Collaborating for Black History Month and Beyond
Written By Duane Frankson and Renee Harness on behalf of the Facilitation Team
How do we use stories to uplift the voices of under-represented leaders in our work with The Leadership Challenge® Workshop? This question was answered masterfully by the facilitation team of The Leadership Challenge live online Workshop in honor of Black History Month (BHM), held for three days in the first week of February, 2021. The workshop was sponsored by Certified Master Lawandra Smith and hosted by Renee Harness of Harness Leadership and Tom Pearce of iLead Consulting and Training for a group of 13 leaders. It was the second such workshop honoring Black History – the first was a Student Leadership Challenge Workshop hosted by Duane Frankson in February of 2019 in Brooklyn, New York.
The facilitation team included 2 hosts, and 5 facilitators. It was important to all involved that the facilitation team include primarily Black leaders, while Tom Pearce and Renee Harness played host and support. The virtual team included:
Lawandra Smith (the CM Sponsor), the Texas Department of Family Protective Services
Duane Frankson, Certified Master in Training (CMIT) and attorney with Progressive Casualty Insurance Company
Nik Curnell, CMIT and Instructor at Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division
Kendall Mealy, CMIT and Senior Director of Leadership and Organizational Development at Physician Assistants Education Association.
Candi Harris, Certified Facilitator and Senior Program Coordinator at the University of North Texas.
Renee Harness, Certified Master and Founder of Harness Leadership
Tom Pearce, Certified Master and President at iLead Consulting and Training
The challenge for the world is to answer the question “what does leadership look like?” in a way that always holds justice and equality as the measure. In practice, the challenge for each member of the BHM-TLC team was to identify at least one story from the African American experience that would both honor BHM and reflect at least one of the TLC five practices.
By design, TLC workshops rely on stories to teach the five practices and connect the LPI behaviors to the learning. The preparation for the BHM-TLC required each facilitator to identify historical and contemporary stories that celebrated the accomplishments of African Americans and highlighted the behaviors of 5 practices. Each story was the result of the facilitator’s own research and experience. Our method was to focus on historical or well-known Black leaders to provide the Five Practices Overview during orienteering. Then, for each Practice, the facilitator identified a story of leaders who exemplify that practice. As we introduced the story with a Practice, participants were asked to highlight the LPI Behaviors that were present in the story.
Uniquely, the facilitators also recruited workshop participants. Each member of the facilitation team promoted the event within their network/industry, which in turn resulted in a participant pool with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. The industries represented included leaders in non-for-profits; executives, teachers, coaches, students, a service employee with an aerospace supply company; and an entrepreneur. The diversity of perspectives proved to be an overwhelming positive during break-out sessions. Participants not only learned about organizations different from their own, they also recognized their shared experience based on the nature of organizational behaviors.
The outcome of the workshop was tremendously positive. Formal survey results were highly favorable and informal feedback included terms like “life changing” and “forever grateful”.
Some of the highlights of the program came from the Vision Message exercise in the practice of Inspire a Shared Vision. Two noteworthy contributions came from participants with leadership roles in academic settings. Dana Bundy, a teacher from Hemphill Independent School District, shared her vision of cheerleading as a model for resilience and unity. Ria Denny, the Head Women’s Soccer Coach at Johnson and Wales University, inspired the group with her image of “flowers growing through the concrete” as a metaphor for overcoming adversity.
As an added bonus to facilitators and leaders in the workshop, Jim Kouzes joined the closing session and shared personal stories from his childhood, including his mother’s participation in the Freedom March in 1963. One of the most gratifying experiences for the facilitators was listening to the participants share their impressions of the program with Jim. The comments evidenced their new aptitude with TLC and the LPI behaviors. In one comment, a participant was able to use quotes from the book to build on the impact the workshop had on her new perspective of leadership, as well as how Jim’s mother “Modeled the Way.”
Conclusion and Implications for the Future
Every community that has a history, has stories. Whether it is the African-American Community, Women Rights Community, the Latino Community, or the LGBTQ Community, the curriculum of TLC workshops can draw on stories that resonate within the community of the participants or utilize the stories from a variety of communities to help answer the question “what does exemplary leadership look like for us?”
Each member of the facilitation team was grateful to be able to help with this Masters Give Back workshop. Each hopes for continued inspiration for future workshops like it in the future.
Duane Frankson is a CMIT and Attorney at Progressive Casualty Insurance Company. This article is taken from his final TLC Case study.
Renee Harness is a Certified Master and founder of Harness Leadership. She’s a mentor in The Leadership Challenge Community and is exploring more ways to bring The Leadership Challenge Workshop to under-represented leaders.
This story first ran in The Leadership Challenge Community Newsletter in March, 2021.