December 2011
Taking Care of Our Neighbors
We a living in time of great challenge as our government and economic systems have not delivered the support for people in the way we had come to expect. People are struggling to live decent lives and, increasingly, communities have to create their own solutions in order to create better opportunities. This month we highlight how hunger has surged in our country and what local community members are doing to support our neighbors. We also identify some of the key principles for working in networks. ~ Dale Nienow
Taking Care of Our Neighbors
We a living in time of great challenge as our government and economic systems have not delivered the support for people in the way we had come to expect. People are struggling to live decent lives and, increasingly, communities have to create their own solutions in order to create better opportunities. This month we highlight how hunger has surged in our country and what local community members are doing to support our neighbors. We also identify some of the key principles for working in networks. ~ Dale Nienow
Invisible No More...When Communities Step Up
At a recent community gathering, a participant shared that there are hungry teenagers who would prefer to get a record for shoplifting food rather than to ask for food. Ashamed of their need, they are embarrassed to be seen getting a hand out. This stigma, not limited to teenagers, causes many families to want their neediness to be invisible. This stigma should be felt by the broader community. In a time where many of us have more than enough, it is shameful that there are vulnerable people (such as infants, children, and seniors) who go hungry. These are tough times in the United States. Many people who bought into the American Dream, who worked hard, got an education, got a good job, and bought a house, are now suffering with the erosion of this dream. Working hard does not guarantee success, education can leave students with lifelong debts, jobs are not available, and buying a house has become an economic drain for many. This has left people in great pain, and for many, in great need for the first time. |
The Center Co-Hosts Thanksgiving Summit to Develop Nourishing Networks
Hunger is exploding nationwide. Washington State is now the 13th hungriest state in the country. In the north and east sides of King County, 28,288 people were served at food banks this year. This includes 1,744 infants and toddlers from 0-3 years; 9,508 school-aged children; 13,160 adults; and 3,876 seniors. With the ongoing tough economy, we are experiencing surging need and declining funding. Even the best nonprofits cannot fill the gap of government cutbacks – because government operates at such a large scale. If government no longer has the resources to feed everyone and nonprofit agencies can’t meet all the needs, what are we to do? |
Working in Networks
Most of us are used to working through organizations to accomplish a goal, but the use of networks to achieve these goals is increasing. Working in networks is very different than working in organizations. Organizations most often have a leadership structure that maintains control over the work. The underlying operating principle of networks is support, not control. In networks, people self-organize around actions that ultimately contribute to the work of the larger network through divergent, creative actions. |
November 2011
Transforming Our Important Public Institutions
The institutions created by our society need to serve the people of our society. When they don't, we need to use our voices to transform these institutions and reclaim their central purpose. One of these vital institutions is public education. This month we share highlights from a national convening the Center hosted on public education and describe the positive role and narrative of education emerging from the voices of educators and journalists engaged in this dialogue. We also profile storytelling/storymaking as an important tool for social transformation. ~ Dale Nienow
Transforming Our Important Public Institutions
The institutions created by our society need to serve the people of our society. When they don't, we need to use our voices to transform these institutions and reclaim their central purpose. One of these vital institutions is public education. This month we share highlights from a national convening the Center hosted on public education and describe the positive role and narrative of education emerging from the voices of educators and journalists engaged in this dialogue. We also profile storytelling/storymaking as an important tool for social transformation. ~ Dale Nienow
What is the Role of Public Education in Our Society?
We hear a lot of negative commentary in the media about our public education system. “We have lots of bad teachers.” “Unions don’t want to make any changes and prevent school reform.” “Schools waste money.” “Schools are failing to educate kids for the job market.” “Teachers are unaccountable.” “Public pensions cost too much, particularly in tough economic times.” With this constant messaging, it is easy to believe that public education is a complete failure and that the only way to save it is to fire more teachers, increase accountability, or privatize public education through vouchers. In the midst of all of this anxiety, what role do we want to claim for public education in our society? |
The Center Creates Space for Dialogue on Public Education
An experienced elementary school teacher shared this story: “I was teaching science today and we were checking the cocoons that were part of our science curriculum. We have been checking them the past week and students note any changes they see. Nothing happened during the science time, and we moved on to math. Half way through the math lesson, the cocoons started opening up and the students got excited. But because the school is so rigid about the number of minutes we spend on each subject per day, I found myself telling the students to come back and focus on math. I felt horrible. This isn’t how I want to teach.” |
Storytelling to Transform Community
At the Center, our leadership work always has a purpose – to advance the common good by transforming communities to be healthier, more just, and inclusive. We rely on approaches that are timeless and grounded in human communities. One of the most prominent tools is storytelling and story making. To us, storytelling is not solely a way to communicate a point, but a way for people to share themselves with a group and to bring the context of their life and their challenges. As stories are told, the group holds each as a sacred contribution to the shared work. The next steps are to analyze the stories, and then make a new, collective story that can hold the work the group wants to do together. |
October 2011
The Fall (and Rise!) of Dialogue
