How a New Community Leadership Training Works: hierarchies out, networks inThe new community leadership training proposed here will help to 'level the playing field' so that new people will become active in exploring what needs to be done - and how - in their communities.How do you feel at the end of a community cohesion strategy meeting or staff or volunteer training event? Like this:
 Are unexpressed doubts and fears the joker in your pack ... representing missed opportunities and lost wisdom ...? Or like this:
Perhaps the difference is here: "Next time you're in a meeting, watch the rituals ... the dueling egos, turf protection, talking-without-listening. Maybe it's time for a different kind of ritual. Something old." One corporate leader says (I might be imagining things, but I hear an almost plaintive, beseeching note! Do you hear it?) ...
The last three quotes are from leaders reflecting on their experiences of strategy, organizational or partnership development meetings ... and of the process described in this article. If you're interested in how that "something old" can be used to deliver community leadership training, you'll be interested in this article. And if you've not heard about this stuff before, we're proud to say: "... you heard it here first,
folks!"
Community leadership training: how this article is organizedNext, through this spoof memo, we locate the Community Circle process in a general discussion of community cohesion and community leadership training.Following that section, we describe the Community Circle process in detail. To conclude we look at how this process might form part of a broader community leadership programme, incorporating
For community or organizational leaders, the community leadership programme will focus on real, immediate issues they confront as leaders (as managers, heads of sections or divisions, as a charity board of trustees, or students, or volunteers, for example). Memo: Community Leadership TrainingFrom: Leadership-Development-Coaching.comTo: A N Community Cohesion Officer, AnyCity Council Re: Possible use of a “Community Circle” approach to Community Cohesion and Community Leadership Training. To write this memo to best effect, we've made a few general assumptions about the specific problems you face. We'll nail the details when we meet. We want to ensure that we can focus on issues that really test our process in this area of work and provides you with some benefits that are meaningful to you and your team(s). We want to assure you that explore this approach is robust enough to create impact in the most difficult situations. Briefly we run a powerful consultative process that gets people talking in new, unexpected and insightful ways. It challenges old habits and norms, breaks the mould, invites a different kind of participation, values difference and diversity and is respectful of all viewpoints. We offer a process that involves members of a “community” (of professionals; community leaders; community members, etc.) meeting to discuss issues of concern to them and deciding on appropriate action and leading its implementation. In some ways “mixed groups” of professionals / service providers and the least vocal, least experienced create the greatest challenge - and therefore provide the greatest opportunities. Experienced people frequently lead and dominate discussions. They also tend to be most restricted by the status quo. This is largely unconscious. We all invest energy in doing only what we believe is possible. Our beliefs are determined by experience to date. They are usually deeply conservative (they conserve the status quo). They make up the "box" we need to "think outside." How many people start a meeting really believing: "Anything is possible!" Yet real innovation needs that, otherwise the best changes we can hope for are simply re-hashes of the status quo. [Memo ends] How does the Community Circle approach challenge conservative beliefs, level the playing field and create openness to new insights? Community Leadership training: outline of the overall approachThe process is based on tribal councils used in some native cultures.It is openly democratic. It creates a sense of responsibility and accountability. That makes this process a great leveler. It is experienced as culturally “neutral” (it does not privilege those who are familiar with traditional meetings (agendas, minutes, action points and so on). There is time for individuals to be heard, for reflection, for the ‘hidden wisdom’ (locked in unvoiced fears and concerns, unheard voices, ideas constrained by existing norms) to emerge and be evaluated by the group as a basis for planning action. The unfamiliarity of this approach has been used widely – in all kinds of settings – to encourage people to break out of their normal roles and expectations.  Community Circles provide an effective community leadership training opportunity. Everybody leads for at least a small proportion of time. Participants listen - and reflect on what they hear - for a far greater proportion of time than is the case in even the best facilitated groups. This is the simple basis from which new insights arise. In many groups and group processes the theme is handed on, embellished, argued with, confronted and teased out by individuals in turn. This is a process of narrowing down of constraining and focusing. The old way was for group members work with a theme as if it were a closed question. Closed questions restrict the flow of new insights. They – of necessity – carry assumptions about the nature of the issue under discussion. They have a place later in the process. We'll now develop these ideas further. Community Circles as community leadership trainingOur previous article on community and cohesion looked at some of the failures of community leadership. What I'd like to do now is explain how the process we use helps to overcome these failures of leadership development.Community Leadership Training: opening questions, opening minds, opening the process It's important that participants are prepared for a different kind of meeting process and room layout. Invitations will flag this up - but in a very general way. First we set the tone with a round of introductions: participants introduce themselves and say a little about their reasons for being in the group (this is varied when groups know each other). We then begin to explore each person's perspective on the main purpose of the meeting. We start by keeping an open perspective; with an open question that might sound (in a community leadership training session, for example) something like this: "We're here because this community has difficulties. As members of this community you experience those difficulties every day. You are the experts. We are all here to help each other uncover and express what they know.  "There are twenty different points of view in the room. We all experience things differently. We're here to provide an opportunity for those experiences to be heard: each one is valuable because it is unique. It's your own point of view we want to hear. “Tinkering with or tweaking what's already happening is unlikely to create changes that make a real difference to you – let's see if we can wipe the slate clean and start from scratch.” Initial Community Cohesion Circle  Participants speak in turn initially. They introduce themselves and explain their concerns about the issues that provide the broad focus of the circle. They announce when they have finished speaking. the next participant does the same. This is repeated until all issues are aired. We dissuade cross-talking, jokes, asides, discussion and argument at this stage. The basic ethic is that everyone is the expert in their own experience. Nobody has a right to challenge any individual's interpretation of what is true for them and their unique life experience. The process:
This process is flexible and open to each participant to fill as they see fit. At the end of this process the group has identified one or a number of issues, questions or sub-themes. These are prioritized. We use a simple ranking system akin to the nominal group technique to overcome some of the problems that large group discussions and brain-storming can lead to. This also helps to ensure that issues that are important to minorities are identified and given appropriate value. At the end of this process the whole group agrees which question best focuses the needs of the group as a whole. Formation of sub-groups by self-selection 
Different perspectives are used to shed light on the key question.Participants assign themselves to a sub-group (or sub-groups) to further their exploration. Groups and individuals may - if appropriate - re-group in a cafeteria-style setting. 
Each table represents a particular perspective on the topic. Each sub-group will have at least one permanent member to record the views of those who choose to contribute to it. It is important that each sub-group remains 'faithful' to the perspective it is responsible for. Individuals are responsible for reflecting on the key question from the particular perspective they chose. At this stage, the focus is on what is best for the group as a whole. Individuals must agree to shelve their personal point of view in favour of the particular perspective they have assumed responsibility for. During this part of the process there are more community leadership training outcomes :
The next stage in the community leadership training cycle is the presentations back to the group as a whole. Each sub-group reports back to the whole circle from its partcular perspective (see below for an explanation of the perspectives). Individuals process the ideas from sub-groups, now asking key questions about proposed actions. The role of the whole group is to find the wisest ways forward. The critical task at this stage is to identify actions that offer leverage over the critical question(s) identified in stage one.  It is important to use a variety of ways of evaluating the strength of proposals for action. The eight lenses are:
More holistic outcomes of this community leadership trainingWe are keen to ensure that skills in the facilitation of these circles are handed on as an explicit part of our work during the community leadership training events and programmes we run.Community Circles could help Local authority workers and community members collaborate to answer their key questions: Given a vision like - “Our vision of an integrated and cohesive community is based on three foundations”, what is needed for:
Language is very important – I wonder how the people from the communities themselves express these aspirations? Do they share them, even? Do we know? How do we find out? This style of community leadership training provides a great opportunity for individuals to re-write this kind of professional language in their own idioms. We believe Community Circles could contribute to:
Community leadership training and community leadership programmesWe are keen to ensure that skills in the facilitation of these circles are handed on as an explicit part of our work.Elements in programmes vary depending on the needs of the communities we work with: local neighbourhood communities, special interest groups, faith groups, communities of practice, professional groups and so on. The foundation of all our community leadership training is the Community Circle process described here. The focus of this circle is always provided by real, urgent issues that group confronts. We do not teach people what to do (or how to do it) in a different professional setting, a setting outside the group itself. We work with professionals on their own, heartfelt professional issues. We begin with big, open, questions that are relevant to participants' immediate needs and goals. In this way, participants learn by real involvement and experience of the power of the process. This is critical to creating a powerful, experiential learning process. The transfer of new skills, knowledge and values - and 'bedding down' of that new learning in leadership development outcomes is supported by a combination of:
If you'd like to discuss any of these ideas, lease feel free to contact us on the number below, or using the "Contact us" form. We look forward to hearing from you.
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