Module 5: Reviewing the Journey

A final 24 hours module was devoted to reviewing the journey of the past year through  the formal modules, the personal change projects and the learning gained from coaching.

Personal, small group and whole group processes of reflection and evaluation against the Leadership Development Project Evaluation Framework were employed.  The Evaluation framework outcomes sought in LDP year one are: 

For participants

• A greater sense of connectedness to the whole, to one another and to the shared purpose of L’Arche
• A thorough understanding of leading managing and change
• Confidence in using  a greater range of leadership styles
• Increased communication skills e.g. influencing & negotiation skills
• Confident in the use of specific experiential learning tools e.g. action learning sets
• More effective supervision  and performance management 
• Enhanced understanding of  what external partners value and need in a changing context
• Enhanced relationships  with eternal partners and other stakeholders

For communities

• An energised learning group
• Completion of appreciative inquiry identifying key leadership strengths and development topics/themes
• 10 change projects implemented and evaluated (case studies/stories of change)
• A leadership development framework with defined programme content for years 2 and 3
• A leadership learning resource pack that course participants take back to communities for sharing and local use.

Whilst the fruits of the recorded outcomes have yet to be analysed fully, feedback from communities and  participants to date is extremely positive:

“Appreciative Inquiry has created a narrative that unlocks hope, build confidence, has encouraged celebration and been very energising.”

“I was sceptical initially, but the openness and honesty in the group has been very important. Module 3 was a turning point and the fruits were evident in module 4.  I believe that as a group we now see that we can make change happen.”

“I wonder what our leadership would have looked like this year without LDP: fewer of us still here, weaker in role, more fragmented, less hope, energy and less effective.  It doesn't bear thinking about!”

“I have been struck by the enthusiasm of the group, I am not sure I experience this anywhere else in L’Arche. I feel really hopeful for L’Arche when  I look at this group. This feels different to anything else I experience elsewhere in L’Arche.”

—and where next?

Through consultation by surveys and meetings with the National Team, National Board, National Council, and National Speaking Council a process for building on the outcomes of LDP year one is in process. Responding to the findings of year one, LDP 2 will to be re-focused to address some of the complexity that hinders L’Arche UK from realising the full potential within its leadership. However the learnings gained from LDP 1 continue to benefit communities today as the LDP year one cohort continues to develop and grow in their roles, their vision for mission and their conviction that we share our journey together. They urge:

“Each of our communities are different, and without each of them we would be poorer. We all have something to contribute to the larger body.”

This year has been transformational...we are a collective power now and have strength now. But it cant end here.”

“We need bigger picture thinking.  These kinds of forums are possibly part of the solution as we are all one body.”

LDP year One left to right : Chris Asprey—London. Gosia Szukala—Kent. Joette Thomas—Animate, Alonso Chavarria—London, Jacqui Lewis—Flintshire, Nem Tomlinson—Manchester, Thomas Lacroix—Inverness, James Cuming—Kent, Sarah Harrison—Liverpool, Agnieszka Karolak—Brecon/Poland!, Kathleen Boyle—London, Paul Bell—Flintshire, Stacey Owen—Liverpool, Ian McKenzie—Animate, Jarmila Fabryova—Bognor 
(Louise Carter –Kent—photographer!)

And so we continue to walk into the future  by faith,
co-creating our future together.

End.

Module 4: Being Strategic, Staying on Mission

Going even deeper…….

Living with Complexity—the importance of negative capability  or “reflective inaction”.

L’Arche is ambitious in its vision and complex in its reality. We reviewed how we live our experiences of engaging deeply with the complex questions and challenges of leadership in L'Arche through some of the following questions:

• How hard is it for me in front of complex challenges to be still, stay open, and stay present?
• How does it feel to be in  a state of unknowing?
• Do I  flee this state by taking action where I can? Or become paralysed  -perhaps  fear takes over?Maybe I away and withdraw from relationship or seek someone/something to blame?
• How do my reactions and struggles with complexity impact on others and on our decision-making?
• In front of complexity L’Arche leadership needs  the ability to walk by faith , to trust in God and to listen interiorly—to practice discernment.  How hard it can be!
• How does your leadership group live the experience of complexity, how do you include attitudes of discernment your decision-making processes ?

