Charge, #2, #5)

4. Differentiated approaches to CoP design & execution will be utilized in two pilot phases (Fall 2015 & Spring 2016); a variety of data will be captured (engagement, membership, value, impact, culture/trust/community) and analyzed to determine the path forward for the FY17 year. (connected to Regional Operations Charge #2, #5)

3 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE: Q1 SUMMARY

Q1 GOALS/STRATEGIES:

LEARN/BRAND/BUILD

LEARN

(context, ED stories/realities, strengths to leverage, challenges of practice, tensions in this new initiative)

Talk to EDs and teammates (as many 1:1 as possible) ACCOMPLISHED

Learn how EDs orient to Reg Ops and how Reg Ops orients to EDs (past, present, desired future) ACCOMPLISHED

Establish a tone of partnership/support, credibility (highlight professional experiences) ACCOMPLISHED

Begin to develop social relationship/connection with EDs & teammates/colleagues where possible (along all lines of identity: gender, race, sexuality, parent status, etc.) - Facebook -Email connection -Phone/Text connection ACCOMPLISHED

Learn how EDs orient to each other ACCOMPLISHED

Begin to make sense of cultural context (specific and broader) to better understand current reality vs. aspirational reality & vision ACCOMPLISHED

BRAND

(establish CoP value in this context at this time, form an initial impression of competence/credibility/curiosity)

Learn and highlight existing CoP/community research (ground in initial vision/share w/ team) ACCOMPLISHED

Establish credibility responsive to cultural context to ensure that voice/perspective as a POC is heard/considered/influential ACCOMPLISHED

Firmly align vision for CoP with vision for broader S&E team ACCOMPLISHED

Live out concrete professional behaviors that are aligned with team cultural aspirations in as many interactions as possible ACCOMPLISHED

Share self- demonstrate and live out my core guiding principles: authenticity, challenge, love ACCOMPLISHED

Begin to develop relationship with various people internal/external to the org to support the work and plant seeds for future collaboration ACCOMPLISHED

4 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

BUILD (vision, quarterly plan, guiding coalition)

Communicate vision alignment between CoP and vision for broader S&E team (group) ACCOMPLISHED

Understand and ensure vision alignment between CoP & broader ELD team (individual & group) & S/E IN PROGRESS

Communicate vision for CoP to a variety of audiences: Paul, EVPs, S&E, ELD, EDs in a manner that is authentic, clear, and compelling ACCOMPLISHED

Leverage my strengths/learning preferences to develop a big goal-aligned set of quarterly plans that fully embrace our team’s cultural aspirations ACCOMPLISHED

Establish authentic credibility with guiding coalition members; learn more about their dreams & aspirations Begin to develop relationship with various people internal/external to the org to support the work and plant seeds for future collaboration ACCOMPLISHED

Execute on a high-level, strategically responsive 1st in person meeting with guiding coalition members; all leave aligned on big picture dreams & aspirations

1.) Engage every ED to learn and collect data about their story, context, and needs (June-July) STATUS UPDATE: I have engaged in at least an introductory 30 minute call with thirty-six Executive Directors. Guiding questions included:

● Can you share your story of how you came to be an ED? What was your path/motivation? ● Can you share more context about the most pressing challenges you are facing in your

region (student/community level, staff level, leadership level- if they are distinct from each other) that you don’t have a clear solution/easy answer/path forward?

● How would you characterize ED culture (how do EDs orient to each other)? What are your wishes/dreams for how EDs could orient to each other that are not currently true (from your perspective)?

● Who among your ED colleagues do you reach out to for support/advice/guidance? Whose leadership do you deeply respect?

● What would compel you to engage in a Community of Practice? What would prevent you from engaging?

