Diversity: Governance

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Diversity Governance Leadership SDI (Summer
Diversity Institute)
Patrick F. Bassett, NAIS President
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Where ARE we with Diversity in America?

• Animal House Opening fraternity house rush
  sequence. Reflection of the 60s 70s.
• Are we making progress? Encouraging signs in
  Independent Schools
• Growing minority presence
• Strong indicators that independent schools
  appreciate and transcend differences

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Richard Lights Making the Most Out of College

• Diversity in most high schools, at least as
  reported by Harvard undergraduates, is not
  working well at all.
• 1/3rd reported little or no ethnic diversity in
  their high schools. So for this group, how well
  it is working was a moot point. 
• Of those who attended private or independent high
  schools, virtually all ranked their personal
  experience with fellow students from ethnic
  groups other than their own as either positive
  or highly positive.  
• Of those who attended public high schools more
  than two-thirds characterized their personal
  experience as negative and disappointing.
• American public schools, at least those attended
  by the undergraduates in the study, make
  remarkably little effort to build a sense of
  community or shared culture. This is in sharp
  contrast to reports from graduates from
  independent schools.

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Ronald G. Fryer Acting White (Harvard
Economist, study of 90,000 students Gr 7-12, as
reported in Ed Week, 10/16/05 Education Next)

• Data confirms that high-achieving
  African-American and Latino teenagers are shunned
  by their ethnic peers for acting white.
• African-American and Latino students with good
  grades pay a price in more integrated public
  schools, but not so in private schools For
  black and Hispanic students, the adverse effects
  of good grades on popularity disappear in private
  schools.
• In private schools, high-achieving blacks are
  more popular than high-achieving whites. The
  social costs of a high GPA are most pronounced
  for adolescent males.
• Senator Barack Obama If reading a book or
  getting good grades might be perceived as acting
  white, then this topic is a matter of national
  concern.

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Leadership Strategy for Advancing Campus
Diversity ACE, October 2005

• The College Picture Recruitment Retention
  Issues
• only 20 of Hispanics attend college, and just
  10 graduate by age 29
• only 30 of blacks attend college, and just 17
  graduate by age 29
• only 40 of whites attend college, and just 34
  graduate by age 29.
• University Corporate Strategies (right out of
  the Awareness to Commitment to Action playbook)
  
• Framing diversity in support of mission and as a
  strategic imperative (Awareness Stage)
• Forming a task-force of opinion-leaders to engage
  in community-wide conversations to advance the
  agenda (Commitment Stage)
• Funding initiatives, setting measurable goals,
  and holding leaders accountable for
  performanceXerox Corp approach (Action Stage)

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Principles of Leadership

• What does leadership look like?
• The ambassador, the general, and the priest.
• How do you lead change? You cant lead where
  people are unwilling to go.
• Conventional wisdom on initiating change raise
  the volume, declare war, and demonize the enemy.
  
• Change experienced as sacrifice and loss, an
  unnatural act. How do we get young soldiers to
  leave home and put themselves in harms way?
  Enlist for a belief, but lay down lives for a
  member of the group.

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Principles of Leadership

• Repudiation of past practices, just like anger at
  injustice, produces defensiveness, not empathy.
  The deficit discourse.
• If the blame game doesnt work, what does?
  Appreciative Inquiry.
• Consensus is sometimes the enemy of change.
• What other analytical and decision-making models
  could we adopt?
• Coalitions of the willing and the wisdom of the
  crowd.
• Rough consensus 70 on board.

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What Do Practitioners Need To Know?

• Transformational leaders are storytellers.
• What are your five best stories? Your schools?
• You dont need everyone on board.
• Remember Margaret Meades dictum Never
  underestimate the power of a handful of citizens
  to change the world. After all, its the only
  thing that ever has.
• Tipping point leaders have high EQ (more
  important than high IQ).
• Who are the mavens, connectors, and salesmen in
  the community? (Malcolm Gladwell)

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Principles of Leadership

• How do leaders make good decisions, that stick?
• Z-model decision-making
• Institute for Global Ethics 4-way test for making
  principled decisions 1 Gut 2. Front Page NYT
  3. Legal 4. Role Model
• Americans value that which is measurable (Secr.
  Spellings In God we trust. Everyone elsebring
  data.)
• Speaking the truth to power means articulating
  brutal facts balanced by unshakeable beliefs.
• What are the most important metrics to apply?
  Lets get practical Make accountability a
  strategic goal with measurable outcomes and watch
  what happens. Good to Great for the Social
  Sector Focus on outputs, not inputs.