Systemic Thinking and Working

At its best, the practice of systems thinking stops us operating from crisis to crisis, and to think in a less fragmented, more integrated way. (Sweeney and Meadows)

The focus is on relatedness; no elements exist independently of others, all the parts of a system, even those that seem to be in opposition are connected.

How it helps:

• Moves us from blame to understanding, looks at causes rather than symptoms, encourages us to use all assets/resources at our disposal by engaging with others rather than sorting it out on our own.
• Encourages us to think of both/and rather than either/or...

• What small incidents you observe/experience  might evidence wider system behaviours? 

• Consider what inputs might influence  what outputs in your community system.

This model relates to Christian spirituality e.g. everything is related  - Ignatian spirituality; also St Paul speaks of different parts making one body. 

TEF– explored in module one and re-visited to deepen understanding of its use as a systemic tool within a spiritual framework.

Demonstrating Impact

Our stakeholders require us to demonstrate impact e.g. people with learning disabilities, our employees and members, governance, external authorities, potential new partners etc..  But demonstrating impact is also key for providing motivation, service planning, resource allocation etc..

• As a leader, what do you measure and how? 
• Do you see providing evidence of impact  as part of your role? 
• Do you know the costs in your community of recruiting a new assistant for example?  Liverpool do! 

A variety of tools were explored in this element that can be  found on the intranet that aid identifying and evaluating impact.

Listening to the Desires of People with Learning Disabilities

—a presentation created by Richard Keegan– Bull and John Sargent

Richard expresses  the desire for friendship, for committed relationship as “if I die in the night, who will find me in the morning?” or “who will miss me if I am not there?” We come back to the why of L’Arche: to meet that desire for connection, for belonging.

Richard and John suggest the diagram right offers a way of exploring how L’Arche responds to that call today.: what makes L’Arche distinctive is the outer circle – friendship freely chosen.

If the desire of people with learning disabilities is for friendship, then the outer circle needs our attention and investment to support and grow it.  WE need to consider how big the blue layer should be if  a community is to be healthy and balanced. John and Richard urge us to predominately focus on growing the blue layer

John pointed out that the blue circle isn't the only thing that makes l'Arche distinctive – other orgs do too. But a large, vibrant blue circle will influence the culture of the other layers – its how they work together that is key to l'Arche identity. We are challenged to consider:

As leaders what is your role in relation to the blue circle?  What action do you take?

What action do you take to get the layers to work in unity and harmony together? 

Strategic Organisational Development

Seeking the wider picture gives a new perspective on both complexity and change. Using the Life Cycle of Organisations tool from the Federation Identity and Mission process provided by the National Reflection Council last year, together with the Parabola Model (right) the role and importance of leadership could be understood within the energy cycles of organisations.







The place of vulnerability, doubt and negative capability also took on a new significance and profound importance, as unavoidable dimensions both of leadership and organisational development as a whole. Not always a comfortable place to be!

Module 3: Leading Culture and Managing Change

Deeper into Appreciative Inquiry : a systematic way of analysing stories.

We returned to AI to deepen our understanding of how to use it as a powerful change tool, rather than as simply building a positive attitude. We looked at how we can use the stories we collect through systematically working through the cycle of Observation—Reflection—Planning—Action. After a process of sharing or gathering stories and identifying common themes, learning from them may be accessed through considering questions such as:

• What does this show about what matters to you and others?
• What surprises you?
• What do you think is being taken for granted? (Reflection) and:
• What are you now thinking about?
• What possibilities for action do you see (however small)?

What would it take to get from here to what we’d want instead? (Planning) Now design your action….. 

Some of the ways AI can be used systematically within normal community practices were identified. Perhaps these could be useful in your community:

• Supervision practice/paperwork
• Appraisals
• National meetings
• Team meetings, house meetings or equivalents
• Manager meetings
• Making it part of ‘how we do things here’
• Formation/recruitment
• Exit interviews
• Retention interviews
• Have a compliments file
• Include stories and what they show in CQC reports
• Newsletters
• Stories that we tell at remembrance events – we should be telling them whilst people are still alive

Deeper into the complexity of change and development: Exploring a variety of models that help us make sense of a complex world.

Think of a recent change process in your community—do you recognise the spread of reactions suggested left?

What was your personal initial reaction to that process?
What helps you engage positively in change and support it?
What might others need to make transition from the old to the new successfully?