From these conversations, the most “top of mind” challenges of practice that were named were as follows:

● 37%= staff leadership ● 21%= development ● 13%= external affairs ● 13%= miscell/other ● 11%= program ● 5%= regional board development

5 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

Given that 37% of the most “top of mind” challenges of practice were focused on staff leadership, two pilot offerings focusing in on staff leadership, and one on development (21%) were put forward to the Executive Director community. Of the fourteen Executive Directors who raised their hand:

● 43% rated as their first choice "How do I create an environment where practices that

foster diversity, equity, and inclusiveness grow and thrive?" (Staff Leadership) ● 57% rated as their first choice "How do I ensure that my region's infrastructure

maximizes the performance of all people and resources?" (Staff Leadership) ● 0% rated as their first choice “How do I navigate challenging landscape and/or personal

identity intersections in my development work?" (Development)

2.) Engage important partners/teammates (Reg Ops, L&D across different TFA teams, CoP practitioners (internal/external to the org), in the work to learn relevant stories, context, needs, to inform and refine vision (June-July)

STATUS UPDATE:

Engaged with a variety of people to learn relevant stories, context, needs and potential collaborations:

● Reg Ops Kwame Griffith (CoP vision, home team collaboration, vision/strategy work), Josh Anderson (CoP vision/CoP pilots), Katie Dunn (in lieu of Michelle Culver’s maternity leave) (CoP vision/home team collaboration), Tegan Carr (in lieu of Omari Todd) (CoP vision/home team collaboration), Noemi Wierwille (CoP vision), Katiusca Moreno (CoP vision/collaboration), Amanda Mills Cutright (CoP vision), Emily Gelb (CoP vision/collaboration), Jill Barkin (CoP vision/collaboration), Victor Wakefield (CoP vision), Adrienne Berry (various), Alysha Daytner (branding) ● L&D across diff. TFA teams Lucecita Castillo (ED profile, L&D partners), Natalie Gray (CoP status/approach), Jennifer Mayer-Sandoval (L&D), Jenny Okoro (L&D), Dianne Hackett (L&D) ● CoP practitioners Diana Lee (Bay area) (CoP execution), Sammi Phillips (Bay area) (CoP grounding), Etienne & Beverly Wenger-Traynor (Researchers) (CoP grounding), Phil Inksip (AB Sugar- Communities of Practice lead) (CoP network mapping), Andrew Kearn (New Zealand Skilled Trade Developer) (CoP execution) ● Potential partners/collaborators Jenni Oki (D&I CoP- TFA), Audrey Harris (D&I CoP- TFA), Esther Drake (VBL & D&I CoP- TFA), Pat O’Donnell (Development & CoP- TFA), Janelle Scharon (Online Engagement/expert- TFA), Ellen Winn (Systems Leadership/networking- TFA), Sean Precious (Systems CoP/senior leader in human capital and principal manager for Denver Public Schools), Ann Best (Systems CoP/Raise Your Hand Texas- policy/advocacy education organization), Dr. Eddie Fergus (D&I CoP/culturally responsive practice expert- New York University)

3.) Develop clear and compelling vision for CoPs infusing stories/context/needs learned during ED engagement (June-July)

6 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

STATUS UPDATE:

Vision is 95% complete and infuses stories/context/needs learned during ED engagement. The only

action item for the vision to be 100% finalized is re-alignment to the Strategy & Engagement Vision (7 vs.

5 “bets”). This will be 100% complete by 10/12/15.

4.) Develop loose logistics for guiding coalition meeting in late August (last week of July)

STATUS UPDATE:

After much deliberation and discussion with ELD teammates and Paul/others, the guiding coalition was

put on hold to support the broader team’s strategy to engage one group of Executive Directors for the

broader ELD work streams. The ELD team agreed that I should proceed with a one-off group that may

eventually meld into a broader advisory group but because this action item was in tension with the

broader approach/strategy, I decided to proceed without it- I feel that I have enough context to move

forward, though as soon as the broader group can be pulled together to support ELD efforts, the better.

5.) Invite/Solicit membership into the CoP Guiding Coalition Get clear on first CoP offerings/collaborations (August- 1st two weeks)

STATUS UPDATE:

The first CoP offerings needed to be responsive to the data/learning from talking to Executive Directors,

the org-wide strategic direction/breakthroughs and specific enough to resonate but broad enough to

keep the community diverse/fuel learning from different perspectives/angles/etc.. Using the language

of the ED profile for two of the challenges (systems & D&I) increased the potential for alignment/shared

learning/elevation of the work of both work streams. All fourteen Executive Directors selected as their

first choice pilot A or pilot B.