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Principles of Leadership

• You Cant Lead without a Team
• Team only as strong as its weakest member The
  Lessons of the Pride Ian Thomas
• Teams comprised of strong individuals still weak
  if they cant function as a team Dick Chaits
  choir of soloists.
• Team members can help or hurt one another.
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Patrick
  Lencioni) absence of trust fear of conflict
  lack of commitment avoidance of accountability
  inattention to results).
• Team Development Experiential Ed, The Gettysburg
  Leadership Experience the Financing Sustainable
  Schools Institute the Summer Diversity
  Institute The Institute for Leadership in
  Sustainability.

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Principles of Leadership

• Management vs. Leadership vs. Governance
• Managers do things right leaders do the right
  thing. Steven Covey (paraphrasing Warren Bemis)
• Knowing whats right? The important vs. the
  critical.
• Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the
  form of every virtue at the testing point. C.S.
  Lewis
• Advance diversity not by exhortations rooted in
  idealism but rather by alignments of
  self-interest. George Latimer, ex-mayor of St.
  Paul, MN
• Leadership creates a shared vision governance
  develops a coherent and courageous strategy
  management designs and executes tactics to
  achieve the difficult goals. Alignment of
  leadership, governance, and management moves
  organizations from good to great. PFB

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Principles of GovernanceIt is easier to ask
forgiveness than permission.
The Faculty
The Board of Trustees

Decision-Making
The Head Administration
The Parents The Parents Association ( The
Advisory Board or Alumni Board)
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Developing the BoardAdapted with permission from
the May 2004 edition of Board Member,Volume 13,
Number 3. BoardSource (c) 2004.

• The SAT Analogy
• Our board is to our school
• as is to .
• Our admin team is to our school
• as is to .

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Problem Solving via Strategic Governance

• Needed Three Levels of Trusteeship
• Level One Fiduciary (auditing function of
  oversight and assessment of mission finance)
• Level Two Strategic (leadership function less
  management/more governance via scanning and
  planning)
• Level Three Generative (visionary function of
  shared leadership, RD orientation for imagining
  and experimenting).

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Three Levels of Board GovernanceAdapted with
permission from the May 2004 edition of Board
Member,Volume 13, Number 3. BoardSource (c) 2004.
The antidote to micromanagement is
macroengagement.Dick Chait.
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Governance/Leadership Interfaces

• How do middle managers interface with the head
  and board?
• Game Theory be the head, be the board.
• Alignment What if whats important to the board
  is not important to the facultyand vice versa?
• Make your issues relevant to the mission and
  board priorities, then the obverse will occur.
• Managing up what problem does the head or
  board have you can solve?
• Emerging sexual orientation issues for elementary
  grades
• Pressure to change Christmas traditions in the
  name of inclusivity.

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Governance/Leadership Case Studies

• What do we do if.
• Search for case studies on the NAIS website and
  use them for training purposes. As each case
  unfolds ask
• What are the leadership issues in play?
• What are the ethical principles of good practice
  at stake?

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NAIS Film Vignettes
Download from http//www.blueskybroadcast.com/Cli
ent/NAIS/Case/case.html

• NAIS Case Study 1 Harsh Transitions in the
  Second Grade
• NAIS Case Study 2 Shock and Scandal
• NAIS Case Study 5 Clash of Styles of Leaders
• NAIS Case Study 9 Administrative Evaluations
• NAIS Case Study 11 Digging Deeper for the
  Campaign
• NAIS Case Study 13 Taking Chargeby a
  Trustee 

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NAIS Case Study Film Vignettes
Download from http//www.blueskybroadcast.com/Cli
ent/NAIS/Case/case.html

• NAIS Case Study 15 Marriage of a Student
• NAIS Case Study 28 Peanuts Allergy
• NAIS Case Study 29 Anonymous Letter from the
  Faculty
•    
• NAIS Case Study 30 Breaking the Rulesby the
  Adults 
• NAIS Case Study 31 Admissions Package Deal

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The End! For more resources on this topic, go to
www.nais.org
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Myers-Briggs Z2 Model I/E (introvert/extrovert)
S/N (sensing/intuition) T/F (thinking/feeling)
J/P (judging/perceiving)Adapted from The
Zig-Zag Process for Problem Solving, developed
by Gordon D. Lawrence, Center for Applications
of Psychological Type, Inc., 2004.
Z
S (Sensing) What problem are we trying to
solve? What are the facts, details, frequency?
N (iNtuition) What are the patterns and
theories for why this might be happening? How do
we brainstorm solutions?
How do you process info?
T (Thinking) What are the criteria by which we
should make this decision? What is the logical
way to address the problem?
F (Feeling) What is the impact on people? How
can we deliver this info in the best way to get
results?
How do you make decisions?
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Team Profile
Exercise What administrators do to hurt help
each other.