September 13, 2023 – Approximate Read Time: ~5 minutes
Image by Michael Schwarzenberger from Pixabay
it’s a wrap: the Practice of Leadership in the Midst of Controversy and Conflict
by Tom Klaus
In 2013 I completed a multi-year study of principal leaders (executive directors and other executive level leaders) whose nonprofit organizations were on the frontline in the Culture War over sexuality education in U.S. public schools. The research was published as my doctoral dissertation and is available from ProQuest. A summary is available from me upon request. This is the second of four articles to share insights and recommendations that emerged from that study. You can learn more about the study and this series here. As we march toward another national election cycle, the cultural conflict is heating up and beginning to boil over. Over the past 10 years, this study has become increasingly relevant.
Last week we finished posting the last of a four-part series titled The Practice of Leadership in the Midst of Controversy and Conflict. We had a lot of positive feedback on the series. Today we’d like to share some of that feedback with you and what it means for us.
We received numerous “likes” and several comments about the series. Here’s three of those:
- This series of blogs were and are incredibly helpful, Jakob and Tom. Thank you for writing them! (Fiona, Ontario, Canada)
- Tom, this is an excellent piece. I remember learning, when studying Organizational Consulting that, no matter who we are, we can elicit change and better outcomes. I also think that the premise that funders should require proof of collaboration with entities espousing opposing ideological premises before supplying the funding is an excellent way to bring opposites to the table. So very needed in the current climate. (Vicki, Texas, USA)
- I really appreciate the call to expanding imagination! This is needed for any change initiative. Why go by the book when you can listen, adapt, and create new solutions to the challenges? The nonprofit sector is perfectly positioned to lead on imagining new ways of doing business, yet so often we lag behind. (Micah, Arizona, USA)
We also saw the metrics on our MailChimp and WordPress accounts explode. On MailChimp, the number of people who opened and clicked links on our posts doubled. On WordPress we could see the same thing happen with the number of people coming to our website to learn more about the subject and us.
We were both surprised and not surprised at the response if such is possible. Over the past year we’ve been seeing interest in Culture War issues growing among our constituents as the cultural conflict intensifies. That makes sense. We were still taken aback by the interest shown in this series.
What this response tells us is that there is a need for us to continue highlighting the challenges of cultural conflict and the Culture War. It is important for us to provide ideas, suggestions, resources, and even some guidance on how to address these conflicts when they come to our communities. We’ve always had these in our portfolio of workshops, training, and consultations but, until recently, we didn’t realize how useful they might be to people right now.
Our organizational development work at Tenacious Change focuses on helping nonprofits and social enterprises (from the smallest to the largest) to become more resilient organizations. As they do, they become more effective in leading ownership-based change through collective change leadership. This series has helped us see clearly how important preparing for and managing controversy is for strengthening the resilience of organizations.
As we close out this series, we are continuing to think about preparing for and managing controversy. In fact, we are convening a group of thought leaders about this later today (September 13, 2023). A group is joining us for The Dialogue About Dialogue and together we’ll be exploring how dialogue can be made a more useful tool for addressing controversy and conflict.
We’d also like to hear from you. How has this series prompted your thinking about preparing for and managing controversy? What questions has it raised for you? What ideas have emerged? We’d love to hear from you. Write us at info@tenaciouschange.us and let us know.
Yes, We Are Moving to Substack!
By the end of October we’ll be moving our weekly newsletter, Change It Up, to Substack from MailChimp. We will continue to publish it as well on our website. As a subscriber here on MailChimp, you’ll be automatically migrated to Substack as a subscriber as well. For a time, during the transition, you may receive this newsletter from both Substack and MailChimp. When the move is complete, you will only receive it from Substack. As always, you are welcome to share this newsletter with others and change your subscription. Thanks for your patience with this process!
What Controversy Could be Brewing In Your World?
Please follow this link (or click on the button below) to complete a brief Google form where you can tell us.
- What controversies are emerging that you might be able to head off?
- What controversies are you actually facing at this time?
- Can you share a situation with us that we can turn into an anonymous “case study” and explore in an upcoming blog?
- What specific questions do you have about getting prepared for controversy or managing controversy?
Remember, you can also access our video Preparing for Controversy inthe Fog of (Culture) War on our website and we also offer a day-long training event on managing controversy – on-site or online.