Three Pilots Offered (Fall 2015):

-Pilot A "How do I create an environment where practices that foster diversity, equity, and

inclusiveness grow and thrive?" (D&I Community of Practice) -Pilot B "How do I ensure that my region's infrastructure maximizes the performance of all people and

resources?" (Systems Community of Practice) -Pilot C "How do I navigate challenging landscape and/or personal identity intersections in my

development work?" (Development Community of Practice) 6.) Guiding coalition begins to develop community Design pilot CoPs (beginning) and engage EDs for feedback/value (3rd/4th weeks of August)

STATUS UPDATE:

The design arcs (D&I design arc) (Systems design arc) for each community have been created. Executive

Directors will use these arcs to determine the learning agenda for each community. Learning

styles/preferences data has been collected for each community member and will inform community

meeting design.

7 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

D&I COMMUNITY MEMBER LEARNING PREFERENCES

8 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

SYSTEMS COMMUNITY MEMBER LEARNING PREFERENCES

9 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

7.) Guiding coalition develops relevant Value-Creation stories of the future (aligned to ED context/need) as a form of really dreaming into what communities of practice could be/mean for the ED community (9/4)

STATUS UPDATE:

Preliminary Value Creation stories of the future were solicited by Executive Directors in the introductory survey that also gauged learning preferences/styles.

D&I Community of Practice:

“If you had to name the specific impact that you are hoping to see in your region as a result of your participation in the D & I Community of Practice, what would it be?”

“Ultimately, I want our corps members to be focused both on developing students who are academically

successful, but who themselves are critical conscious of the systems that surround them, so that are aware and equipped of how to dismantle these systems as our communities' future leaders. This requires a high level of DEI

competency amongst our corps members as well as our staff.”

“The team feels empowered and clear on how to drive toward our regional vision while aligning their actions and reactions to our core values and regional operating values.”

“People of color on our team (as well as members of other non-dominant groups) feel part of an inclusive environment, and we have consistent alignment and investment in a shared regional vision across diverse

constituencies.”

“I want our region to build a staff culture where everyone feels like their identities are valued, that they can be themselves always, that their contribution is vital, and where everyone can productively challenge each other

across lines of difference.”

“What are you hoping grows / deepens / becomes richer within yourself as a result of your participation in the D & I Community of Practice?”

“Confidence in leading out of my identity as a person of color.”

“Working to transition my leadership style from a more entrepreneurial, me-as-decision-maker-style, to a more

inclusive and deliberate style while keeping my leadership voice and enabling us to act nimbly.”

“My confidence in my own leadership needs to improve. My trust in my team (which sometimes causes me to take things on rather than delegating) needs to improve. I love my team members, but I do prefer to keep myself

at a distance because of my own culture and personality. I know that impacts the team because they aren't used to that, so I want to understand a better balance.”

“I'll take you up on the opportunity to keep this one optional - but mainly because I'm way behind on other work,

I'd totally be willing to share. I'm pretty much an open book.”

10 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

Systems Community of Practice: “If you had to name the specific impact that you are hoping to see in your region as a result of your

participation in the Systems Community of Practice, what would it be?”

“I would like to have clarity around how to ensure all the members of my team feel they are being successful, growing in their roles professionally and understand what success looks like in this organization.”

“Staff and corps have more clarity about how to reach breakthrough results.”

“The creation and maintenance of an efficacious, energized, and challenging culture in which people recognize the value they and others contribute and using their knowledge and skills to create the necessary conditions for corps members to excel as measured by an increase in CALI and internal culture scores and the creation of systems and

structures that enable the work.”

“Our region is making decisions to improve our work grounded more deeply in the values of our community. Right now, it "feels" and appears to me that the majority of my work is not really "in" our communities and I am hoping

to think more broadly and specifically about 1) why and 2) come up with ways to change this (given this is a regional value).”

“I hope to hear and learn about the successes and challenges of other regions as it relates to strategic direction

and alumni wins.”

“Greater connections with our partners in and out of the Education Sphere. Greater clarity on our direction but more importantly our strategy on how we move in that said direction. Help us align our vision and actions to the

breakthrough goals and push us to communicate these to our stakeholders.”

“Collective action and strategic alignment.”

