1. Karen Schuler, Raffa P.C. Jeanne Bell, CompassPoint
Exploring New Connections in Leadership and Organizational Transition: A Case Study Webinar for Board and Staff Leaders
Karen Schuler, Raffa P.C.
Jeanne Bell, CompassPoint
Join the conversation;
share what you’ve learned!
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#smarttransition

2. Introducing our Team Jeanne Bell, CompassPoint Karen Schuler, Raffa PC
Our Case Study presenters:
The Children’s Inn at NIH – Jennie Lucca, CEO, Diane Baker Board Member
Management Assistance Group (MAG) – Susan Misra, Co-Director

3. Exploring new and evolving connections around transition.
Challenging our organizations on who leads and with what leadership beliefs and practices.
Evolving Leadership Ethos
Organizational Transitions
Leadership Transitions
Proactively refining organizational strategy and business model to respond to stakeholder needs and the operating context. Adapting organizational culture and systems in concert.
Preparing for 10% executive turnover across the sector annually. Recruiting and developing leaders through ongoing succession planning.

4. What do we mean by ETM and “Allied Services?”
Sustainability
Planning
Succession Planning
High
Mission
Impact
Executive
Search and Transition

5. Leadership & Organizational Transitions: 4 Key Terms
Executive transition and search – three-phase support for change from one executive to another with attendant organizational changes
Succession planning- ongoing attention to leader continuity and development through attention to planned and unplanned leader changes and the culture and ethos of leadership in the organization, including attention to diversity and inclusion practices
Sustainability planning – ongoing attention to the long-term mission capacity of the organization and changes in leadership, strategy and business model, culture and resources
Strategic planning – annual and periodic reviews of connection between mission, desired results and strategies for achieving results

6. Leadership Ethos
Shared leadership- a leadership style that broadly distributes leadership responsibility…frequently contrasted with more traditional "vertical" or hierarchical" leadership that resides predominantly with an individual instead of a group.
Diversity-  the demographic mix of a specific collection of people, taking into account elements of human difference, but focusing particularly on: racial and ethnic groups, LGBT populations, people with disabilities, and women.
Equity – improving equity is to promote justice, impartiality and fairness within the procedures, processes, and distribution of resources by institutions or systems.
DEFINING ‘ETHOS:’
“the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period”
“This shift—from competition to collaboration, from single issues to intersectionality, from scarcity to collective abundance—requires something different from us as actors for justice …”

7. A Leadership & Organizational Transition Case Study
Jennie Lucca, CEO
Diane Baker, Board Member
Karen Schuler, Moderator

8. Transition Milestones & Timeline
Founding Board Member becomes CEO
2005
Discussions of Board Reorg Begun
2012
Board Succession/ Sustainability Task Force Established
2013
Three (3) “Chief” Positions Established to Build Leadership Capacity
2014
Board Reorg Plan Adopted by Board
CEO Transition Committee Selects Internal Candidate/ Exit Planning with Outgoing CEO
2015
Onboarding of New CEO and Completion of Board Reorg
Board Diversity Education Initiative
2017

9. Leadership & Organizational Transitions
Transition from founding Board member, who served as CEO for 10 years, to COO Jennie Lucca as new CEO.
Former CEO began 3 – 4 years in advance of her transition working with leadership team and with the board to increase and build leadership capacity.
CEO transition was preceded by two years of formal succession and sustainability planning with outside consultant.
Major Board reorganization introduced slowly and carried out over a 4-year period.
With new CEO, a new approach to fundraising and connecting with their critical NIH relationship.

10. Evolving Leadership Ethos
Reorganization of the board to transition from founding, fundraising/relationship- based board to a governance board. Creation of “Trustee” role for board members terming off.
Made the decision not to do an external search for the next executive while weighing issues of diversity and transition process best practices.
Created new senior leadership positions to increase capacity for distributed leadership and decision-making.
Launched current initiative on board diversity and inclusion.

11. Summary of Transition Impacts
Major board reorganization and a founder CEO transition in a way that advanced mission impact, financial resources, and the reputation of the Children’s Inn.
Embraced the best of the founder era leadership while evolving the culture of leader development and shared leadership.
Facilitated a board generational hand-off while maintaining positive relations across generations
Recognized and addressed need to attend to greater diversity and inclusion.

12. A Leadership & Organizational Transition Case Study
Susan Misra, Co-Director
Jeanne Bell, Moderator

13. Transition Milestones & Timeline
Future CO-Directors independently working on shared leadership methods
2008
Previous Executive Director Decides to Step Down
2014
Board & Staff Determine Need to Evolve Business Model and Hire Consultant
Board Member becomes Interim Executive Director
2015
Senior Staff Co-create Internal, Shared Leadership Proposal
IED Supports Full Board in Grappling with Shared Leadership
Consultant Convenes Board-Staff Fishbowl on Shared Leadership Proposal
Board Agrees to Try Co-Directors and Sets Benchmarks 2015

14. Leadership & Organizational Transitions
Board and staff worked together to imagine “MAG 2.0”.
The organization decided to move from “consulting to” to being part of social change.
Hired a consultant versed in design-thinking to support mission/business model evolution. He also ultimately contributed to leadership transition thinking.
Prior executive decided to leave for personal reasons.
Board member agreed to serve as Interim Executive Director.
Senior staff, with guidance from Interim ED, developed an internal, shared leadership proposal.

15. Evolving Leadership Ethos
Senior staff co-created the shared leadership proposal.
After initially assuming a search for a single executive, ultimately the board embraced Co-Directors.
Internal leaders can be change agents; don’t have to go external to change organizational culture.
Co-Directorship internally mirrors MAGs work in supporting network leadership in its programmatic work.

16. Summary of Transition Impacts
Successful repositioning of the organization in its programming.
Significant staff growth and increase in financial sustainability.
Successfully modeling Co-Directorship for the broader sector.

17. Reflections on the Case Studies’ Use of Consultants
Consultants (both external and internal) played key roles at key times in both case studies.
Be open to using consultants in ways other than expected; to support your decisions about what your organization truly needs for successful transitions to proceed and positively reinforce one another.
To engage in executive transition and the allied practices may take years not months in some cases. Consider pacing and spacing.
Let the organizational transition and evolving leadership ethos in your organization influence your approach to leadership transitions.
Consider that the evolving leadership ethos may require consultant skills beyond traditional process facilitation, e.g. hard conversations about race and equity.

18. Read further and engage online
The Evolution of Executive Transition and Allied Practices: A Call for Service Integration by Tom Adams, Director at Raffa, P.C. report.pdf Will We Get There Hire by Hire? Reflections on Executive Leadership and Transition Data over 15 years by Jeanne Bell, Paola Cubías, Byron Johnson 5 Insights From Directors Sharing Power by Jeanne Bell, Paola Cubías, Byron Johnson

19. Join the conversation; share what you’ve learned
Thank you!
Join the conversation; share what you’ve learned
using our hashtag
#smarttransition
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