
Leadership Labs Deepen Learning;
Leading to Action
Our Leadership Labs develop leaders and solutions by integrating learning by doing, designing thinking principles, and leadership development. The intent is to convene a group of committed stakeholders to better understand a leadership challenge, incubate solutions, and share insights. Through this process individuals expand their networks, deepen their understanding of a leadership challenge, and produce insights and solutions... creating ripples of learning into workplaces and communities.
Lab participants explore a topic more deeply, seek to expand their insights and develop new ideas and possible solutions. The outcomes of Leadership Labs might be a new tool, training program, an online course, a whitepaper, or even a book. Through these groups, participants develop strong professional connections that promote growth and mutual support.
Most often the Leadership Labs grow out of our Community Summit events but they can also be launched by a group of individuals, sponsoring organization, grant, or other interested stakeholder. All it takes is an interested group, someone to take the lead, and form a team. The Leadership Forum provides support to these groups and provides them with a safe space to share their progress with the community; to try out ideas, get feedback, or share their end results.
Most labs are open to additional members. Contact us if you have an interest in a lab group or if you have an interest in starting a new Leadership Lab. Contact Us
Leading to Action
Our Leadership Labs develop leaders and solutions by integrating learning by doing, designing thinking principles, and leadership development. The intent is to convene a group of committed stakeholders to better understand a leadership challenge, incubate solutions, and share insights. Through this process individuals expand their networks, deepen their understanding of a leadership challenge, and produce insights and solutions... creating ripples of learning into workplaces and communities.
Lab participants explore a topic more deeply, seek to expand their insights and develop new ideas and possible solutions. The outcomes of Leadership Labs might be a new tool, training program, an online course, a whitepaper, or even a book. Through these groups, participants develop strong professional connections that promote growth and mutual support.
Most often the Leadership Labs grow out of our Community Summit events but they can also be launched by a group of individuals, sponsoring organization, grant, or other interested stakeholder. All it takes is an interested group, someone to take the lead, and form a team. The Leadership Forum provides support to these groups and provides them with a safe space to share their progress with the community; to try out ideas, get feedback, or share their end results.
Most labs are open to additional members. Contact us if you have an interest in a lab group or if you have an interest in starting a new Leadership Lab. Contact Us
2022 Leadership Lab Groups
Women in Leadership
All members are now reading the book "The End of Bias" by Jessica Nordell. It explores how the human brain creates bias, and how changing our habits at a different level can help. it explores many forms of bias including Gender, Race, Police and more. The group plans to identify key components of what they find in the book.
Unlearning Racism
Working with the Polarities model, they are considering inviting Margaret Seidler who was at their recent ILC, and who has had extensive and impressive experience (Charlston, SC mass shooting at the Black Church working with both law enforcement and black community) to consider presenting her new model which she mentioned at the ILC. Eileen Flynn also wondered about the idea of collaborating with the Women in Leadership Lab's exploration of Bias and their Lab which focuses primarily on Racism. Another idea Eileen voiced was perhaps for the Dialogue Lab to add in an experiential component to such a blended workshop; i.e.
Women in Leadership
All members are now reading the book "The End of Bias" by Jessica Nordell. It explores how the human brain creates bias, and how changing our habits at a different level can help. it explores many forms of bias including Gender, Race, Police and more. The group plans to identify key components of what they find in the book.
Unlearning Racism
Working with the Polarities model, they are considering inviting Margaret Seidler who was at their recent ILC, and who has had extensive and impressive experience (Charlston, SC mass shooting at the Black Church working with both law enforcement and black community) to consider presenting her new model which she mentioned at the ILC. Eileen Flynn also wondered about the idea of collaborating with the Women in Leadership Lab's exploration of Bias and their Lab which focuses primarily on Racism. Another idea Eileen voiced was perhaps for the Dialogue Lab to add in an experiential component to such a blended workshop; i.e.
2 Part Workshop: 1) Sharing info about Bias
2) Dialogue Session - topic or question offered Ken Judy has also worked up a description for a Panel to discuss the idea of creating a workshop that is targeted specifically for higher level leaders (i.e. CEO's). The NYC Summit will be in-person on November 3, 2022. |
Dialogue, Creating Common Meaning
This Lab has created a Workshop at the request of the Democratizing Leadership Lab on Dialogue. It will be presented to their lab on 3/24. The experience of this Lab has been an increasing sense of cohesiveness, trust as well as individual self awareness and personal growth. |
Democratizing Leadership in Education ~ Sue Covelli-Buntley, Co-lead
Purpose ~ Creating Leadership Development Materials for Schools to Teach Students through Peer to Peer Learning
She’s been meeting with Susan Waterhouse, Co-lead, over the past few months and they’ve now been planning an upcoming Education ‘kickoff’ this Thursday night for the entire Lab. The idea is to brainstorm ideas on how to simplify the things they wish to accomplish. Last years’ efforts were good, but became complex and required much time in oversight. They have 11 people in their group and the hope is to formulate one or two initiatives - simple solutions to chunk out the work into several smaller groups. They hope to meet once a month. There is a lot of enthusiasm amongst their members. Their lab has invited the Dialogue, Creating Common Meaning Lab to present a workshop for them in March as well. They see this model being possibly a simple and potentially ideal approach to addressing their goals with young leaders.