“What are you hoping grows / deepens / becomes richer within yourself as a result of your participation in the Systems Community of Practice?”

“I want to be a better coach to my team and build a team where everyone feels so supported, nourish and filled

that leaving is not really an option because they love the work and enjoy each other so much.”

“Understanding of developing systems on our team that best support staff, corps and alum.”

“Expanded capacity to generate exponential leadership with and across teams and greater partnerships with other EDs; an expanded network of trusted colleagues.”

“I would like to continue to grow my own leadership and lead in ways that feel authentic and our grounded in the

aspirations of my communities.”

“I want to get real feedback from my peers on how I am doing as an ED. I hope to deepen relationships as well.”

“I selfishly want to one day lead these type of sessions / communities in our region for community members and families. There seems to be so much power and thought put into the approach. I strive to give voice to our

11 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

community and we have struggled as to how we make that happen. This may be a start for me and for this community I serve.”

“My ability to fully leverage my past 18 years as an educator. My willingness to more than adequately back up my

hope and dreams for kids with the appropriate fundraising acumen and success. My love for working with my fellow EDs.”

8.) Publicize CoP logistics, challenges of practice and solicit membership (9/11)- Go out in ED Blast

STATUS UPDATE:

Executive Director Communities of Practice pilot information went out in the ED Blast on 9/11/15 asking for EDs to sign up by 9/18/15. Follow up emails were sent to Executive Directors who had demonstrated particular interest/strong learning orientation. Emails went out to EVPs and chiefs of staff that kept them up to date on how many/which EDs had signed up to join a pilot CoP. Emails went out to the Executive Directors who signed up early to engage other EDs to sign up. Kwame’s home team engaged in an engagement strategy <LINK EMAIL FROM JORDAN> that focused on the communication coming from EDs who had already signed up and resulted in two other Executive Directors in the home team who were on the fence to more deeply consider (one who ultimately signed up & one who ultimately did not).

9.) Send update to Paul & debrief during quarterly stepback (by 9/11)

STATUS UPDATE:

Quarterly report is complete and being sent by 10/6/15; emailed Lauren to ask her to hold 30 minutes for Paul to review in advance of our Q1 step back on 10/8/15.

10.) Q1 quarterly step back with Paul (by mid-September)

STATUS UPDATE:

The Q1 quarterly step back is scheduled for 10/8/15 from 1:30-4pm (central)

12 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE: Q2 FORECAST

Q2 GOALS/STRATEGIES: LAUNCH/LEARN

LAUNCH

(two CoP pilots, CoP leadership pair in both)

Use learnings from Q1 to determine pilot challenges of practice that EDs can opt into

Design pilot CoPs that are responsive to what EDs need (peer learning, specific challenges of practice) CRITICAL WIN NEEDED

Determine hypotheses around pilot approaches

Communicate pilot offerings to ED community; leverage peer network to encourage participation CRITICAL WIN NEEDED

Determine data collection/methods Determine what kind of collective leadership model to use with EDs in the pilot CoPs CRITICAL WIN NEEDED

LEARN

(value, connection, learning)

What kinds of value (immediate, potential,

applied, realized) are Executive Directors

obtaining as a result of their participation in

CoP pilots?

Which factors mitigate and propel forward,

Executive Director engagement (initial and

ongoing)?

CRITICAL WIN NEEDED

Which factors impede and propel forward, the

building of authentic community in a

mostly/all virtual CoP?

CRITICAL WIN NEEDED

Which factors impede and propel forward,

accelerated applied learning/impact?

(Disaggregated by ED context)

CRITICAL WIN NEEDED

How can expert knowledge be leveraged

without dampening Executive Director

knowledge creation/innovation?

1.) First pilots are communicated to ED community; a call for ED leadership is included for each community (last week of September) Members sign up/join (2nd/3rd weeks of September- place holds on calendars- every 2 week cadence)

STATUS UPDATE:

The fall 2015 pilot offerings were communicated to the ED community through the ED Blast on 9/11/15.

