History balances the frustration of “how far we have to go” with the satisfaction of “how far we have come.” This quote by Lewis F. Powell, Jr. came to me as I looked back at the three years of Ki ThoughtBridge's existence and the future of our work. When we announced the creation of Ki ThoughtBridge in January 2006, we laughingly described this enterprise as “a start-up company with an eighteen year history.” We immediately realized the paradoxical nature of what we were launching.
Irma's vocation evolved out of the Harvard Negotiation Project when she was a student at Harvard Law School. After working for a law firm in Washington, D.C., she returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to work with Roger Fisher, Professor at Harvard, and a group of colleagues committed to providing the world with a different view of and process for resolving conflict. The company's name was Conflict Management, Inc. (CMI), and when it evolved into five separate companies, ThoughtBridge was one of them.
Irma was a partner and founder and, under her leadership, ThoughtBridge continued to work with educational institutions, government organizations, and corporations training clients in proven processes and state-of-the-art tools and resources in conflict management, negotiation, and mediation. The high level of skill and impressive results strengthened the reputation of ThoughtBridge and created a trust that remains with the company today.
My vocational journey and work in leadership development is grounded in training as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Organizational Development professional. Having worked in public and private institutions with individuals, organizations, and groups, I observed first hand the intricate connections between culture and behavior; between leaders and those who follow; between ideas and results. When I was given the opportunity to develop the Lilly Endowment Leadership Education Program (LELEP), I brought to this collaboration of scholars, practitioners, and researchers a deep knowledge of individual, group, and institutional development and dynamics.
LELEP was a great success in large part because of a collaboration between organizations and individuals committed to providing the best education to Indiana's next generation of youth-serving leaders. The experience, intellectual capital, wisdom, and theory building acquired throughout the program lived on in the development of Trustee Leadership Development, Inc. (TLD), a national leadership education program dedicated to improving governance and program leadership in the not-for-profit sector.
As founder and director, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and learn from giants in the field of leadership, organizational development, and systemic change. We served over 1,000 institutions, 50,000 individuals, and trained nearly 300 consultants. During my time at TLD, I scoured the literature, wrote numerous articles and curricula, conducted a myriad of workshops, and gave many presentations, speeches, and seminars on the topic of trusteeship and leadership. I realized that as much as we had accomplished, more was needed. Our work took clients beyond the surface and past the superficial to deep places personally, professionally, and systemically. It was adaptive work—it was transformational. In doing this level of work, conflict resolution and mediations skills are essential. The expertise of ThoughtBridge and of TLD converged in the preparation and training of the consultants. The power of these two streams coming together led to the development of an Integrated Model of Leadership© and ultimately to the creation of the “new company with a seventeen year history.”
Joanna's vocational history reflects over twenty years of experience both in higher education and corporate organizational development. She led a Chamber of Commerce-based leadership program that focused on developing civic trusteeship. This experience and her work in the corporate and philanthropic sector honed her skills in fostering collaboration and resolving multi-party conflict. Her quest to provide top quality leadership programming in her community led her to apply to a national training program being conducted by TLD for the Community Leadership Association (CLA). She and I helped to train thirty (30) CLA Program Directors from all over the country, and we helped to produce the CLA leadership development curriculum, “Taking Leadership to Heart.”
Joanna and one of the TLD consultants, Sallie Suby-Long, taught this curricula to hundreds of CLA member programs and community leaders across the US, Canada, and Australia. Joanna also worked at TLD where, in her capacity as Vice President for Programs, she worked closely with the TLD-trained consultants and delivered leadership training and process consulting to a diverse group of clients. When I created and wrote the Inner Work of The Leader© Manual and Training, Joanna and Sallie integrated it into the Leadership Wyoming and Leadership Montana programs. This curriculum and their skillful facilitation have transformed these communities.
These very brief descriptions of the Ki ThoughtBridge partners coming together is not just a story of new beginnings. They reflect some important lessons we have learned from being a start up with a seventeen year history.
Lessons Learned
1. There is no substitute for passion. We all share a passion for the work of Ki ThoughtBridge. Passion is what drives us to offer the best of ourselves to every endeavor. It energizes and inspires us to continue to evolve. We are determined to make our caring count—the most effective leaders demonstrate this level of commitment.
2. Leaders cannot stop learning their craft if they want to better serve their clients. They must continually read, discuss, inwardly digest, reflect, and create designs and trainings based on client needs and an accurate reading of reality. We believe that our work at Ki ThoughtBridge brings together trusted research and theory with experience and reflective practice. The result is quality training and resources that serve to produce the desired outcomes for clients.
3. Ongoing self assessment is vital. Leaders must ask questions that help them do their inner work as a company. For example, questions such as, “What isn't working as well as we would like?; Are we congruent in what we say and believe?; How effective is our communication” are invitations to open, honest evaluations. To have institutional integrity requires a willingness of leaders to expose their both gifts and shortcomings, to have the courage to claim what they know and don't know, to acknowledge their accountability and responsibility, and to exercise their individual and corporate power to make improvements and risk change.
4. Change is constant. We teach this message to clients and realize we are teaching ourselves also. Planning for the future is really never etched in concrete; it is an issue of how we want to be and how we want to respond to unanticipated as well as expected change. Leaders need to make sure that their organizations are “solid at the center, but flexible around the edges” so that they can respond responsibly to change. This is a form of trusteeship—ensuring the future health and vitality of the company.
5. Pay attention to your thinking. Leaders who are genuinely attuned to the internal and the external realities really do hear and perceive at a different level. Their thoughts are indications of data coming in and going out and what it all means. The observations are worthwhile to share because in doing so, the seed of an idea may be revealed that has the potential to help the company flourish.
We will carry these and other lessons with us into the next three years of Ki ThoughtBridge. Our vision to continue to develop leaders who are transformational, no matter what their institution, sector, station or stature remains. The Integrated Model of Leadership© will tether the work because the future is even more prone to “white-water change.” The more integrated leaders there are, the better our chances are as a county.
We need integrated leaders with technical and adaptive skills who are at ease with engaging with their inner work, and leaders who can use who they are to build better institutions, communities, and nations. We will continue to help leaders claim their courage. As Robert Kennedy said, “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation. All we need is courageous leadership.”
Ki ThoughtBridge exhibited courage when we said a new model of leadership and leadership development is needed and gave the world The Integrated Model of Leadership©. The model will evolve and change but, at the core, our beliefs about creating better trustees and leaders of institutions, communities, and the world will not. We will share how we are continuing our own learning and growth with all of you.
We feel privileged to have the kinds of clients with whom we work. We treasure the mutual trust created and the work that results. May our next three years bring deep, long-term adaptive work that continues the important labor of transformation.
Happy New Year!
Katherine Irma Joanna
Margaret Sue
Katherine Tyler Scott is the managing partner of Ki ThoughtBridge. Katherine is the founder and former President of Trustee Leadership Development, Inc., a resource center for governance leaders and not-for-profit organizations, located in Indianapolis, Indiana. She has more than 30 years of experience in leadership education and development, consultation, coaching and facilitation. Katherine is a nationally recognized speaker and has written extensively on the topics of leadership, trusteeship, organizational development, and change work.