Effective civic dialogue is vitally needed at this time in our country. Local communities can model how to talk about critical community issues with people from very different backgrounds and perspectives. This month, we highlight an important local economic dialogue that crossed faith and partisan boundaries and cultivated new relationships among Puget Sound neighbors. You will also learn about the questions we ask to help people open up their minds and hearts to these conversations. ~ Dale Nienow
The Fall (and Rise!) of Dialogue
Effective civic dialogue is vitally needed at this time in our country. Local communities can model how to talk about critical community issues with people from very different backgrounds and perspectives. This month, we highlight an important local economic dialogue that crossed faith and partisan boundaries and cultivated new relationships among Puget Sound neighbors. You will also learn about the questions we ask to help people open up their minds and hearts to these conversations. ~ Dale Nienow
Can We Talk? Beyond Divisive Public Dialogue
If you were asked to describe the state of public dialogue and civic engagement in your community, what would you say? The Center recently asked Sherry Timmerman Goodpaster, a community partner in northern Wisconsin, to share her thoughts. She said that “the issues surrounding Governor Walker have divided the rural communities in [her] part of the state. The conversations are painful and hurtful. The community is divided. Families are divided. Even family reunions are affected as people get into arguments over politics.” The divisiveness created by the governor’s initiatives has spilled out from the state capital into the communities across the state. This is not unique to Wisconsin. Public dialogue is spiraling down rapidly to a low standard throughout the nation. What if we stopped emulating divisive leaders? |
The Center Partners with Cascadia Center to Host Economic Dialogue
There’s a saying that in polite conversation, the topics of faith or politics are to be avoided. This is understandable – who hasn’t been to a dinner party ruined by divisive arguments and heated opinions? Politics and faith can be difficult boundaries for us to cross as people frequently get stuck in unproductive, and even hurtful, discussions. What happens when the community is invited to discuss both, with the added topic of economics, which is currently a hot button topic? |
Compelling Questions Open Minds and Hearts
When bringing diverse groups together, it is important to set the stage for a positive encounter. This is particularly true when those gathered are suspicious of each other or have limited first-hand experience with each other. When the Center works with groups like this, we begin by inviting people into conversations. By opening with dialogue, participants find common ground, learn about the roots of varying points of view, and come to see each other as partners instead of adversaries. This lays the groundwork for more difficult conversations. |
August 2011
Fostering Youth-Adult Partnerships
Age is one of the critical boundaries the Center works across to cultivate collective leadership in communities. As societies around the world face great stress and uncertainty, youth can be helpful partners in making changes that improve our communities. This month, we highlight how youth are contributing to social justice movements around the world, the way the Rainier Beach community is tapping into youth voice to support student learning, and a process the Center uses called PhotoVoice to engage community members in sharing stories about their community. ~ Dale Nienow
Fostering Youth-Adult Partnerships
Age is one of the critical boundaries the Center works across to cultivate collective leadership in communities. As societies around the world face great stress and uncertainty, youth can be helpful partners in making changes that improve our communities. This month, we highlight how youth are contributing to social justice movements around the world, the way the Rainier Beach community is tapping into youth voice to support student learning, and a process the Center uses called PhotoVoice to engage community members in sharing stories about their community. ~ Dale Nienow
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Youth Rise Around the World
Why are popular uprisings happening around the world now? The theory that strikes us at the Center for Ethical Leadership most prominently is the role of young people in the revolutions. In many Arab countries, almost 60% of the population is under the age of thirty. An abundance of youth, combined with too few opportunities for education, jobs, and a good future, is a formula for change. In the movements we have witnessed throughout the Middle East, a critical mass of young people are refusing to go along with the social contracts that limit their future. They have found their voice and are tapping into a collective power. They are showing up. |
Recognizing Community Assets for Student Learning
Rainier Beach is a unique Seattle neighborhood near the south end of Lake Washington. The neighborhood has a highly diverse population and community groups are hard at work to improve student learning. The neighborhood schools are in need of transformation due to some of the lowest scores in the district. In August, the Rainier Beach Empowerment Coalition, the Rainier Beach Neighborhood Council and the Center for Ethical Leadership brought a powerful process called PhotoVoice to the Rainier Beach community. Sixteen youth and seven adults came together to identify the assets that support teaching and learning in a community where strengths and gifts do not always get recognized. Participants photographed people, places, and experiences that illustrate assets in the community which "support student learning" and wrote stories explaining each image. In a day-long process, they shared their stories with each other and, in teams, analyzed them for patterns and themes. What emerged was a powerful picture of the various ways the community supports student learning. |
Community Through a Camera Lens
PhotoVoice is an effective and fun tool to get participants engaged in the community. Developed in the early 1990s, PhotoVoice is a way for people to share their individual perspectives of their communities and lives through their personal lenses and storytelling. Today, with digital cameras, it is easier than ever to use this methodology. |
July 2011
To build strong communities, we need people with the skills to work together collectively. This newsletterhighlights the patterns of collective leadership. I hope you will be inspired by the story of collective leadership in action in a small community, and the reflection questions that help us open to the wisdom of our fellow community members. More stories about collective leadership, can be found in THE COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP STORYBOOK.