Purpose ~ Creating Leadership Development Materials for Schools to Teach Students through Peer to Peer Learning
She’s been meeting with Susan Waterhouse, Co-lead, over the past few months and they’ve now been planning an upcoming Education ‘kickoff’ this Thursday night for the entire Lab. The idea is to brainstorm ideas on how to simplify the things they wish to accomplish. Last years’ efforts were good, but became complex and required much time in oversight. They have 11 people in their group and the hope is to formulate one or two initiatives - simple solutions to chunk out the work into several smaller groups. They hope to meet once a month. There is a lot of enthusiasm amongst their members. Their lab has invited the Dialogue, Creating Common Meaning Lab to present a workshop for them in March as well. They see this model being possibly a simple and potentially ideal approach to addressing their goals with young leaders.
2020 Leadership Lab Groups
Courageous Community Dialog
This team focused the need for courageous dialogue and introduced a new tool named “I See You” that fosters broader connections and a shared understanding in online conversations. The courageous dialogue approach involves listening, storytelling, perspective taking, and co-creation. It can be used in communities and organizations to build a shared understanding, unite, heal, repair, and cultivate more authentic and collaborative cultures. The team piloted their tool with the Leadership Forum Community on January 14, 2021and continues to refine its use.
ACCESS RECORDED SESSION
Unlearning Racism
Post 2020 Summit, a group of participants acknowledged how discussions suggested one of the most pressing leadership challenges of our times is understanding racism and how it exists and impacts organizations, communities, and the fabric of a civil society. As a way to increase their understanding they convened and explored how racism impacts the Leadership Forum Community. As a result, the group named their lab: Unlearning Racism and created a team charter. The chairs presented the full charter to the LFC Officers team who support the focus and partnership.
Their Vision:
The Leadership Forum Community strives to be an organization that represents all dimensions of diversity where individual members own and embrace inclusion and equity and are inspired to leading with others to build a better tomorrow. They will focus on:
Leading During COVID-19
Following the 2020 Leadership Forum Community Summit, a Leadership Lab team was established to address the challenge of Leadership through COVID-19. The exploration included interviewing over 100 leaders that spanned multiple industries, generations, and geographies to learn what it took to lead during 2020 year. The findings of this team was presented as an Incubating Leadership Conversation on 12/9/2020 and was repeated on 1/27/2021 due to increased demand. Their full results are available in a whitepaper available in Participate. CLICK HERE
This team continues to look at how they can add more value by focusing on specific challenges brought on by COVID-19 and the leadership needs to bring our organizations back from this disruptive time.
Total Rewards
The challenge for leaders in organization is to determine what will keep their employees engaged and motivated. Today's employees are looking for different types of rewards and are looking at how organizations can satisfy their quality of life goals. Through a series of podcasts called "Who's There", this team is exploring the subject of total rewards.
Link to Podcasts
Democratizing Leadership Exchange
This Leadership Lab is a continuation of the SLOPE Leadership Framework for Education lab from 2019. It has incorporated two new groups from the 2020 Summit: Courageous Leading Self and 16,00 Disengaged Students. As a combined effort this team is pursuing an initiative to integrate leadership into education, enabling all students to learn and grow as leaders. This group is running multiple pilots in the U.S. and foreign countries, where students partner with teachers to develop and deliver leadership training sessions to their peers.
LEARN MORE on Participate.
The Leadership Forum Community is a Fiscal Sponsor of the SLOPE Project - Democratizing Leadership Exchange. Discover how Fiscal Sponsorship opens doors for emerging initiatives.
LEARN ABOUT FISCAL SPONSORSHIPS
Courageous Community Dialog
This team focused the need for courageous dialogue and introduced a new tool named “I See You” that fosters broader connections and a shared understanding in online conversations. The courageous dialogue approach involves listening, storytelling, perspective taking, and co-creation. It can be used in communities and organizations to build a shared understanding, unite, heal, repair, and cultivate more authentic and collaborative cultures. The team piloted their tool with the Leadership Forum Community on January 14, 2021and continues to refine its use.
ACCESS RECORDED SESSION
Unlearning Racism
Post 2020 Summit, a group of participants acknowledged how discussions suggested one of the most pressing leadership challenges of our times is understanding racism and how it exists and impacts organizations, communities, and the fabric of a civil society. As a way to increase their understanding they convened and explored how racism impacts the Leadership Forum Community. As a result, the group named their lab: Unlearning Racism and created a team charter. The chairs presented the full charter to the LFC Officers team who support the focus and partnership.
