The DGMT Legacy Programme - Liberating Leadership: Transformation & Change

LIBERATING LEADERSHIP transformation & change through the LEGACY programme (2020-2021)

© December 2021, footsteps & DGMT Liberating Leaders: transformation & change through the LEGACY programme (2020-2021) LEARNING BRIEF 2

Authors & Editors Warren Banks (for footsteps) | warren@warrenbanks.co.za Carol-Ann Foulis (for DGMT) | Carol-Ann@dgmt.co.za

Contributors See Appendices 1 and 2 for the list of participating leaders and LEGACY team members, all of whom made contributions to this volume and had an opportunity to review a draft version.

NOTE: The first learning brief related to the LEGACY programme was produced in April 2021 and titled, LEGACY: A leader’s journey – Co-creating a Community of Change.

Acknowledgements We wish to thank: •

the 11 leaders – and organisations – who participated in the pilot LEGACY programme. Without your willingness to co-create with us, to risk with us, and to face big defining (and redefining) challenges together, this rich experience could not have happened.

•

DGMT, for their partnership, support and collaboration around this first LEGACY pilot. DGMT’s commitment to innovation, exploration and creative response makes it a critical player within South African civil society.

•

footsteps practitioners and members who led and managed the design, facilitation and documentation of the LEGACY process; and, in particular, Davine Thaw whose idea sparked this work.

The poem on p.18 is used by permission of Melissa Steyn, a leader who participated in the LEGACY pilot programme.

This report is based on materials compiled across the life of the programme and makes use of input gathered from all participating leaders. Errors in this draft remain the responsibility of the authors.

Warren Banks & Carol-Ann Foulis Durban & Cape Town | December 2021

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Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other” doesn’t make any sense.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don’t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don’t go back to sleep.

Rumi from The Great Wagon

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Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................................... 2 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Of chaos, complexity & liberation ................................................................................................................... 5 A map of the terrain ....................................................................................................................................... 6 2. Background: The LEGACY Programme............................................................................................................ 7 Overall goal of the pilot .................................................................................................................................. 7 What inspired this work? ................................................................................................................................ 7 3. Methodology.....................................................................................................................................................10 Data sources ................................................................................................................................................ 10 Confidentiality ............................................................................................................................................. 10 Limitations ................................................................................................................................................... 11 4. In the Beginning … ...........................................................................................................................................12 Where we started: leaders’ experience in October 2020 ...............................................................................12 5. The Journey .................................................................................................................................................... 14 A leader’s story.............................................................................................................................................. 15 The journey of letting go, of finding me ......................................................................................................... 17 The power of recognition, and mutual support ..............................................................................................18 A human journey of organisational change ....................................................................................................19 6. Outcomes & Impact ...................................................................................................................................... 20 Individual outcomes & impact ...................................................................................................................... 20 Organisational outcomes & impact ...............................................................................................................21 Emergent effects and outcomes ................................................................................................................. 23 The value of the DGMT investment ............................................................................................................... 24 7. Recommendations .......................................................................................................................................... 25 Move beyond the pilot stage: replicate the LEGACY process with a new cohort of leaders .......................... 25 Explore the possibilities inherent in the CEO’s online toolkit/community of practice ................................... 26 8. Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................... 27 Leaders & Organisations .................................................................................................................................. 28 Facilitation & Support Team ............................................................................................................................ 29

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1. Introduction This Learning Brief documents an internal evaluation of the LEGACY pilot programme and its outcomes.

Of chaos, complexity & liberation As this document was written it had several working titles.

For a while, a strong contender was: “Spiralling In, Spiralling Out: transformation and change through the LEGACY programme” – a reference both to the complexity and chaos that long-time leaders negotiate when preparing to depart, and to the critical importance of inner work as a foundation for effective organisational transition (the ‘outer work’ of building systems, strengthening organisations, recruiting personnel, etc.).

Note: This is the second of two Learning Briefs associated with the LEGACY pilot.

The first, Co-creating a Community of Change (April 2021) spoke more strongly to the principles and practices involved in designing and facilitating the process at the heart of this programme, and to the key role of a ‘community of change’ in enabling this work.

Aside from some background information, this second learning brief does not cover the same ground as the first.