As well as Theory U and also the Bridges transition model, we found particular value in the idea of:

Technical v Adaptive Challenges

Adaptive and technical challenges - another model for understanding organisational change and managing transition. This was found to be of particular value in providing ways of identifying and understanding different types of change - both local and systemic.

Recognising Adaptive Challenges

• Crises—particularly recurring crises and prolonged experiences of disequilibrium
• Persistent gap between aspiration and reality
• Persistent conflicts
• Where it is obvious that responses from current repertoire are inadequate and new skills are needed

NB: But technical problems and adaptive challenges are often intertwined…..

• Technical challenges are those which can be met using existing skills and assumptions - i.e. “more of the same, but better”
• Adaptive Challenges are those which cannot be resolved with existing expertise - i.e. “now for something completely different!”

Examples of some Adaptive Challenges identified by the group:

• Managing the gap between the vision and the reality of L’Arche 
• Having a shared understanding of and commitment to the mission and how it is realised 
• Upholding a consistent model of authority 
• Achieving consistent standards of care 
• Trusting and supporting decision making processes 
• Managing disagreement effectively in a partnership based structure 
• Effective retention and development of new generations of leaders from within L’Arche

What stops us from achieving the change we say we desire? And what part might discernment play in supporting positive development? We looked at 2 models:

Immunity to Change

How committed are we to accepting that any significant organisational change only happens if there is personal change too?
Are we willing to be changed, to be transformed?
Are you?!

This can also be considered as “discernment in action” as it seeks to listen to the minority voices and discern if there is a prophetic element within them that need further attention and even re-drawing of the proposed change in order not to lose treasure that might otherwise be discarded on the way. But equally, to discern whether appropriate change is being blocked or restricted for other reasons, other agendas or misguided assumptions.

When there is a recurring pattern of problematic behaviour and change being blocked, we should ask:

• Why does the system need this behaviour at this point in time? 
• What is being preserved by this behaviour? 
• In what way are these people right? 

Through reflection and questioning, we can identify the behaviours that create obstacles to the change we seek,. And by examining these we can discover what they reveal about any competing priorities or worries about change and then begin to address these and any assumptions underlying them that may need attention. For example through using this model the group idetnitfied several elements that require further examination if we are to achieve the change we say we desire. Some of these included the assumptions that:

• Our Christian identity and spirituality is founded on weakness, it may be considered inappropriate to desire to be “strong”. 
• Strength and vulnerability might be seen as being mutually exclusive. 
• There may be a fear that the power of communities would be taken away by strong individual leaders 
• Strong leaders may be viewed by some as inclined to dominate, rather than be empowering. 
• A fear that our “specialness” would be threatened by using business principles—we wont know who we are.. 

Negative Capability

“The environment and the foundation the leader must base his decisions on are often insecure. He still has to make decisions with potentially large consequences and he has to know when not making

a decision is right…accepting not knowing is just as important as knowing and deciding. Negative capability is as important as the positive.” Robert French, 2002


What might be some of the key everyday opportunities for leaders to shape development and culture? 

• Supervision—a key opportunity for leaders and managers to both lead and support development, and a tool we discovered is often not utilised as effectively as it could be……………………………..
• 
  
• Crucial conversations: the values of L’Arche previously explored through a set of values in communication known as the 7Cs, were explored further on this module by looking at how we react to and conduct challenging conversations, often in conflictual situations. 

From what emerged from this section we invite you to consider the following points next time you are going into a difficult conversation:

• Try to create a “pool of shared meaning” together. 
• Be open to hearing and taking seriously what they know or believe they know about the issue 
• Use “and” instead of “but” - we can live with 2 views, one may not necessarily exclude the other. 
• Speak from “I” 
• Own your own authority and power 

Task Conflict vs Relational conflict

• Healthy teams need task conflict—otherwise we will get “groupthink”. 
• Sometimes we fear that task conflict will lead to relational conflict—and sometimes it does. 

Being clear when we are talking about role or relationship is very important. They are not the same!! Perhaps it is easier in L’Arche than in other organisations to confuse the two.

You can see from the repeatedly defined lines here that we often used this model to remind us when there was a danger of confusing the two in our conversations just in this one module!

Has there been a time when you have inappropriately taken a point personally when perhaps it was really about task or role??

Might confusion of role and relationship make key conversations more difficult in your community? 

