1. Developing Leaders Through Service
An Idealist’s Journey Experiential Session
Dr. Max Klau
Director of Leadership Development, City Year
2011 Symposium on Inclusion and Service
Friday, December 9th 2011

2. Goals By the end of this session, you will:
Understand the Flame of Idealism
Understand the Purpose of the Idealist’s Journey Leadership Development Curriculum
Experience an IJ Reflection Exercise
Experience the Presentation Development Process

3. Warm-Up
Reflection Question: How is your presence here at this session connected to your life’s purpose?

4. “Give a Year. Change the World.”
Change the Outer World
Service
Change the Inner World
Leadership Development

5. Changing the Outer World: Addressing the Nation’s Dropout Crisis
Every 26 seconds
A student drops out of school
Young people of color are most affected
Nearly half of all African-American and Native-American students will not graduate with their class; less than six in 10 Hispanic students will.
Dropouts are less likely to be productive members of society
High School dropouts are three times more likely than college graduates to be unemployed and eight times more likely to be in jail or prison than high school graduates.
Over a lifetime, individuals with a high school diploma earn two times that of a high school drop out.
The economic impact to society is high
The more than 12 million students projected to drop out over the next decade will cost the nation about three trillion dollars.
"When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe."
- Gen. Colin Powell (Ret), Founding Chair, America’s Promise Alliance
Our Work in Schools has never been more important
Young people of color are most affected – nearly half of all African-American and Native-American students will not graduate with their class
Less than six in 10 Hispanic students will.

6. The Problem is Concentrated Likely Dropouts Can be Identified
The Crisis is Solvable
The Problem is Concentrated
Likely Dropouts Can be Identified
There are three off-track indicators that can identify likely dropouts as early as 6th grade:
Poor Attendance,
Disruptive Behavior,
Course Failure in Math/English
50% of the country’s dropouts come from only 12% of the high schools
Problem is concentrated
Research has shown that students who demonstrate a single off-track indicator as early as 6th grade have a 75% probability of dropping out.
Fact: A relatively small number of corps members deployed strategically could make a disproportionate impact on the problem.
Source: Robert Balfanz and Liza Herzog, Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University. “Unfilled Promise: The Dimensions and Characteristics of Philadelphia’s Dropout Crisis , ,” Ruth Curran Neild, Ph.D and Robert Balfanz, Ph.D

7. WSWC Prototype Sites: Decreasing the presence of off-track indicators
Half of students who were identified as being off-track at the beginning of the school year improved in that indicator
4500 additional instructional hours were gained through reduced suspensions.
52% Reduction
45% Reduction
80% Reduction
83% Reduction
Course Performance
Behavior
Attendance
# of Off-Track Students
# of Students with less than 80% Attendance
# of Students with 3 or more negative behavior marks
# of Students receiving an F in Math or English
Literacy
Math 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
June 2008
June 2009
Source: Philadelphia Education Fund Pilot Data on Attendance, Suspension and Math/Reading (Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences) 7

8. Beyond Both/And
City Year has always been focused on BOTH Service AND Leadership Development;
We have recently achieved
a breakthrough understanding of how these two dimensions of City Year work together…
Service
Leadership Development

9. Together, these promote Idealism & Big Citizenship! DO: Civic Action
The Flame of Idealism
Culture
Uniforms, PITWs, Founding Stories, Team-Based, & More!
Values
Service to a Cause Greater than Self; Students First, Collaboration Always; Belief in the Power of Young People; Social Justice for All; Level Five Leadership; Empathy; Inclusivity; Ubuntu; Teamwork; Excellence
Together, these promote Idealism & Big Citizenship!
DO: Civic Action
Whole School, Whole Child
Heroes
Civic Engagement
BE: Civic Identity
The Idealist’s Journey
(Personal and Small Group Reflection)
KNOW: Civic Capacity
Training Coaching
Self-Directed Learning Performance Management

10. The Flame of Idealism Culture: Values: Civic Action Service
Civic Capacity
Training/ Coaching
Self-Directed Learning
Performance Management
Civic Identity
The Idealist’s Journey
Idealism &
Big Citizenship
Culture:
Uniforms, PITWs, Founding Stories, Team-Based, & more!
Values:
Service to a Cause Greater than Self; Students First, Collaboration Always; Belief in the Power of Young People; Social Justice for All; Level Five Leadership; Empathy; Inclusivity; Ubuntu; Teamwork; Excellence

11. Clarity + Integration = Power
Leadership Development
The Flame of Idealism
Service
Whole School, Whole Child

12. What is the Idealist’s Journey
The IJ is our deliberate, intentional effort to develop your Civic Identity.
It provides regular opportunities for you to engage in two types of reflection:
Personal: What is your purpose? What does your City Year mean to you?
Practice: What challenges do you face in your service? How can you learn from those challenges?

