We think you’ll agree: Based on the comments below, doesn’t this sound like an experience you want to share? To participate, visit our Online Registration.

… my agency has sent all of our senior staff

… the fabric of relationships developed is invaluable

… my participation in [ELI] was the key factor in this agency’s decision to hire me as CEO

… I became aware of my role as more than a subject-matter specialist, as a member of the leadership team

… I now feel the confidence to step up to an executive role

 … we deconstruct common challenges and brainstorm to help resolve them

… helped me see my own capabilities more clearly

… I found a group of peers to rely on long after [ELI] was over

… the unique environment makes it safe to share concerns

… made it easy to become a better executive

… my [ELI] experience helps my agency every day

… [ELI] helped me realize I would be happier as a Number Two than as a CEO; that revelation saved me from a career mistake

… a rich learning environment

… the greatest value is just participating

… the network of peers and mentors is priceless

… the chemistry between presenters and participants is powerful

… presenters are “voices from the vineyard”—real-world practitioners

… a strong sense of camaraderie

 

 



Curriculum for 2008 Executive Leadership Institute

 Sunday, April 27
Orientation for New Participants

Understanding Leadership Styles—John Tropman

  • This session presents a brief exploration of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator approach to understanding your own style and that of others. The key to understanding types is that, while there is no “better” style, there are better ways of working with styles, and this can be accomplished more successfully when you become aware of your own.

Welcome Reception

Monday, April 28
Official Welcome—Peter Goldberg

Value-Based Leadership—Peter Edelman

  • This session explores the substantive elements of a national strategy to cut poverty in half, and the role ELI participants can play in achieving that outcome. In considering the policies and actions needed to cut poverty in half, part of the conversation must be about the dilemmas and difficulties involved. Answers are not simple and this session will not answer all of them. Perhaps, however, the session will stimulate thinking about how to move ahead.

Do More Good Better: Using the Power of Strategic Clarity to Increase Social Impact—Robert Searle

  • Based on Bridgespan Group articles “Zeroing in on Impact” and “Business Planning for Nonprofits: What It Is and Why It Matters,” and its consulting work with clients, this interactive workshop introduces participants to core elements that help nonprofit organizations clarify their strategies for impact. This content is important both for nonprofit executives and others interested in achieving greater impact. After the institute, participants will have online access to follow-on tools.

Tuesday, April 29

Servant Leadership: Leading with Zing—Ari Weinzweig

  • Opened in 1982, Zingerman’s Delicatessen provided the foundation to the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, employing over 450 people and generating annual sales of over $30 million. Strong leadership and innovative management practices have been key to this success. In an era of increased competition and tight labor markets, a positive company culture and identity, together with an inspiring vision for the future, can have an enormous impact on customer and staff loyalty. In this presentation, Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman’s co-founder and CEO, shares the philosophy of Servant Leadership, a management approach that focuses on the leader’s role in giving great service to individual staff—and to the organization as a whole.

Leadership: A View from the Helm—James Duderstadt

  • James Duderstadt shares insights from his new book on leadership. As president of a large nonprofit organization (the University of Michigan), he had to address many of the problems Alliance executives face, and continually found innovative approaches. A humorous, thoughtful speaker, Duderstadt is among the few executives who can conceptualize his experience in ways that makes it accessible to others.

Wednesday, April 30

Beyond Diversity: A Practitioner’s View—Gladis Benavides

  • This workshop provides practical tools and strategies to effectively address federal civil rights requirements regarding equal opportunities in employment, affirmative action, cultural competency and service delivery. Participants will learn proven models for recruiting, hiring, retention, and career development with particular emphasis on groups protected under the law. Training tips and information regarding cultural competency and the implementation of the federal limited English proficiency guidelines are also included. This highly interactive workshop will enable participants to ask questions and request specific information relative to their areas of interest.

Lessons in Leadership—Daniel Mulhern

  • Join Michigan’s first “First Gentleman,” Daniel Granholm Mulhern, for a luncheon conversation about the true nature and value of leadership. This open discussion will enable ELI participants to interact openly and informally with this champion of community service and volunteerism, leadership coach and organizational development expert, and tireless advocate for children.

Leadership, Public Policy, and Civic Engagement—Patrick Lester

  • Leadership is more than being a leader of an organization; it is also about being a leader within the sector and advocating for societal change. In this session, Lester will lead a discussion of strategies for establishing and improving your leadership in public policy and advocacy.

Thursday, May 1

Leadership Crisis: Trying to Make Sense of it All—Lynn Perry Wooten

  • The goal of this session is develop crisis leadership competencies. We will examine types of organizational crises to phases of crisis management. In addition, we will frame and analyze crisis response strategies. We will conclude our session with a focus on how organizations become resilient after a crisis and learn from crises.

Understanding our Future: Scenario Planning as a Leadership Building Block—
Susan Dreyfus

  • Nonprofit executives today are faced with enormous challenges to deliver effective, innovative human services to individuals and families in need. But today’s challenges may, in retrospect, seem simple compared with the ones faced by agencies 10 to 15 years in the future. Public-sector re-engineering, new or changing funding streams, privatization, technological advancements, genetic and neuroscience developments, service delivery system reorganizations, global political and economic environments—each and all of these will dramatically change the way nonprofit providers do business in the future. Scenario planning—a disciplined process that helps executives use new thinking to ponder the internal effects of external changes—can help us plan for future impacts.

Graduation of Second-Year Participants

Celebratory Reception

Friday, May 2

Identification and Analysis of Environmental Trends: Keys to Designing a Preferred Organizational Future—Thomas Harvey

  • In this session, participants will assess the most influential trends driving nonprofit decision-making. The identified trends will be drawn from participant perceptions and benchmarked against similar scans performed by five nonprofit social service boards. In light of these environmental challenges, participants will craft an action agenda for successfully growing a nonprofit social service organization. This dynamic will permit participants to synthesize the lessons from earlier ELI sessions on organizational behavior, leadership, and resource development (both human and financial). As a result of this session, participants will possess a current environmental scan they can use within their organizations supported by familiarity with a process that can help convert a trend analysis into an action agenda.

 

(c) 2007 - Alliance for Children and Families: www.alliance1.org