“Leadership at the point of our gifts”

Responding to the call from the Federation Leaders to enable the leadership of all . (Atlanta Federation meeting 2012) and building on the conversations of module 2 around how people with learning disabilities hold power and authority in our communities, and how we are called to strengthen this, we looked at how our members with learning disabilities either demonstrate or hold the potential to lead elements of the faith/spiritual dimension of our communities e.g.

• Ask us to be truly present 
• People initiate daily prayers in the house 
• Accessibility makes people’s faith unified & one 
• Leading by example – faith groups/pastoral 
• Uninhibited & unembarrassed 
• Initiate Grace 
• Individual prayers: simple, direct, spoken with confidence 
• Using social media for faith sharing 
• Icons – God is revealed through them 
• Being present for each other 
• Holding in prayers people who struggle 
• Giving faithful, consistent witness 
• Speaking & praying from the heart 
• Active participation in church life: serving etc 
• Prophets 
• Some core members insist they want to pray – others don’t 
• Calling us to slow down 
• They want to go to church 
• They ask us to keep things simple 
• Core member host ‘soup lunch’ in his house 
• Engagement 
• Hold the story of the community and remember individuals - newer members cant. 

And the growing bonds, deeper sharing of personal faith, leadership experience and practice among the Year One participants continue into the late evening………...

Leadership Development Project Interim Report February 2016.

Now that the Year One programme is moving into its later stages, a first formal report was submitted to L’Arche UK in late February detailing what is emerging from the research conducted to date. This report was compiled by Animate in consultation with the participants. It clearly outlines the very positive outcomes being experienced by the participants directly. It also highlights key challenges that will need addressing to ensure that the desired systemic impact on both communities and the wider body of L’Arche UK is achieved. The full report is available on the L’Arche UK Intranet for viewing internal to L’Arche UK only. It has been shared directly with participants, the National Leadership Team, Community Leaders and the National Board.

Module 2: Leading Others and Influencing Our World

The first fruits of Module One are beginning to emerge as participants begin to use some of their learning and reflections and start shaping and developing their individual change projects as shown on this poster.

“Appreciative Inquiry popping out all over”: A I has been used both within communities and introduced at a variety of national meetings from Assistants Coordinators to the National Council, leading to more positive thinking, a greater awareness of our strengths, greater enthusiasm and a re-framing of challenges as opportunities. Building on the conversations of Module One has enabled participants to be more attentive to the most important questions, rather than be distracted by the most immediate ones. We invite you to consider two of these with us:

•    “Where can we see we are living our mission?”  and
•     “How am I as leader being intentional in deepening  the living out of the identity and mission of L'Arche?”

We have observed that “becoming more intentional creates a positive culture shift”.

Power and Authority

Initially we considered some definitions of power and authority and explored how these are expressed in leadership. One definition is :

Power                  An attribute of persons or groups

Authority              An attribute of role and system

It is clear that the dynamics and impact of power and authority are complex and have particular ramifications in a community context e.g. how we live subsidiarity, collaboration and shared decision-making. The theme of power and authority permeated much of the content of the rest of the module. In particular we focused on:

Sources of power and authority of people with learning disabilities
The group discussed how our members with learning disabilities exercise their power and what authority they have within our communities. This led to a wider range of deep reflections which included:

• Recognition that different levels of capacity lead to different ways of expressing power 
• Being person-centred is challenging whilst also trying to live community—how do we do that well? 
• That people with learning disabilities can self-authorize, as through a lack of inhibition they may not seek permission, but just step out and lead from their gifts. 
• That we can fear giving people with learning disabilities authority—perhaps they will be more difficult to control 
• That managing and enabling the exercise of power and authority is complex: sometimes in an effort to give power and authority to those of very limited capacities, we can exclude other voices. 

Two questions particularly emerged from these discussions which you may wish to consider yourself or in your own communities:

• Given the issues of power and authority, how committed are we to negotiating how shared life in city is expressed with people with learning disabilities, not for them? 
• Where in the last 6 months have you personally been able to affirm power and authority of people with learning disabilities? What impact did this have?

What does it mean to be a Servant Leader?

The National Leader John Sargent joined the module to lead a session on how the understanding of Servant Leadership is currently evolving within the Federation.

This was found to be a particularly useful session that drew together the three dimensions of L'Arche: service, community and spirituality within a clear model of leadership that aims to develop a clear understanding of power and authority.

