KCLI Summit

Wow! We just ended the first Kansas Community Leadership Initative (KCLI) Summit, attended by 250 Kansans from all corners of the state. We will be publishing a summary document of the Summit soon. Stay tuned!

KLC Tele-Conference Featuring David Chrislip

The first KLC Civic Leadership Tele-conference will be held today at 11:00 AM. Our guest is David Chrislip, KLC Senior Fellow and author of The Collaborative Leadership Field Book. We will be discussing the KLC Four Competencies and civic collaboration. The directions to join the tele-conference are below:

• Call 1-800-410-3590
• Enter the pass code 8474143#
• Engage, enjoy and learn!
Have a question for David?
Email it to eomalley@kansasleadershipcenter.org before or during the call, or speak up during the call!

We look forward to your engagement!

Leadership Podcast

Check out CEO Ed O'Malley on the national leadership podcast, Weekly Leader. CLICK HERE to access both parts of Ed's conversation with Peter Mello, founder of Weekly Leader, as they discuss the Kansas Leadership Center. Listen as Ed shares his insights of running a leadership organization, talks about who his mentors are, and reveals his personal fears of carrying the healthy burden of being the President & CEO of the Kansas Leadership Center.

Also, glance at a leadership article in the Washington Post on the leadership of Captain 'sully' Sullenberger artfully written by Ed O'Malley.

News Release Regarding Program Recruitment

KANSAS LEADERSHIP CENTER SEEKS APPLICANTS

The Kansas Leadership Center, an emerging national authority on civic leadership development, seeks applicants for a February program designed to help citizens build stronger communities.

KLC’s President and CEO, Ed O’Malley, said the Kansas Civic Leadership Context and Competencies Program has three objectives:
· To inspire citizens to engage and risk more on behalf of creating stronger communities;
· To educate those citizens on how to engage their communities more effectively;
· To connect those citizens with each other and with other communities.

“We simply want people who are heavily involved in civic life and want to increase their leadership ability,” O’Malley said. “We believe there is power in a network of people oriented toward building stronger communities.”

The Kansas Health Foundation established KLC in 2007 following conversations that spanned the state as well as two decades. The recurring theme in those conversations was that communities lacked the leadership necessary to make progress on their most daunting issues that included health care, economic development, education and crime.

One participant described KLC’s program as transformative.

“In addition to an excellent staff and engaging curriculum, the week-long program offered our class a chance to substantively explore the idea and execution of leadership with a diverse group of civic-minded Kansans – people from various walks of life, diligently trying to help improve their respective communities but perhaps needing help from an objective, thoughtful source,” said Van Williams, spokesman for the City of Wichita. “The experience raised my awareness about my leadership skills and deficiencies, introduced me to my own default behaviors and taught me to constantly assess old language and actions that were well-intentioned but too often getting in the way of effective communication and leadership.”

Recent program graduate Mike Matson with Kansas Farm Bureau, said KLC fills an enormous void.

“Never before has a Kansas-centric organization offered a holistic, all-encompassing approach to the enigmatic challenge of civic leadership,” Matson said.

The program’s $125 participation fee covers four nights of lodging and most meals and runs from Feb. 8-12 in Wichita. Prospective participants must apply at: www.kansasleadershipcenter.org by Nov. 10.

For more information, please contact the Kansas Leadership Center at (316) 712-4950.

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KLC media contact – Ed O’Malley, CEO – 316-712-4950 or eomalley@kansasleadershipcenter.org

Guidelines for Adaptive Conversations

Five guidelines for conversations about adaptive work from David Chrislip:

1. Connect with the conversation when you enter it.
2. Build on others thoughts.
3. Make your thinking transparent.
4. Be sure you understand what others say.
5. Let implications emerge out of engagement.

My guess is number five is most difficult for most folks.

Recruitment begins for Faith and Leadership Transforming Communities

On the heels of a successful launch of Faith and Leadership Transforming Communities, we have begun the recruitment efforts for round two, set to start in January. Click here for the program brochure. While this program is currently only open to United Methodist congregations, KLC will make this program available to all faith communities in the coming years.

Listen to what Jeff Gannon, Pastor at Chapel Hill UMC, had to say about his experience during and after the Leadership and Faith program by clicking here.