Although we ultimately rejected this title, the cover image continues to reference it. Complexity, chaos, and the need for inner work, as well as outer work, seem particularly apposite in the 2020-2021 period, when the challenges of leadership change were heightened by COVID-19 and its deep personal, social and economic effects.

In the end, however, we settled on “Liberating Leaders”. By the end of the programme, liberation – freeing both the self and the organisational system to move forward – was a key theme, and a strong experience for many participants.

Leaders are both the subject and the object of the ‘liberation’ referred to in the title. The experience of LEGACY helped free leaders to let go, and to prepare to move into lives beyond their organisations. It also enabled and supported leaders to make plans, take decisions, implement changes, and adopt behaviours that helped free their organisations to step into new ways of being that no longer require their presence and stewardship. Importantly, this process was significantly resourced and co-created by the leaders themselves.

The title does not mean to imply that civil society leaders are slaves to their organisations, or vice versa (though neither state is unheard of). Rather, it refers to the liberation that comes from breaking through stuckness – from finding a way to take a fundamental next step, without regret, recrimination or the burden of nostalgia.

This kind of liberation is no one’s to give – it must be worked for and claimed. The leaders with whom we had the privilege to pilot LEGACY over the past year did just that.

At the heart of the LEGACY process was this intention: to enable leaders to move on from their organisations, and to leave both the departing leaders and the organisations stronger. On balance, we believe this goal was achieved for all participants – to varying degrees, and via several pathways. This report offers evidence for this claim by articulating the wide range of outcomes to which the LEGACY programme contributed. It centres the experience of the programme’s primary constituency: the leaders who helped cocreate it. Their voices, stories and reflections are at the heart of this text.

This is not an assessment of specific activities or elements of the programme, but of the whole. However, feedback was gathered at every stage (e.g. after each module; in debriefing between-module activities, etc.) –

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this has been considered in framing the more detailed recommendations for changes to a future iteration of the programme (Section 7).

A map of the terrain Section 2 offers some background to the programme. This material is drawn from Learning Brief 1; those familiar with it may wish to skip this section.

Section 3 outlines the methodology we applied to produce this document – the data sources, the interpretative process applied to them, and some limitations.

Section 4 speaks to participating leaders’ experience at programme inception – it offers a kind of snapshotbaseline for the material on process and outcomes which follows.

Section 5 paints a picture, in the leaders’ own words, of the nature of the process they experienced through LEGACY. Section 6 summarises a range of outcomes to which the programme contributed, based on attributions made by the leaders themselves.

Section 7 offers two broad recommendations for future work. This material includes ideas from leaders as well as the LEGACY facilitation team, and incorporates both broad recommendations, as well as more granular and detailed ones.

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2. Background: The LEGACY Programme LEGACY was a two-year pilot, facilitated by footsteps and DGMT, and involving a community of 11 carefully selected leaders from South African civil society organisations (CSOs). Leaders were invited based on their intention to leave their organisations in the coming period, and their desire to do so in ways that would best serve themselves and their organisations.

Overall goal of the pilot 11 South African CSOs facing leadership change are better able to successfully and developmentally prepare for and manage this process in ways that strengthen their organisations in the long term.

The 11 organisations were based in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape, and included a range of sectors (ECD, livelihoods, land rights, gender-based violence, etc.), organisation types (university based CSOs, small and large non-governmental organisations, community based organisations). Many participating leaders were founders, though a few were younger/mid-career. Several of the leaders were approaching retirement age. Nine women and two men participated.

LEGACY involved a seven-step process (pictured above), comprising three 3-day residential modules interleaved with a variety of tailormade support offerings (coaching; consultations; facilitation of sessions with organisation members; Thinking Through Groups [TTGs]1) and opportunities for leaders to connect with each other and with the facilitation team. The contact work of the programme unfolded over the course of a year (October 2020-October 2021), culminating in a final online closing session with participants on 26 October 2021. This was preceded by a preparation and design phase, during which participating leaders were invited and oriented to the programme, and followed by some months of reporting and consolidating learning. The programme concluded in November 2021.

What inspired this work?

The big picture Civil society has a critical role to play, and the quality of leadership and organising within civil society matters now more than ever. Civil society is also at a crossroads at a global level and in South Africa.

