Margy-Jean Malcolm Community Conversation Inc Conference Dunedin October 2013

Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

 WHY are you engaged with conservation?  WHAT do you want to achieve?  HOW are you going to achieve it?  WHO do you need to engage? Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

 Rethinking our understanding of “good leadership” amidst the complexities of community engagement  Leadership as learning to shape vision and action together  Leadership as a living system in constant movement Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

 “ the process of building relationships with community members who will work side-by- side with you as an ongoing partner, in any and every way imaginable, building an army of support for your mission, with the end goal of making the community a better place to live” (Hildy Gotlieb, 2007)  Community Engagement as both a process and an outcome from leadership perspective … the journey and a destination Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

 Ambiguous ownership and interdependence of multiple stakeholders  Clarity of shared vision, mission and values  Building trust and engagement around thinking, learning and acting together Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

 Vulnerable  Powerful questions  Process focused  Co-creating ‘our’ vision together  Enabling diverse pathways  Shaping next steps  Enabling self- organising, decentralised systems  Strong  Decisive answers  Outcomes focused  Inspiring and engaging followers around ‘your’ vision  Building consensus  Shaping strategic plans  Organising structures and systems Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

 Four inter-woven layers to pay attention to as we discern, how to lead amidst complexity  Personal  Relational  Structural  Cultural  Ten ideas for working with the paradoxes of leading amidst the complexities of community engagement Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

 Bring curiosity, a learner, ‘not knower’ mind to everything.  Engaging with wise questions to find a way forward  Multi-sensory noticing to help see what is unfolding  Let go of the need for power and control and the fear of the unknown and unknowable.  Intentionally redistributing power in how you lead and engage people  The power of small actions to produce big outcomes  What do I need to be doing (or letting go of), to enable the leadership contribution of the many to this system?  Influencing – enabling – self-organising Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

 Facilitate inquiry within and with others  Ongoing cycles of noticing, reflection, reading patterns, sense-making, exploring possibilities, designing temporary support structures and learning-informed action steps  Leverage uncertainty, messiness, diversity, tensions, discomfort, disturbance and paradoxes as the driving energy for learning, change and innovation.  Shape insightful questions to support sense-making through the unknown.  Offer encouragement for others’ to step out into the unknown and into their potential.  What are the counter-intuitive possibilities that could emerge out of these tensions?  Keeping the system in movement, not stuck Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

Stacey’s Agreement and Certainty Matrix adapted by Mark Cabaj, Tamarack Institute High AGREEMENT Low High CERTAINTY Low Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

 Create temporary support structures, agreements and roles  Discern together when and how these need to evolve organically into new forms  Maximize connections with across every level of the system.  The power of peer learning interactions beyond traditional roles, hierarchies and boundaries, exchanging information, energy and assets  Avoid over-specialisation of roles (e.g. of people, organisations)  Apparent duplication may be a vital excess in the system needed for adaptation in turbulent times, not an inefficiency.  What mix of structure and more organic ways of working do we need for now? Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

 Build a strong collaborative inquiry culture of ‘doing with’ in preference to ‘doing for’.  Step up, alongside and back, to redistribute power, to support resourcefulness, to enable the growth of the leader in everyone  Welcome diversity of people, perspectives and practices as a rich resource for learning and adaptation.  Diversity increases the range of possible pathways forward  Co-create common vision, values and culture for working together – and then shape practical, achievable action steps as you go.  Commonalities: WHY, HOW – supporting Diversity: WHAT, WHO Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

 Embrace the paradoxes with a learner’s inquiring curiosity and a leadership ability to facilitate inquiry together  Keep learning and discerning appropriate leadership responses for whatever the level of complexity of your community context: Influencing- Enabling- Self-organising  Think leadership as living systems, not just individuals – past, present, future patterns, rhythms and movements – find and work with where the energy is  “It’s not the answer that enlightens but the question” (Eugene Ionesco) Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013

 Cabaj, Mark Cabaj, M. (2011) Situational Leadership and Management  Gleick, J. (1987). Chaos: Making a New Science. London: Heinemann.  Gotlieb, Hildy (2007) Community Engagement Arizona: Renaissance Press  Inspiring Communities (2013) Learning by Doing: community-led change in Aotearoa NZ. New Zealand Inspiring Communities Trust.  Johnson, S. (2001). Emergence. London: Penguin.  Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R., & McKelvey, B. (2007). Complexity Leadership Theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era. The Leadership Quarterly, 18 (4),  Wheatley, M., J. (1992). Leadership and the New Science: discovering order in a chaotic world. San Francisco: Berrett Koehler. Copyright MJ Malcolm 2013