The Latest

Repairing Trust

In his ground-breaking book The Speed of Trust, Stephen Covey describes five waves of trust. The first two he tackles are self trust and relational trust.  He notes that foundationally, we must trust ourselves, living with integrity and fulfilling our commitments.  The second relational wave of trust is based on the principle of consistent behaviour and investing in and generating trust with others. Throughout the book Covey describes the reciprocal nature of trust, that it is about giving and receiving. 

Read More

Emergence and Movement Building

One of the first phrases I encountered at Tamarack was ‘act like an organization, think like a movement’ which is attributed to Al Etmanski and Vicki Cammack.  Like so many other things, I have had to consider this phrase and make it real to my experience of community change. 

Read More

Adaptable Leadership and Changemaking

There are times when I am flipping through Twitter and I find a nugget of information that leads me to pause, reflect and then consider what is being shared and how this impacts my thinking about community change. With one tweet, Systems Innovation (@Sys_innovation) both asked and answered the question “what does it take to liberate the capacity of an organization?”

Read More

Transformational Leadership: The Next Big Thing

Today, everyone seems to be looking for the next big thing, the quick fix, or the new solution. But sometimes, the answer isn’t found in a formula but in a relationship, an exchange of words, and a way of being.

Leadership is a hot topic. I have watched countless TedTalks, videos, read articles, written school papers and taken courses on the subject of leadership. Each holds its own view of what leadership means, what it can do for you, your business and the future. But taking the time to understand and develop your leadership style can transform the way you work, interact with others and ultimately your ability to impact and influence the world around you. I have learned from my own experience in working on tough community issues that leadership styles which encourage collaboration and relationship building are essential and that in most collaborative efforts, the nature of leadership required will change over time.

Read More

Lean into Adaptive Leadership

Many of us shy away from using the power that we have, often to our own and our community’s detriment. This was one of the nuggets of wisdom shared with the participants attending Tamarack's Adaptive Leadership Masterclass series that took us to five cities across Canada and wrapped up just last week. Liz Skelton, Co-Founder of Collaboration for Impact shared a story about working with Indigenous leaders in Australia. It was there that she discovered that leaning into her formal and informal power could be used to help the collaborative group drive change forward.

Read More

Nurturing Context Experts: Building a Network of Non-Traditional Leaders

January 2018 marked the launch of an innovative new approach to mobilizing non-traditional leaders – those context experts whose wisdom, knowledge and action is essential to the success of any sustainable community change effort.  Leadership Without Limits (LWL) was created in response to the observation made by Promise Neighborhood of the Lehigh Valley (PNLV) that “the leaders we have are not the leaders we need and do not represent the community.”  LWL has been designed to address this leadership gap by preparing emerging leaders to lead effectively with integrity in this 21st century multi-cultural society.

Read More