National Transition Community of Practice Forum

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National Transition Community of Practice Forum

• Session 5
• Leadership on All Levels in the Community of
  Practice
• February 6, 2006

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Topics

• Leadership Strategies that Empowers All
  Stakeholders (State, Local, Individual)
• State Leadership Support of Regional and Local
  Leaders
• Discussion
• What Works in your State and/or Your Role
• What are the Challenges we Face
• How can we help one another to Enhance our State
  to Local, Local to State Efforts to Improve Youth
  Outcomes?

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Leadership Strategies that Empowers All
Stakeholders (State, Local, Individual)

• Hal Bloss, Assistant Director
• Luzerne County Intermediate Unit
• Vance Coover, NE Division Administrator
• Office of Vocational Rehabilitation

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Leaders. Leaders? Who are they?

• Service Providers/Teachers
• Intrinsically motivated.
• Positions of service.
• Make a difference!
• Empowerment
• Implies we will allow them.
• Who allows them outside of work?!?
• Empowerment is an attitude of freedom. (H)

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Leaders. Leaders? Who are they?

• Servant Leadership
• Assumption is that they know how to do their job.
• Provide them the resources to do their job.
• Exemplary Leaders have...
• Strong sense of purpose.
• Courage to act.
• Consideration for others.
• Leadership is Everyones Business!!
• The Leadership Challenge, by James Kouzes and
  Barry Posner, 1999

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Leadership is Everyones Business!

• How do you see your role?
• How do you
• Challenge the Process?
• Inspire a Shared Vision?
• Enable Others to Act?
• Model the Way?
• Encourage the Hearts of Others?

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Leadership is Everyones Business!

• Paradigms and Change (A)
• Who Moved My Cheese? (H)
• Be Proactive!! (H)
• Emotional Intelligence
• Whats Next? What, me worry?
• Change and Connectedness
• No X-mas Tree Programs!!!
• Where to start? What to do?

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COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE

• STARRT by building COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE
  (CoPs)
• Definition (H)
• Circles of Concern
• Circles of Influence (A)
• Be Influence-able!!!
• Six Interrelated Strategies (STARRT)

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COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE

• Stewardship
• Trustworthiness
• Ambiguity
• Reflection
• Refinement
• TimeSTARRT.

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COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE

• Stewardship - is the willingness to be
  accountable for the well-being of the larger
  organization by operating out of service, rather
  than control, of those around us. It is
  accountability without control or compliance.
  (Peter Block, 1993)
• Create diverse committees, communities of
  practice.
• Provide Opportunities AOAP!
• Stop the Monologue! Start the Dialogue! and
  Listen!
• Be Ambiguous - Sell the problems, not the
  solutions!
• Create a Welcoming Environment! and Listen!!
• Encourage and Reward Risk Taking! and
  Listen!!!

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COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE

• Trustworthiness
• Trust
• Personal competence
• Professional performance (Covey, 1996) (H)
• Check It Out Club!
• Problems. are opportunities!!
• Credibility of Action!!!

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COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE

• Ambiguity-When to be and when not to be?
• Ambiguous- be uncertain, of doubtful nature or
  meaning, open to various interpretations.
• In the creative process -
• Be Ambiguous! Sell the problems, not the
  solutions.
• In the implementation process -
• AVOID Ambiguity!
• Most important implementation strategy ...is the
  clarification of the roles and responsibilities
  of the various stakeholders involved in the
  process.

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COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE

• Reflection Refinement
• Ongoing dialogue and regular reflection result in
  shared vision, shared commitment, and shared
  responsibility.
• Make Connections!! No X-mas Tree Programs!!
• Based upon the reflective experience the
  community must continually refine its models of
  service delivery to broaden its continuum of
  services.
• Culture of commitment.
• Broad based support.

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COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE

• Time
• Law of the Farm!!! (A)
• Legitimate Participation.
• Full Engagement.
• No Puppets!!!
• The Dynamic Systems Perspective (H)
• Dynamic Complexity
• Success
• Time and Change

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COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE

• Stewardship
• Trustworthiness
• Ambiguity
• Reflection
• Refinement
• TimeSTARRT Now!

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Highly Effective CoPs

• Close the Implementation Gap!!
• Community Living Programs
• VITAL House 1995
• Tiger House 2001 Plus others across
  PA!!
• Victory Village 2002
• REAL Academy 2004
• College Experience Programs
• COOP 2004
• CORE 2005
• BSU, Lackawanna 2005/06

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COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE

• Move off the Dime!!
• Start the Journey!!! Vision comes later!!!
• Be Ambiguous - Sell the Problems, not the
  solutions!
• Stop the Monologue, start the Dialogue!!
• Listen! Listen!! Listen!!! (DC-S-T C)
• Provide opportunity and choice. AOAP!!!
• Make Connections!!
• No X-mas Tree Programs!!
• Be consistent with the message!!

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State Leadership Support of Regional and Local
Leaders

• Ellen Romett, Managing Director
• PA Training Technical Assistance Network
• Joan Kester, Statewide Transition Specialist
• Office of Vocational Rehabilitation

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State to Local Support Expanding Capacity
through Replication of Effective Practices

• Peer mentoring Program to Program connections
  for replication of evidence based practices
• Informal (Informal network of the community)
• Formal mentor-mentee model (Minigrants, PDE
  Employment Grants)
• Use of technology to support formal mentor-mentee
  replication projects
• Blackboard
• Group E-mail Communication
• Discussion Boards
• Resource Sharing (online toolkit)
• Electronic Data Submission

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State to Local Support Ongoing Opportunities to
Network Communicate

• Integrated Professional Development to create
  ongoing opportunities to share effective
  practices
• Statewide Transition Conference (July 19-21,
  2006)
• Biannual Regional Outcome Issue Forums

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State to Local Support Ongoing Opportunities to
Network Communicate

• Use of Technology to Support Open and Ongoing
  Communication
• Transition List-serv sponsored by the IDEA
  Partnership.
• Practice groups (outcomes/issues identified by
  stakeholders as priorities)
• Vision of small learning communities within
  practice groups, centered around program models
  (e.g. college experience programs) and program
  elements (e.g. job coaching)

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COMMUNITIES of PRACTICE

• Three Central Value Themes (K P, 1999)
• High Performance Values are best reflected in our
  commitment to excellence.
• Caring Values communicate how others are to be
  treated.
• Uniqueness Values communicate to those both
  inside and outside our organization HOW what we
  do is uniquely different than others.

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How can we learn from one anothers experiences?

• Discussion
• What works within your state and/or your role?
• What are the challenges we face?
• After we leave this forum, how can we help one
  another to enhance our leadership at the state,
  regional and local levels to improve youth
  outcomes?

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Feel free to contact us!

• Hal Bloss, Assistant Director, Luzerne County
  Intermediate Unit, hbloss_at_liu18.org
• Vance Coover, NE Division Administrator, Office
  of Vocational Rehabilitation, vcoover_at_state.pa.us
  
• Ellen Romett, Managing Director, PA Training
  Technical Assistance Network, eromett_at_pattan.net
• Joan Kester, Statewide Transition Specialist, PA
  Office of Vocational Rehabilitation,
  joakester_at_state.pa.us