Key insights that emerged included:

• That the authority to lead arises out of belonging, from sitting at table with others, and if leaders are absent, people with learning disabilities notice. Leaders are called to rootedness in community life. 
• The leader stands for the mission and if necessary, must override the wishes of the group to hold fast to the mission. 
• That servant leadership calls us to lead from the front, not follow behind. We are authorised to lead. 
• Our focus as leaders is on the person— in that way we live the L’Arche leadership principle of subsidiarity. 
• We need to be more intentional about taking Servant Leadership forward into our practice.

Stakeholder/Strategic Influencing Mapping

We moved on to looking at how power is played out in relationships beyond our roles and even beyond our communities, through mapping out the complex web of key relationships that influence the living out of our identity and mission. Through role playing some of those relationships including that with families of people with learning disabilities, commissioners, funders and housing associations we explored the reality of the power of influence and building partnerships.

The group felt that key points of development that would help L'Arche leaders in future should include training on mediation and negotiation, work on handling conflict and tension, influencing skills and how to collaborate in a complex multi-stakeholder environment.

Communicating L’Arche to a variety of stakeholders: influential communication

As leaders we need to be able to communicate who we are and what we stand for to a range of external agencies and stakeholders in ways that empower us and allow us to influence key relationships. In small groups we explored how can we express the Identity and Mission of L’Arche in ways that speak to an external audience. It was surprising how challenging this exercise was, and a lot of time was spent negotiating together a final whole group version of an “elevator pitch” i.e. a presentation that is complete and succinct and can be delivered within the time it takes to share a lift journey with a potential partner or stakeholder!

Consider what you feel about the group’s final version below. Does this version express effectively what L’Arche offers the world?

You will notice the absence of some key words you might take for granted would be in there .e.g “community”! Why do you think this is? Do you agree?

“ We are an international charity that brings together people with and without learning disabilities. 

We work across 40 countries, sharing work and life together. 

Doing so, we all grow together in faith and friendship, which helps us to live a full life. 

We want to change the world and believe that celebrating difference and creating places of belonging will do this.”

Leadership Model: Goleman’s Six leadership Styles

A final session brought the group back to building on previous explorations of leadership by adding a new model to consider in relation to leading teams. The group considered how their growing awareness of the diversity of leadership style and their personal vision for leadership is developing and enriching their practice.

Exploring the complexity of leadership in L’Arche

Recognising that the Leadership Development Project is now beginning to engage with the deeper questions and challenges of leadership, rich and insightful reflections were gathered on the last morning. These may offer food for thought in every community today and any responses are welcomes either to the blog directly or to Louise Carter to contribute to the research into future leadership development within L’Arche UK.


Contact louise at louise.carter@larche.org.uk.

We share a few of these questions with you here:

• We are beginning to discover a much greater diversity between communities than we had first imagined existed, and we may evolve even more diversely in the future—how do we get our communities to “buy in” to this? 
• How can we be as intentional as possible in shaping the future -whilst at the same time “not knowing” what the future will look like? 
• How do we mend broken fences where they exist and build collaborative relationships with stakeholders/potential partners? 
• How can we build strongly cohesive communities whilst respecting the power of the individual i.e. how can we empower sensitive leadership in our communities? 
• How can we bring on the next generation of leaders, especially for the 2nd year of the Leadership development Project?

Actions members of the group identified for themselves following Module 2:

Module 2 generated a wide range of actions from the group, so look out for some of these bearing fruit in your communities!

They included:

• Analyze my team in terms of what leadership styles I use/should use 
• Plan how to improve stakeholder relationships 
• Think more about pwer within communities—who has it/why? Etc.. 
• Be more intentional about my time in community, espectially meeting those with learning disabiltieis. 
• Take time to audit my team using the Goleman tool. 
• Deepen and exercise more Servant Leadership

LDP Regional Events:

Three regional events will take place between now and March 2016. Look out for a flyer coming to your community in the next two weeks. 12 leaders from across each region are invited to take part in a 24 hour event to sample some of the learning of the Year One Programme and through this contribute to the research for future leadership development in L'Arche UK. We need to know what is your experience of leadership in L’Arche? What works well? What are key issues to consider for the future? What is the vision you hold for your community flourishing in mission?

See the LDP papers on the L’Arche UK intranet for details! 

---

All the tools, models and articles used in the modules will be posted on the L'Arche UK Intranet. You are invited to explore the resources there - could some of them be useful in your communities today?