Eastside Pathways is a lean organization. We rely on volunteers who have stepped forward to lead our “work” of organizing and facilitating Collaboratives. Our volunteers bring with them a passion for education and volunteering with their communities. At an Eastside Pathways planning retreat, the idea of providing training to our volunteers and staff ranked high. Collectively, we knew that bringing training to our volunteers and core staff to increase their leadership capabilities would benefit both our people and our work.
Eastside Pathways was lucky to connect with Leadership Eastside, a local leadership developing organization. Their mission, “we are an inclusive organization that promotes connections, develops and enriches leaders, and is a catalyst for communities to address important issues and meet the challenges of a diverse and dynamic region,” resonated well with the Eastside Pathways goals and work.
Our Leadership Eastside adaptive leadership training started in August and will culminate with a celebration in April 2016. Each month our facilitators will participate in a four-hour training session at which we learn new skills. The facilitators put those skills into action at their monthly collaborative meetings. Also, facilitators are supporting one another by attending other collaborative meetings to see their fellow facilitators in action to provide them with feedback and learn from them. Our adaptive leadership training is discussed at our staff meetings, identifying what’s working, questions we have, or tricky situations we are struggling with.
Just a few months into the training, we are already seeing the positive effects of the adaptive leadership training. Our facilitators are feeling more confident and empowered to lead. Our facilitators are using new tools to better engage collaborative members and develop relationships, which is at the heart of the work of collective action. We are strengthening our collaborative teams by hearing everyone’s voices, getting commitments, reviewing collaborative goals, and more. Additionally, our volunteer facilitators and staff are enjoying the training and finding personal value in learning new leadership skills which can be used for our collective action work.
Article written by Cathy Habib, lead facilitator for Eastside Pathways, and longtime Bellevue volunteer.