13. The Power of the Journey
The Journey invites us to view our year of service as a mythic, heroic journey of personal transformation.
It illuminates the inner work of this civic rite of passage.
It has three stages:

14. Stages of the Idealist’s Journey
Departure
Road of Trials
Return

15. The Inner Work of Leadership Development: Leadership Mission Statement
Crafting a Personal
Leadership Mission Statement

16. Mission Statement Guidelines
Personal Leadership Mission Statement
It should begin with the phrase, “As a leader, I….”
In its final form, it should be no more than 1-3 sentences long
It should represent a vision that you could not possible complete or achieve; this is a mission you will always be working towards, but never arriving at
Similarly, it should not include specific tasks, or quantifiable goals (“As a leader I teach three classes a day”).
Finally, your mission statement should be larger than your involvement with City Year. We invite you to connect with a sense of purpose that goes beyond the particular professional role you will play this year.

17. Debrief
How does it feel to write your own Personal Leadership Mission Statement?

18. The Presentation
Development
Process:

19. !?! The Challenge Personal History Content Knowledge Friends Policies
You service experience is incredibly complex:
!?!
Personal History
Content Knowledge
Friends
Policies
Teachers
Kids
Staff
Family
Peers
Within that complexity, what question or challenge gives you the greatest leverage to have an impact?

20. IJ Critical Reflection Cycle
Prior to IJ Session
Aligning
Beliefs
and Actions
Problem
Finding
After IJ Session
Powerful
Presenting
Selecting
Key Leadership
Lessons
Active
Listening
Critical
Thinking
During IJ Session

21. The PDP
A deliberate, structured process intended to help you find the right problems amidst the noise and complexity of your service experience.

22. Process Background
This process is based on 20 years of action research conducted by an organization called The Right Question Project!
It’s a proven method for empowering citizens to find their own voice and advocate for themselves!

23. Each Presenter is therefore faced with an important question:
The Context
At each IJ Session, a corps member will present a question or challenge to their IJ group.
Each Presenter is therefore faced with an important question:

24. What is the Right Presentation for me to bring to my group?

25. Why it Matters for the Presenter
The right presentation can generate insights and support that improve your service and develop you as a leader.
The wrong presentation will fail on both fronts.

26. Why it Matters for the IJ Group
The right presentation will keep the group engaged, energized, and focused.
The wrong presentation will leave the group bored, disengaged, or confused.
The quality of the group learning hinges
on the quality of the presentation!

27. Qualities of a Good Presentation
A good presentation is:
Clear
Concise
Compelling

28. The Presentation Development Process
The five steps are as follows:
Create a Trigger Statement
Brainstorm Related Questions
Improve the Questions
Pick the Best Question
Craft the Presentation

29. Step 1: Trigger Statement
A trigger statement is a simple, declarative sentence (NOT a question) that captures the essence of an issue that is compelling to the corps member and needs to be explored.
Here are some examples:
           “A CM on my team is disengaged.” “CMs at Smith Elementary feel disrespected by teachers.”
       “Our last parent engagement night was huge success.”
            “National service is not yet a civic right of passage.”

30. More About Triggers Triggers can be: -Directly related to service
“Only 10 kids showed up for afterschool”
-Abstract and conceptual
“Too many people are cynical”
-A Current Event “My district’s budget was just cut” -Positive instead of negative
“My students all made amazing progress last semester.”

31. A good trigger will “get you in the gut”.
More About Triggers
A good trigger will “get you in the gut”.
If it doesn’t, you don’t really care about the issue, and the discussion will mirror your own disengagement with the issue you present.

32. Step 2: Brainstorm
For four minutes, brainstorm as many questions related to the trigger as possible!
The rules for this section are as follows:
       -Ask as many questions as you can in the time allotted. -Do not stop to answer or discuss any questions.
-This can be done alone or with others.
-As a general rule, you should generate at least questions.

33. Step 3: Improve the Questions
-If you’ve created any statements, change them into questions.
-Change any close-ended (“yes or no”) questions to open-ended questions.
Here’s an example of how to improve a question:
-Is Amanda happy with the quality of service on her team?
becomes
-How does Amanda feel about the quality of service on her team?

34. Step 4: Pick the Best Question
Start by selecting the three most personally compelling questions from the list
From those three, pick the one question that most clearly gets you in the gut.
This will be the question that you use for your presentation!   

35. Step 5: Craft the Presentation
Create a brief (2-4 sentence),
powerful introduction for the presentation.
Make it clear, concise, and compelling!
Start with your trigger statement followed by your best question; then decide if you need another sentence or two to provide a bit more context.         

36. Crafting the Presentation (cont)
Here are some examples: “John, a CM on my team, is disengaged and not delivering powerful service. My challenge is that I don’t understand why he feels disengaged. How do I address that challenge?” “Obama just signed the Serve America Act. How will that affect national service in general, and City Year in particular?” “Is City Year a service program or a leadership development program?”

37. PRACTICE SESSION The five steps are as follows:
Create a Trigger Statement
Brainstorm Related Questions
Improve the Questions
Pick the Best Question
Craft the Presentation

38. You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
- Gandhi