Also

Listen to what participants had to say about their experience at the Leadership and Faith program which took place in Wichita in August:

Funding for Civic Leadership

While money isn't everything when it comes to civic leadership, it can play a part in whether a civic leadership efforts succeeds or fails. My personal opinion is we too frequently blame the lack of financial resource for our civic leadership failures; however, the availability of financial resources can make a difference.

CLICK HERE for a fabulous grant opportunity. The Kansas Health Foundation has awarded millions in "recognition grants" over the years. It may be just the thing your organization or cause needs to jump start your civic leadership efforts.

KLC Faculty Development Opportunities

As President and CEO of the Kansas Leadership Center, I have always felt KLC needed to be guided by much more than a small staff of individuals. An idea as noble and lofty as KLC needed a broad assortment of special individuals, all exerting influence on the organization’s ideals and activities.

CLICK HERE to find a brochure describing ways you could engage more deeply with KLC in the area of faculty development. We are currently accepting applications for our flagship faculty development program – The Art and Practice of Civic Leadership Development. The application deadline for this program is October 1, 2009.

Our objectives for these offerings are quite simple - #1) to further develop a high level learning community of leadership development facilitators, teachers, consultants and coaches around the idea of civic leadership and #2) to develop faculty for Kansas Leadership Center programs.

The brochure describes these offerings in more detail. Please contact us with questions. We are on an exciting journey of civic leadership development in Kansas. I hope you are interested in joining us.

Twitter!

The Kansas Leadership Center has an official Twitter! follow us @TheKLC - twitter.com/theklc Read real time updates about our programs, our work, our progress, and our ideas! Also, want insights on the thinking of KLC President and CEO Ed O'Malley? Follow him at twitter.com/eomalley

Not on Twitter? Well, there is an easy fix, start an account at twitter.com and follow us! When you follow, you automatically join the conversation of what's going on at the Kansas Leadership Center. You can contribute to our learnings, connect with others in your field of work, and be a part of the fastest growing social media in the world.

Hey, if Ashten Cutcher is on it, why cant you?

Busy Week at KLC

Last week was quite busy for the Kansas Leadership Center.

The week started with the launch of a new program – Leadership and Faith Transforming Communities, a partnership between the United Methodist Church, the Kansas Health Foundation and the KLC. Sixty individuals from 10 churches across Kansas came together to learn from each other and KLC about exercising civic leadership. The program continues for the next six months. A new cohort will be launched in February 2010.

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday the KLC Design Team, made up of all program staff, core faculty and program managers, met at KLC offices. Among other things, the team finished design work for two new programs – The Civic Leadership Lab for Mentors and The Kansas Community Leadership Initiative Summit, started work on version 2.0 of the KLC Facilitator Field Guide and developed a three phase plan for alumni engagement.

On Thursday, Matt Jordan, David Chrislip and I had a fabulous meeting with the executive staffs of the Kansas Health Foundation and the Kansas Health Institute, regarding the partnership of our organizations.

The final day of the KLC Leadership Coach Training took place on Friday. Facilitated by Julia Fabris McBride, this five month program developed a cadre of first rate leadership coaches to work with KLC program participants.

We also hired a new staff member last week. Jamie Crouse joined is joining us as Executive Assistant. She graduated from KU in May with a Community Health Degree. Welcome, Jamie!

More Connections Between Health and Civic Life

For those still contemplating the connection between civic leadership and healthier Kansans and Kansas communities, consider this exert from the Robert Wood Johnson Commission to Build a Healthier America:

"Good health. It seems so straightforward. Eat right, exercise and get regular checkups. Yet achieving - and maintaining - good health is a battle that many Americans are losing every day. Some of the factors affecting our health we certainly can influence on our own; many of the factors, however, are outside our individual control. Where we live, work, learn and play dramatically affects the health of all Americans – for better or for worse. The sometimes toxic relationship between how we live our lives and the economic, social and physical environments that surround us has resulted in some of America's most persistent health problems. At the same time, improving conditions in our homes, schools, workplaces and communities can help create greater opportunities for healthy lives. "

Read more at http://www.commissiononhealth.org/WhatDrivesHealth.aspx.

Here is the challenge - improving the environments where we "live, work and play" and "improving conditions in our homes, schools, workplaces and communities" will take tremendous civic leadership, not from a few but from many.

