2003 Regional Workshops Held for Administrators and Leaders

States Dates Place
Colorado/Arizona (photo) May 6-8, 2003 Fort Collins, CO
Missouri/North Dakota April 22-24, 2003 Sioux City, Iowa
New York/Pennsylvania June 2-4, 2003 Coopers Plains, NY
North Carolina May 12-14, 2003 Caraway Camp Center, NC

Four regional 3-day Strategic Leadership for Diversity workshops were held in the spring-2003 for all Extension Administrators, Project Coordinators and other selected leaders from the CASD states. State Teams strategized changes needed for their states and developed state specific goals-for-change.

The Workshops were led by Dr. Kate Kirkham, Elsie Cross Associates Consultant, and Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior, Brigham Young University. Follow-up implementation strategy sessions with Dr. Kirkham are being planned in each state for 2003-2004. Next steps for Coordinators: Kirkham Letter

Redefining Leadership Through Diversity – Does it Describe YOU?

“By 'leaders,' we mean any individuals who actively work to define and refine for themselves fair and effective and respectful models of interaction across identity differences, and who attempt to put those models into practice." – Managerial Excellence through Diversity. Mary C. Gentile. Illinois: Waveland Press, pp. 475, 1996


Workshop Goals for Leaders were to:
       a) Assist leaders in creating a climate for change that is respectful, and that also recognizes the status quo is not good enough.
       b) Teach leaders how to speak the language of change – constantly putting the vision before people in a clear and understandable way.
       c) Coach and support leaders’ personal diversity maturity, growth and development
       d) Support leaders to be courageous in leading the change – provide models of other leaders and the skills they use
       e) Assist leaders in identifying consistent and holistic approaches for organizational change on diversity
        f) Develop leadership skills to manage conflict & understand power relationships in society, organization, and interpersonal relationships.


Strategic Leadership for Diversity Workshop Resources:
• ‘Challenges of Leading a Diverse Workforce’, J. Joplin & C. Daus, Academy of Management Executive, 1997, Vol. II, No.3, pp. 32-47
Selected chapters from the following books:
• Managing Diversity: The Courage to Lead, Elsie Y. Cross
• Privilege, Power and Difference, Allan G. Johnson, Mayfield Publishing Company ISBN: 0-7674-22254-6; 1st edition (2001)

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THINKING ABOUT LEARNING ‘LEADING DIVERSITY CHANGE’ STRATEGIES
“In their own ways, Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr., were both ambitious individuals. But the particular paths that their ambitions would take could not have been assured, for the niches that they ultimately came to occupy had not existed in the societies in which they had grown up. They had to create a role, a powerful story, and an audience that would be receptive…
In reviewing the paths taken by Roosevelt and King, one encounters many familiar themes. But because these individuals ultimately provided leadership in roles that had not existed before, they also deviated in instructive ways from other leaders of their time. They could not simply embody stories that were already known…
Not only were they providing sharp and challenging vision of personal and group identity: more provocatively, they were suggesting that neglected groups actually had identities, ones that all citizens needed to respect..” [bold emphasis added]
--Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership, Howard Gardner New York: Basic Books, 1995, pp.184.