Building an Effective Network as a Change Agent

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Short Description

Achieving lasting change to address complex challenges requires not just a single leader, but rather a leadership network. This workshop will provide participants with opportunities to map and assess their leadership network in the context of a challenge or goal, examine the extent to which they are interconnected with other change agents (leaders, groups, or organizations), and identify strategies to enhance the reach of their network to lead more effectively. In addition, participants will experience the technique of hand-drawn network maps to enhance one’s network perspective and will leave with an action plan to improve their network.

Detailed Abstract

The greatest challenges we face today know no boundaries. Disease, poverty, climate change, and natural disasters have no regard for national, cultural, or economic differences. And yet the organizations we create to tackle such challenges operate within a context in which geographic, demographic, and organizational boundaries not only exist, but make collaboration difficult and complex. The responsibility to overcome such barriers to collaboration rests largely upon the shoulders of today’s organizational leaders. Yet, our traditional individual-focused definition of leadership, in which leadership resides within an individual who holds a leadership title, fails to provide sufficient insight into the leadership needed during such today’s turbulent times. Complex challenges require not just a single leader, but rather a leadership network.

In this workshop, we will provide participants with the opportunity to assess their leadership network in the context of a challenge or goal, examine the extent to which they are interconnected with other leaders, groups, or organizations, and identify strategies to enhance the scope and reach of their leadership network to lead more effectively during turbulent times. The workshop will be comprised of three parts: 1) Understanding leadership networks, 2) Mapping a network within the context of a specific organizational or societal challenge in which change is necessary, and 3) Developing strategies to improve one’s leadership network.

Part 1: Understanding Leadership Networks
The workshop will begin with a discussion about the importance of an effective leadership network. A network of leaders that are contributing to overcoming a specific challenge is effective when direction, alignment, and commitment are achieved. That is, an effective leadership network is one in which individual leaders, groups, and organizations have clear direction, are aligned in their efforts to achieve certain goals, and are wholly committed to achieving said goals. We will also discuss three basic types of leadership culture (McCauley et al., 2008; Palus, McGuire, Ernst, 2012). In the first, dependent culture, the responsibility of leadership belongs to those in formal positions of authority. In the second, independent culture, leadership is based on the expertise and formal position of individuals, personal influence, and the drive for individual achievement. In the third, interdependent culture, leadership is a collective activity of mutual inquiry and learning that can include the earlier stages as required to respond to emerging challenges. We will argue that it is an interdependent culture of leadership that is needed to enact change during turbulent times. Although certain individuals (often formal leaders) play an important role, their actions alone cannot address the complex and widespread challenges facing us today. Leadership theorists have made compelling arguments that we must focus greater attention on leadership as a social and relational process that involves not just individuals but also groups (e.g., Hogg, 2001; Hogg, Knippenberg, & Rast, 2012). Understanding one’s leadership network and identifying strategies for creating a more effective network is an important first step in developing relationships critical to leadership success.

Part 2: Mapping your Network
In the second part of the workshop, we will lead participants in a network mapping activity. Participants will be asked to define themselves as a change agent and assess their network as it pertains to a specific change they wish to make in their organization, community, or society. Small group discussions will be facilitated in which participants will be asked to reflect on the following questions:
1. What kind of change are you trying to make in the world?
2. What is your role as a change agent or leader in making this change?
3. What other change agents (individuals, groups, organizations) are also working to achieve this goal?
4. In what ways are you connected?

Participants will then be asked to draw their leadership network. They will begin by placing a small circle with their initials inside in the lower left section of a blank piece of paper. They will then be instructed to illustrate additional circles to represent other change agents and draw arrows to represent relationships. Solid lines should be drawn to represent strong ties, dotted lines to represent weak ties. Following this mapping activity, participants will be directed to reflect on the quality and effectiveness of their current network.
Participants will be asked if their network is open vs closed, if they have mostly strong or weak ties, if their network crosses diverse boundaries, and how they perceive their role in the network (primarily that of a giver vs a taker). Additionally, they will be asked to determine the extent to which their network represents an interdependent leadership view in which change results from a connected network of individuals, groups, and organizations working collaboratively to achieve a common goal.

Part 3: Developing Strategies to Improve Your Network
In part three we will examine possible changes that may be made to the participants’ leadership network to improve collaboration, information sharing, and overall effectiveness. Potential discussion questions include the following:
• What boundaries exist that are preventing your progress toward achieving the goal?
• How can you and others overcome boundaries?
• In what ways are you spanning boundaries and serving as a bridge between change agents?
• Are there relationships that you may wish to add or subtract from your network?

The workshop will then conclude with time for both small and large group discussion about what each participant has learned and plans to do to enhance their network.

WORKSHOP FORMAT AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The workshop will be highly interactive and practical. Additionally, there will be time to develop and discuss a personalized action plan to improve one’s network and leverage relationships within that network to better effect change.
Learning outcomes include:
1. Understand the definition of interdependent leadership and its importance during turbulent times
2. Be able to identify the characteristics of an effective leadership network
3. Diagnose one’s current network and identify areas for improvement
4. Develop an action plan to improve one’s network
5. Experience the technique of hand-drawn network maps to enhance one’s network perspective.

Sub Unit

• Business Leadership

Presenters

• Donna Chrobot-Mason, University of Cincinnati

• Charles J. Palus, Center for Creative Leadership