Leadership for Transformative Futures
A multi-part interactive learning experience
This series is for leaders of all kinds – organizers, network members, and those working for justice. Each of the three sessions will help leaders dig into the complexity and reactivity of the moment.
Together we’ll explore the roots of a current critical issue, and IISC will offer tools with an eye on identifying opportunities to move towards transformative and equitable futures.
Session Three: October 29, 3-4:30pm ET
From Conflict to Connection: Strategies to meet the moment
With IISC facilitators Amy Casso and Miriam Messinger
How do we lead boldly through the conflicts and contradictions facing our world and our work? As we face overlapping crises, what does powerful leadership and collective power look like? How do we grow sustainable organizations grounded in love, joy, collaboration and a commitment to liberation? This session is a chance to share and try on strategies and tools to lead when there are attacks on equity and democracy as well as differences of opinions within our workplaces. We will explore how we lead in ways that are creating the future that we want as we go.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024, 3-4:30pm ET
Register now!
Miriam’s Reflections:
I have been holding dualities. How do I….
- love and enjoy the gorgeous reds and browns of the New England maple while hurricanes and tornadoes pound the south?
- appreciate the equity goals that partners set while noticing how leaders often endorse the goals but act in ways that detract from those goals?
- experience love while so much of the world is digging into militarism and causing devastation?
- see the damaging and false electoral narratives and still commit to civic engagement?
I will share the tools that help me to hold contradictions as I try to adhere to love-centered leadership even while external pressures intensify. And I can’t wait to hear what you have to share.
Amy’s Reflections:
Finding ways to connect in a disconnected world has become more difficult and small conflicts turn too quickly into major issues. Managing people, processes, and crises in an organization is hard enough, and now we find ourselves needing new ways to move from conflict into a space of connection and opportunity.
I think a lot about how we can grow sustainable organizations rooted in love and joy, with a commitment to liberation. I look forward to exploring with you some practices and strategies that bring us closer to connection and toward collaboration over isolation.
We hope you will join us!
Session Two:
New and Ancient Wisdom for Shared Leadership:
Lessons to (Re)Learn and Unlearn
Delivered on July 25, 2024, 3-4:30pm ET
With IISC facilitators Simone John and Cynthia Silva Parker
A recording of this session is available for purchase here.
We are living in a moment of immense instability. Leaders are expected to model their values while balancing budgets, addressing staff discord, and navigating ideological conflicts. IISC has been supporting collaborative leaders and networks for years; still, to some people, shared leadership sounds like a new and even disruptive concept. In this session, we will explore how shared leadership and interdependence have always been common in nature and in movements for justice. Join us to reflect on lessons we’ve learned – and unlearned – on the path to transformative futures.
Together we’ll distill enduring leadership lessons for our times.
And here are Cynthia’s and Simone’s reflections on the session as they prepared…
From Cynthia Silva Parker…
Here are a few messages about leadership that I internalized early in life. “Work HARD – harder than everyone else.” “Never let them see you sweat.” “Pull the extra weight so that others don’t have to be burdened.” “Make sure you have the best answers to the toughest questions.” “Be the best at the work we do.” Sound familiar?
Turns out I’ve spent the better part of my adult life unlearning these lessons – and a few others – because they tend to undermine the health of collaborative efforts as much as they undermine my own health and well-being.
From Simone John…
I’ve had a bone-deep commitment to collective liberation since I was a conscientious kid. As a young adult working in nonprofit settings, I was surprised how embedded individualism and assimilation were in my ideas of leadership and fulfillment despite the clarity of my convictions. Over the years I’ve developed strategies to weed these mindsets out and seed collaborative, generative approaches in their place.
Join us on July 25th for these and other true confessions, and for an illuminating look into what nature has to teach us about shared leadership and interdependence. Let’s support each other in unlearning, relearning, and reinventing leadership for these times!
Session One:
Conversation and tools for leading
during moments of chaos and complexity
Delivered on May 7, 2024, 3-4:30 pm EST
With IISC facilitators Kelly Frances Bates and Simone John
A recording of this session is available for purchase here.
The only lasting truth is change. (Octavia E. Butler, 2012, “Parable of the Talents”).
We are living at a moment of immense instability – economically, politically, environmentally, and socially. Leaders are expected to navigate the instability and model their values. But how do you do it? And what’s your foundational orientation to change? How is that showing up now? How is it serving or not serving you and the people around you? In this learning experience, we’ll look at examples of how past leaders have led during seasons of unrest. Then we’ll work together to generate ideas and approaches to guide our own unique situations. We’ll close by sharing a tool you can use to deepen your ongoing exploration of these challenges and opportunities.
Read Kelly’s reflections about the May 7 session.