Podcast Archive
Enhancing Collaborative Leadership
In this audio seminar, Paul Born speaks with David Chrislip about the concept of collaborative leadership and how its theory and practice have evolved over the past two decades.
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In this audio seminar, Paul Born speaks with David Chrislip about the concept of collaborative leadership; how its theory and practice have evolved over the past two decades; and what the future might hold for this emerging field of leadership.
Learning Objectives:
- To introduce the Collaborative Leadership Premise
- To explore how the theory and practice of collaborative leadership have evolved over the past two decades
- To consider what the future may hold for collaborative leadership
Access Podcast Highlights...
- The Evolution of Collaborative Leadership
- Is Collaboration Getting Easier?
- The Kansas Leadership Center
- The Collaborative Leadership Premise
- Considering the Future of Collaborative Leadership
The Evolution of Collaborative Leadership
David is one of the early thought-leaders in the field of collaborative leadership and it has been his focus for more than twenty years. In describing his journey with this work, David highlighted the work of Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky in the 1990s as a key milestone. Specifically their distinction between adaptive versus technical work was pivotal. Unlike technical problems, whose solution was known, adaptive problems have no clear answer or solution. Finding solutions to adaptive issues requires a new form of leadership: collaborative leadership. Listen below as David describes the distinction between adaptive and technical work and the different leadership responses that are required by each type.
David acknowledges that while the process of working collaboratively on adaptive issues is definable, it IS hard to do. One reason for this is that it requires participants to move beyond our initial intuitive responses in favour of an approach that encourages learning together. In the clip below, David shares some insights about why it is difficult for us to change our minds.
Is Collaboration Getting Easier?
When asked to reflect on whether it’s getting easier to work collaboratively, David’s response is both yes and no. David believes that what makes it easier is the growing recognition in communities that the only way we’ll make progress on the things we care about is by working together: that collaboration is necessary. The “no” stems from David’s assessment of just how difficult it is for people, many of whom are advocating for a particular perspective, to step back and allow a new perspective to emerge. Listen below as David illustrates this challenge.
The Kansas Leadership Center was founded from the sale of a hospital foundation and it has committed significant resources to providing a meaningful civic leadership development experience to 1,000 citizens each year for at least the next decade. The hypothesis that this leadership program is attempting to test is that, “Civic leadership IS a primary social determinant of health.” In the following clip, David explains his own personal reasons for aligning himself with the Center and its work.
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The Collaborative Leadership Premise
The Collaborative Leadership Premise is a synthesis of David’s primary work of studying effective collaboration. It emerged through the study of 50 successful collaborative efforts with the intent of identifying the key principles that informed their success. The three key ingredients to successful collaboration are: inclusion; constructive processes; and, good information. If these three ingredients are present and if the process is done well, the outcome will be authentic. Listen below as David summarizes the collaborative leadership premise.
When asked to reflect on the premise now, after some twenty years of study and practice, David noted that he believes the premise is still very true today. He does however acknowledge that he underestimated how difficult it is for people to authentically surrender their own positions and collaborate with others. Listen below as David illustrates this insight.
Considering the Future of Collaborative Leadership
David is clear that, given the nature of the adaptive challenges that we now face, the need for collaborative leadership will continue to grow in the future. Noting the erosion in credibility of many individual and institutional leaders, David believes opportunities for collaborative leadership to emerge arise when we ask ourselves, “Where can authentic leadership come from?” He encourages us to view leadership not as a position of authority but rather to view it as an experimental and improvisational activity that we can all access. In the following clip, David describes this possible future using the work of the Kansas Leadership Center as an example.
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GOING DEEPER
Reflection Questions
- What is my capacity as a collaborative leader?
- What possible actions emerge for me when I view leadership as an experimental and improvisational activity?
- What will support and sustain me in my role as a collaborative leader?
Links and Resources
- Kansas Leadership Center Website – David serves as Director of Faculty Development for the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC) – a leadership development organization with the charge of cultivating civic leadership throughout Kansas. It is unique among leadership development organizations because of its state-wide scope; focus on civic leadership; and, significant financial support.
- KLC Pocket Play Book – This resource, developed by the Kansas Leadership Centre, is described as “a mindmap for your civic leadership challenge” and has been designed to help think through the various dynamics of any specific civic leadership project.
- KLC Quick Guide – This brief resource offers an overview of the fundamental elements and questions underpinning the Kansas Leadership Center’s approach and philosophy
- The Skillful Means Website – This website is home to some of David’s seminal work on the concept of collaborative leadership. Believing that skillful collaboration can ensure responses to emerging civic challenges, the site describes collaboration as a process and offers a set of pragmatic tools which citizens and civic leaders can use to hold their communities and regions to higher standards of civic engagement.
- Collaborative Leadership and Community Health Governance – In this paper, David shares the insights he gleaned from his participation in the Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health's (New York Academy of Medicine) Community Health Governance (CHG) initiative in 2002. The initiative included nine partnerships from across the country in a joint learning work group focused on collaborative approaches to agenda setting and problem solving on community health.
- Leading with An Open Heart – This paper by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky describes the distinction between technical work and adaptive work referred to by David Chrislip in this audio seminar and highlights the leadership challenges of addressing adaptive issues.
- Enhancing Collaborative Leadership Tweets- go here to read a list of tweets that capture participants’ key ideas as they participated in the Enhancing Collaborative Leadership tele-learning seminar
Meet David Chrislip
David has spent the last 30 years helping people enhance their leadership capacities and create visions and strategies for their organizations and communities by working together. His work focuses on civic leadership development, collaboratively addressing complex community issues, and organizational strategy and development.
As Director of Faculty Development for the Kansas Leadership Center, David oversees faculty development and scheduling as well as the Design Team. He served as a Senior Associate of the National Civic League and as Vice President of Research and Development for American Leadership Forum. David writes alternately for scholars and lay practitioners. His writings include: Collaborative Leadership (co-authored with Carl Larson); and The Collaborative Leadership Field Book. When David is not working to transform the civic culture, he is on his road bike zooming past riders half his age.
©2011 Tamarack — An Institute for Community Engagement