Diverse Distributed Leadership - Our governance model
During our October 2003 Calgary Conference, a facilitated session was offered to further discuss national coordination. A small task force, representing all community leadership programs was formed to research other national organizations and to develop a proposal for the creation of the Canadian Community Leadership Network. The National Initiatives Task Force proposed a model using the principles of diverse distributed leadership.
What is a Diverse Distributed Leadership approach?
The concept of Diverse Distributed Leadership emerges from a long line of thinking, experience and exploration about the structure and development of national organizations within the voluntary and social profit sector in Canada.
It is grounded in a range of evidence-based research building on theory such as social inclusion, social capital, systems theory and dynamics and most recently theory and practice on technology development networks such as Free and Open Source applications and processes.
It changes our context from traditional structures utilizing common methods of meeting generic organizational tasks such as allocations of control over activities, and ordering of members based on superior and subordinate relations.
This is a process defined about building and sustaining a national network (not a collective or a coalition) rather than a traditional organization, with expectations that the network will accomplish similar goals and be successful.
In reviewing this model we have taken into account the context of the nature of the work of the community leadership programs and the need for a national perspective and a national network to meet a range of network needs.
We have taken into account what are evolving and effective governance strategies building on the following factors:
• the notion of true transparency and accountability in decision-making and access by all
members;
• the application of shared leadership models to engage and build network-wide human
resources in many cross-functional roles and relationships;
• the reduced costs of building and sustaining national structure to accomplish a range of
goals ;
• the interest and action to provide to capacity activity in a range of regional and national tasks;
• the application of evidence-based research and best practices to evolve community leadership
programs and their networks in Canada;
• the means to integrate new values of social inclusion and cross organizational relationships
within the network;
• the means to support dynamic and self-evolving structures which are strengthened by
information sharing, the use of many forms of technology and a range of mechanisms to
communicate to and within the network;
• the means to strengthen the network by building and sustaining the current and future focus areas
for our work.
As well, in framing the Diverse Distributed Leadership (DDL) model for the Canadian Community Leadership Network we have identified a range of assumptions that are fundamental to our thinking and experience regarding network development and implementation:
• by definition networks are equalitarian;
• the purpose is to strengthen peer to peer relationships;
• the belief is that successful networks have many leaders where leadership is plural and
flexible;
• that networks support the independence, integrity, and creativity of its members;
• that there is an interdependent relationship between the individual and the group and this is
fundamental;
• the belief that leadership is an outcome of the dynamics of interpersonal relations;
• we wish to extend the boundaries of leadership;
• we do not want to mandate Diverse Distributed Leadership into existence but grow it through
relationship building;
• we recognize expertise exists and operates in many ways and is not necessarily located in
formal roles or relations.
This is a process to identify that diversity in our member programs, their membership and approaches will be important to apply to the national network.
The shared leadership of our member programs is fundamental to identify that inherently we, as individual units, are there to build and strengthen each other’s capacity in a peer-to-peer network with assigned roles and functions across the network not through a national office taking full responsibility for this.
How will we know if this is working?
We will continually review the model to ensure we are attaining outcomes in keeping with our vision of a “Pan-Canadian Network” that contributes to collaborative, cooperative trusting and capacity building partnerships among community-wide leadership programs.