Their Vision:
The Leadership Forum Community strives to be an organization that represents all dimensions of diversity where individual members own and embrace inclusion and equity and are inspired to leading with others to build a better tomorrow. They will focus on:
- Learn the LFC current demographics to get a diversity baseline. Identify ways to provide intel on reaching out to find diverse members.
- Build our Lab member’s skills on the topic of Anti-Racism as we work together to integrate the diversity and inclusion values.
- Be the champions, and encourage others, to embrace the LFC values of diversity and inclusion.
- Explore and recommend relevant programs the LFC can offer. Possibly consider creating our own program/course.
- Resource or sounding board to assist with situations that impact the LFC ability to address a personally impacted experience
Leading During COVID-19
Following the 2020 Leadership Forum Community Summit, a Leadership Lab team was established to address the challenge of Leadership through COVID-19. The exploration included interviewing over 100 leaders that spanned multiple industries, generations, and geographies to learn what it took to lead during 2020 year. The findings of this team was presented as an Incubating Leadership Conversation on 12/9/2020 and was repeated on 1/27/2021 due to increased demand. Their full results are available in a whitepaper available in Participate. CLICK HERE
This team continues to look at how they can add more value by focusing on specific challenges brought on by COVID-19 and the leadership needs to bring our organizations back from this disruptive time.
Total Rewards
The challenge for leaders in organization is to determine what will keep their employees engaged and motivated. Today's employees are looking for different types of rewards and are looking at how organizations can satisfy their quality of life goals. Through a series of podcasts called "Who's There", this team is exploring the subject of total rewards.
Link to Podcasts
Democratizing Leadership Exchange
This Leadership Lab is a continuation of the SLOPE Leadership Framework for Education lab from 2019. It has incorporated two new groups from the 2020 Summit: Courageous Leading Self and 16,00 Disengaged Students. As a combined effort this team is pursuing an initiative to integrate leadership into education, enabling all students to learn and grow as leaders. This group is running multiple pilots in the U.S. and foreign countries, where students partner with teachers to develop and deliver leadership training sessions to their peers.
LEARN MORE on Participate.
The Leadership Forum Community is a Fiscal Sponsor of the SLOPE Project - Democratizing Leadership Exchange. Discover how Fiscal Sponsorship opens doors for emerging initiatives.
LEARN ABOUT FISCAL SPONSORSHIPS
2019 Leadership Lab Groups
Creativity Scars
The 2019 LFC Summit focused on Growth Through Failure. As part of the experience participants went through was a creative exercise that pushed people out of their comfort zones and into an activity that might set them up for failure. Creativity Scars was the topic of on of these experiences. After a session on Creativity Scars, a group created a training program for people to explore their own creativity scars and how a scarred or wounded self-image limits personal and professional development. The program also addresses the need for leaders to promote a healthier work environment to enhance the value employees bring to the workplace. If you are interested in having a Leadership Forum representative conduct this training for your organization, contact us. This training program was also adapted to be an online course available on the Participate Community platform. Check out this on-demand course, called The Working Wounded. CLICK HERE
SLOPE Leadership Framework for Education
At the100th LFC Anniversary Summit, one challenge the community focused on was how to integrate leadership development into education. Following this, Chris Rehm and Joel Wright partnered to continue advancing this work. Through extensive research and writing, Chris and Joel moved their concept of democratizing leadership in education into a defined framework ready for pilot . This initiative carried forward to the 2020 Community Summit where it was incorporated into a broader team that is exploring how to help students lead with courage and confidence during a disruptive pandemic. (see below)
Creativity Scars
The 2019 LFC Summit focused on Growth Through Failure. As part of the experience participants went through was a creative exercise that pushed people out of their comfort zones and into an activity that might set them up for failure. Creativity Scars was the topic of on of these experiences. After a session on Creativity Scars, a group created a training program for people to explore their own creativity scars and how a scarred or wounded self-image limits personal and professional development. The program also addresses the need for leaders to promote a healthier work environment to enhance the value employees bring to the workplace. If you are interested in having a Leadership Forum representative conduct this training for your organization, contact us. This training program was also adapted to be an online course available on the Participate Community platform. Check out this on-demand course, called The Working Wounded. CLICK HERE
SLOPE Leadership Framework for Education
At the100th LFC Anniversary Summit, one challenge the community focused on was how to integrate leadership development into education. Following this, Chris Rehm and Joel Wright partnered to continue advancing this work. Through extensive research and writing, Chris and Joel moved their concept of democratizing leadership in education into a defined framework ready for pilot . This initiative carried forward to the 2020 Community Summit where it was incorporated into a broader team that is exploring how to help students lead with courage and confidence during a disruptive pandemic. (see below)