A preliminary snapshot of the pilot group was sent out to chiefs of staff, who could flag for EVPs, if they

were interested in learning more, on 9/18/15. A few interesting data points on our pilot participants:

13 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

Total # of Participants: 14

Regional Context:

Comfort Level/Sharing Failure

Comfort Level/Sharing Failure/Uncertainty/Challenge w/Other EDs

14 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

A welcome email with next steps was sent to EDs on 9/23/15. The welcome provided a brief overview

to the pilot approach, our roles, and next steps (which included them taking a more detailed survey that

gauged their learning styles/preferences, asked them to get very specific with their challenge of practice

and solicited their input on which community roles they’d like to own.

2.) ED Leadership is shared/collective elected for each CoP (from members who sign up for the community) (last week of September)

STATUS UPDATE:

Given the final number of EDs in each community (5 in the D&I CoP & 7 in the Systems CoP) and the

absence of a guiding coalition, a workaround needed to be created to ensure that community leadership

was truly shared/collectively owned.

A survey was provided to CoP pilot members that gauged their learning styles/preferences, asked them

to get very specific with their challenge of practice, and solicited their input on which community role(s)

they’d like to sign up for. The community roles require in-between meeting work to push the

community forward. A breakdown of the roles selected is below:

Co-Designer: (~30-60 minutes prep every two weeks between calls)

Agenda Activist: driving the learning forward (~30 minute call every two weeks between calls)

Critical Friend: reflecting on the process (~30 minute call every two weeks between calls)

Community Keeper: weaving the social fabric (~30 minutes every two weeks between calls)

Value Detective: making value-creation visible (~30 minutes every two weeks between calls)

External Messenger: communicating with external stakeholders (~30 minutes every two weeks)

Organizational Broker: connecting with organizational stakeholders (~30 minutes every two weeks)

Social Reporter: creating a shared memory (~30 minutes every two weeks between calls)

15 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

3.) Introductory email from Ana to ED assistants to orient them to CoPs; holds placed on ED calendars

STATUS UPDATE:

This was completed the week of 9/30/15. See example here.

4.) Planning/Building meetings with CoP EDs occur for pilots & design work for each community (to differing levels of detail) (last week of September- warm up call; 1st /2nd week of October)

STATUS UPDATE:

This will take place the week of 10/12/15 and/or 10/19/15 with Paula, who raised her hand to co-design.

5.) Pilot CoPs are launched: (3rd/last week of October) STATUS UPDATE:

D&I Community of Practice Pilot A "How do I create an environment where practices that foster diversity, equity, and inclusiveness

grow and thrive?" This CoP will launch on 10/22/15 (Thursday) and will meet every two weeks. Each community meeting will be 60 minutes long. The D&I design arc has been created; community members will determine our learning agenda using this arc at the first community meeting. The arc was designed using the specific challenges that EDs named (Ana/Cheryl then “bucketed” the challenges into the following):

At the first meeting, community members will determine the learning agenda using the arc to inform

their collaborative decision-making. It is unlikely that the community of practice will get to every

16 Camacho-Lewis/Mitropoulos-Rundus

question, the community members can determine collaboratively which questions feel most relevant to

the learning/impact that they are seeking.

Systems Community of Practice

Pilot B "How do I ensure that my region's infrastructure maximizes the performance of all people and

resources?" This CoP will launch on 10/23/15 (Friday) and will meet every two weeks. Each community meeting will

be 60 minutes long. The Systems design arc has been created; community members will determine our

learning agenda using this arc at the first community meeting. The arc was designed using the specific

challenges that EDs named (Ana/Cheryl then “bucketed” the challenges into the following):

At the first meeting, community members will determine the learning agenda using the arc to inform

their collaborative decision-making. It is unlikely that the community of practice will get to every

question, the community members can determine collaboratively which questions feel most relevant to

the learning/impact that they are seeking.

6.) Data will be collected from EDs to gauge perception of the following: (after every CoP; tracked over time- every two week cadence- 10-12 week pilot)

● HIGH VALUE FOR TIME INVESTED (survey/interviews) ● ORIENTATION/CONNECTION TO ED PEERS (interviews)

STATUS UPDATE:

We have put together a data collection plan to ensure that the data that we are gathering is aligned to

our hypotheses, questions, and will support us in learning, refining, and evolving Executive Director

Communities of Practice.