So Long Patty Clark!

Good friend and KLC co-founder, Patty Clark, just finished her last day on staff at KLC as Director of Operations. She has left a wonderful mark on the organization and we wish her well with the Obama administration.

If you have had the privilege to interact with Patty (at the KLC or in her previous work with the state), leave a comment on this post thanking her for her committment to Kansas!

KLC Civic Leadership Principles

Leadership is especially hard in the civic sphere, and if we are going to make progress on creating healthier communities, KLC must help prepare people to exercise a different type of leadership especially in touch with civic life.

These principles guide us toward that end.

• Leadership is an activity not position or authority.

• Each of us has the opportunity to exercise leadership at any time in any situation.

• The activity of leadership starts with a personal intervention.

• Exercising leadership is an experimental and improvisatory art. We cannot know if an intervention will work until we try it.

• Exercising leadership is inherently risky: once we intervene we lose significant control over the outcome.

• The risks of exercising leadership are both personal and professional.

• To make progress, we need to be more conscious, purposeful and intentional about our leadership interventions.

• Making progress requires us to do what is needed in the situation rather than what is wanted or is comfortable for others or ourselves.

• To make progress, we have to be willing to raise the heat to get others and ourselves into the zone of productive work.

• Exercising leadership involves managing losses and risking casualties.

• Our own defaults, how we would usually or unconsciously react or intervene in a situation, can be significant barriers to making progress on the issues we care about.

KHI News Service - A good place to discover Adaptive Challenges

Need help identifying and learning about deep, daunting - what we call adaptive - challenges facing Kansas communities? Make regular visits to the Kansas Health Insititute's website and read their news service. Here are some highlights from the last week:

"Kansas and Alaska tie for as 18th fattest state"

"Larned residents trying to save hospital"

"What about taxing services, group asks"

In addition to highlighting adaptive challenges facing the state, the KHI news service also helps you stay informed with the details of perhaps our most significant adaptive challenge - improving the health of all Kansans.

CLICK HERE to visit the KHI website. CLICK HERE to subscribe to the KHI news service.

Patty Clark

Congratulations to Patty Clark, KLC Director of Operations, on being named by the Obama administration to serve as USDA state director. As many of you know, Patty was the second staff person to join KLC and has been responsible for creating much of the internal infrastructure of the organization.

Patty’s roots in agriculture coupled with her knowledge of civic leadership make her an ideal candidate for this position. She will be missed at KLC, but Patty’s commitment to Kansas continues. And, she won’t completely be disconnected from KLC. As Ron Alexander says, this is a bit like Hotel California, you can check out but can never leave. We’ll find ways to keep Patty involved.

We will miss our friend and co-creator tremendously, but wish her well in her next endeavor.

Leadership and Health

CLICK HERE to check out an impressive report from our sister organization The Kansas Health Institute. The Kansas County Health Rankings report measures each Kansas county on its health outcomes and health determinants.

The results are fascinating. The logic model on page two is especially helpful in gaining understanding of the many factors (determinants) that go into "health." And, of course, making progress on those many determinants - whether they are economic well being, physcial environment, social support, education or access to care - will take tremendous civic leadership.

KCLI Workshop Twitter Style

Two weeks ago 70 Kansans, all heavily engaged in community leadership development efforts across Kansas, participated in the Kansas Community Leadership Initiative – Facilitator Workshop, sponsored by KLC.

On behalf of KLC, I can say we were blown away by the commitment, energy and creativity of the participants.

Rather than try to recap the experience here, I thought I would link you to a series of tweets (short messages sent via Twitter) that Seth Bate (of Leadership Cowley County and the Center of Community Support and Research fame) sent out during the four day program. Click here to read the tweets! Start from the bottom to read the tweets in chronological order. Thanks Seth!

The Journal of Kansas Civic Leadership Development

Click here to view and online version of The Journal.

Enjoy!

Case Teaching Workshop

A cadre of folks from various sectors in civic life met for a two day workshop centered on learning how to teach the Harvard Case Study Methodology. This workshop not only teaches participants the process for facilitating a case study but also provides opportunities to grapple with the issues within the cases themselves.

This venture is taking place in order to build skills for participants to take back to their practices and further build a network of individuals with this tool to be utilized in future KLC programs.