~ Dale Nienow
To build strong communities, we need people with the skills to work together collectively. This newsletterhighlights the patterns of collective leadership. I hope you will be inspired by the story of collective leadership in action in a small community, and the reflection questions that help us open to the wisdom of our fellow community members. More stories about collective leadership, can be found in THE COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP STORYBOOK.
~ Dale Nienow
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What DC Leaders Could Learn From Community Leaders
It is hard to watch our elected leaders go through the governing process in Washington, D.C. The founders of the country intentionally designed inefficiency into the structure of the national government so that power would be shared. But it seems like many of our leaders have forgotten how to work with each other, share ideas, and come to solutions that work for the greater good of our country. While the will to work together appears to be declining at the national level, we see signs that it is increasing on the community level. It may help our national leaders to remember their community roots. |
Building Community Assets with Collective Leadership
In the small town of Waelder, TX, between Austin and Houston, Mark Cantu, a young, Latino high school principal is working to address the issues facing young people in his community. Waelder youth have limited activities and opportunities for work and leave town to find them. Mark grew up in Edcouch-Elsa, a town where the high school practiced collective leadership as part of a national community leadership initiative coordinated by the Center on behalf of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Because of his education, Mark knows how collective leadership will help the community create a new narrative for the residents of Waelder. |
Opening up to the wisdom of others
It is empowering for a community to realize that it can solve problems by tapping into its own wisdom. However, that kind of solution is likely to emerge only when communities have taken the time to develop deep relationships that are respectful and reciprocal. It is common for diverse groups within a community to live parallel lives with limited interaction between groups. If you want to create mutual partnerships in which people actively share their wisdom and gifts, it is important to invite people to open up and connect in new ways. |
May 2011
At the Center, we have learned that creating Gracious Space helps people open to new and deeper relationships that are capable of grappling with difficult issues. This newsletter shares a story of Gracious Space in action, the framework we use to help people open up, and a self-assessment tool you can use in your work. ~ Dale Nienow
At the Center, we have learned that creating Gracious Space helps people open to new and deeper relationships that are capable of grappling with difficult issues. This newsletter shares a story of Gracious Space in action, the framework we use to help people open up, and a self-assessment tool you can use in your work. ~ Dale Nienow
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How Gracious Space helped land a dream job
A friend recently told us how she used Gracious Space to answer a question in a job interview. She believes her answer, and how she framed it in Gracious Space, helped land the job of her dreams. Having recently taken a Gracious Space training with the Center, Kris recalled the Four Openings from the new Gracious Space Change Framework: Opening to Safety, Relationship, Risk, and Collective Creativity. |
The Four Openings of the
Gracious Space Change Framework The Four Openings illuminate the often hidden aspect of group work – the energetic states of a group as it advances in its ability to work well together. The Four Openings guide us to listen more, judge less, hold uncertainty and lean into possibility. By working with the Four Openings, leaders and change agents can gently but confidently help a group increase its competence for courageous collaboration. |
Gracious Space Self-Assessment
One tip we give people who are interested in opening their group to greater capacity is a very simple one. Ask each group member to complete the Gracious Space Self-Assessment and then share which attributes of Gracious Space they naturally bring with them to any setting. This conversation uncovers people’s gifts, similarities and interests which immediately builds safety and relationship. It enables people to claim a positive attribute which can be helpful to building group competence. And asking people to consciously bring an attribute with them creates a safety zone even in the midst of challenging conversations. |
February 2011
Many people have asked us to share more stories from inside our work, our thinking about important issues, and approaches we use to help people cultivate leadership that creates healthy, just and inclusive communities.
I hope you enjoy the story of Roca's work with teenage mothers, the reflection on civic discourse, and how storytelling in Gracious Space can open up relationships. ~ Dale Nienow
Many people have asked us to share more stories from inside our work, our thinking about important issues, and approaches we use to help people cultivate leadership that creates healthy, just and inclusive communities.
I hope you enjoy the story of Roca's work with teenage mothers, the reflection on civic discourse, and how storytelling in Gracious Space can open up relationships. ~ Dale Nienow
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Using Collective Leadership to Address Community Issues
Chelsea, MA, is a densely populated immigrant community in Boston with one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the state. Roca, Inc., a local non-profit that works with high-risk youth, had many of these young mothers come into their agency. As Roca developed programs to support these mothers, they convened a local Community Learning Exchange to discuss strategies for reducing teen pregnancy. |
The Arizona Shooting and the State of Public Discourse
The shooting of citizens assembling in public to talk with their elected representative in Tuscon, AZ, has catalyzed a great deal of reflection and analysis about the current state of public discourse. While the question about the role and consequences of extspeech is currently resonant at the national level, it is not a new question for many of us at the local level. What is the cost of harsh and extreme public comment? |
Difficult Conversations in Gracious Space
When we bring people together from very different perspectives and experiences, it it critical to create the conditions that allow people to feel safe and respected as difficult topics are put on the table. The important first step is to realize that the time dedicated to preparing people to be in demanding conversations is time well spent. Sharing stories invites understanding among people and helps them to challenge assumptions about each other. Recently, we spoke with the executive director of a non-profit agency who described how this worked in her organization. |