Hear from two participants, Bob Carlson from the Marysville Main Street Program and Carol Meyerfrom the Kansas Department of Commerce, explain what they are going to do with what they learned from this experience.

The Civic Leadership Lab

Seventeen local government officials recently completed the week-long Civic Leadership Lab program at the Kansas Leadership Center. Almost all of the participants were from the Johnson County area, with three from the great city of Newton.

This was the first KLC program to have a strong geographic focus, which made it interesting and challenging. Interesting because of the potential of these folks continuing to work together in ways consistent with the KLC Civic Leadership Competencies. And, challenging because almost everyone in the group had worked together before, so there was "history." Many of their adaptive challenges are shared, which makes things complicated, but also very real.

We were thrilled with the week and admire the passion and commitment these individuals have for their local community. They are on the front lines of civic leadership, know the risks and opportunities well and keep engaging day after day. We are proud to have these fine individuals associated with the Kansas Leadership Center.

Watch the short video below for reflections on the week from Hannes Zacharias (Johnson County Deputy Manager), Adrienne Foster (Roeland Park Mayor) and Erik Sartorius (Overland Park Assistant City Manager).

Program Reunion

Members of last fall's Kansas Civic Leadership - Context and Competencies program reunited at KLC last Friday. The day was spent reconnecting, but also helping each other continue to apply the KLC Competencies. The short video below offers some reflections from program participants when asked to describe their experience last fall.

Diversity and Leadership Development

KLC hosted a luncheon today to explore how to achieve more diverse participant cohorts in civic leadership programs across Kansas. Attendees were from organizations which represent communities of color throughout Kansas and/or advocate for increased diversity in civic life, such as:

Kansas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for Greater Kansas City
Young Latino Professionals of Greater Kansas City
Minority Business Development Center
Kansas Human Relations Association
Diversity Kansas
Kansas African American Affairs Commission
Kansas Hispanic and Latino Affairs Commission

The conversation was spirited and generated many ideas and opportunities for future partnerships towards increasing civic engagement in Kansas. The discussion ended with participants using words such as "excited" and "hopeful" to describe their feelings about the discussion and the idea of future gatherings.

From the KLC perspective, we were appreciative of the time spent engaging on the subject and look forward to collaborating with these individuals and organizations in the future.

KCLI Advisory Group

Wow!

The five-day leadership program for the members of the Kansas Community Leadership Initiative (KCLI) advisory group ended last night and the excitement, energy and passion of the participants is truly inspiring.

KCLI is the KLC initiative focused on supporting and enhancing local community leadership programs. The members of the advisory group, with a few exceptions, are all connected as a facilitator or board member of their local leadership program. These folks are some of the best of the best in many regards. They have been at this work for a long time and have made significant contributions to the civic life of their communities. These folks are veterans, which is why it was exciting to see them, individually and collectively, agree to a higher level of aspiration and performance for their local programs.

The group shifted, in many ways, last night from being an advisory group to KLC, to being a group that feels collective responsibility to continue raising the bar for civic leadership in Kansas. The title “advisory group” feels inappropriate now. Sure, they have provided KLC with critical advice, but during this week they began to accept that the work of transforming the civic culture is as much their work as it is KLC’s work. We applaud their commitment to community, Kansas and each other; and are excited for the journey ahead, together.

Personality Type Training

ENFP or ISTJ? If you have been around the world of leadership development you have probably heard people reference the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment. Part of the assessment involves participants learning which of the 16 different personality types (each identified by a combination of four letters) best fits their personality.

Several members of our faculty development cohort were trained and certified this week in the MBTI assessment and are now exploring its connection to civic leadership. We plan to utilize the MBTI as a component to an upcoming KLC program.

Learn more about the MBTI by CLICKING HERE.

Faith and Leadership Initiative Moving Forward

Applications are being sent out for the first cohort of the Faith and Leadership Transforming Communities Initiative. The initiative will bring together teams from churches across Kansas interested in engaging more deeply in creating healthier communities. KLC is piloting this program in partnership with the Kansas Health Foundation and the United Methodist Church, and expects to extend the program to all faith communities in the future.

Listen to Sue Dondlinger, project director for the initiative, discuss the program in the short video below.