Funding is limited and highly competitive, and relations between civil society and the state are often complex and challenging. Solidarity within the civil space is also limited, in part because of these dynamics. An interest in our collective well-being has all but disappeared - particularly from those institutions ostensibly set up to safeguard it. A context of spiralling corruption, state capture, and a wide range of systemic (social, economic,

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Thinking Through Groups (TTGs) were groups of 2-3 leaders who met monthly during the life of the programme. Their purpose was to create a space for deep listening and honest sharing about the leaders’ current questions, challenges, and triumphs. Each group was convened and held online by a footsteps facilitator. This form proved very valuable for most leaders – as a space to be heard by interested colleagues, to listen to one’s own thinking, and to get support of various kinds.

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political, cultural) ills all seem to call for the kind of innovative and human-centred responses that civil society is well-positioned to offer.

The South African experience Within this context, the spark for LEGACY was the fact that many leaders of progressive South African CSOs – mostly formed in late-stage Apartheid or early in the democratic era – are now preparing to retire, or to move out of their organisations for other reasons. This is a natural process – it will create space for necessary transformation in the sector. However, it also presents a range of risks and challenges.

In small-to-medium-sized organisations, the departure of a valued leader – especially, a founder leader – can herald a crisis, for both leader and organisation. It is often a difficult transition, at human and organisational levels. Poorly managed transitions have been known to kill organisations, or, more often, damage them in ways that reduce their effectiveness in the short- and medium-term.

Why? Because leaders play a critical and central role in these kinds of organisations – often, they are the glue holding them together. Of course, staff members, the board, and other structures (e.g. community advisory councils) all play significant parts, but the director’s role is often decisive.

This is so for a variety of reasons: •

Many organisations exist, at least in part, to develop skills, so developmental hires are the norm.

•

CSOs often struggle to afford highly skilled staff, which may leave the leader/founder as both the overall manager and the technically strongest staff member in a wide range of areas from fundraising, to report writing, to actual implementation of the work. They are also often the people who bring the ideas for conceptualising and designing new projects, strategies, processes, and events.

•

Boards are composed of volunteers, and very often selected by the leader; strengthening them is certainly a priority, but no substitute for addressing leaders themselves.

•

Founder leaders, by nature of their role in the organisations’ lives, are usually connected to every part of the system they have built. They often make changes rapidly to adapt to environmental shifts, or to introduce new ideas and innovations. This can be a significant strength, but it often outpaces the speed at which the organisation and its people can adapt … So, the system remains in a state of flux, held together and moved primarily by the founder’s will, ideas and energy, rather than being aligned to a clear strategy, or some other shared reference point. (This is most obvious in very young founder organisations, but aspects of this dynamic often remain long after the organisation is visibly ‘mature’ and successful, and even after significant growth and expansion has occurred.

Further, as one participating leader noted: Leaders are also often isolated from the rest of their staff and from their board because they are the only person in that role at that level of internal hierarchy, so they lack a peer group inside the organisation to (1) share difficult decisions with at the initial stages when they are just ideas and (2) to share the rawer feelings associated with facing significant change. The very nature of hierarchy makes it difficult to share doubts and fears.

Thus, a core assumption: the leader needs to be central to a workable transition in most CSOs. Further, the price of focused support for personal and organisational change puts it out of the range of many CSOs and their staff. Even where it is possible to hire consultants, coaches or experts of various kinds, transition efforts often founder or turn into technicist exercises in ‘succession planning’, focused mainly on the top job. These fail to address the fact that leadership transition affects the whole organisational system, and not only the director, the board and the management team.

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Two other core assumptions: •

a process is needed, something that is not simply consulting or coaching or training, to support leaders in transition to better support themselves and their organisations through this challenging passage;

•

a community Is also needed so that leaders have colleagues they can turn to outside their organisations for support and expertise.

This reality, and these experiences, foregrounded a range of questions for footsteps and DGMT: • • •

•

How might we support CSO leaders to transition in ways that take care both of themselves, and the organisations they leave behind?

What does it mean to leave responsibly?

Can this be done without overreliance on organisation development (OD) or other scarce and/or expensive professionals, by leveraging the knowledge, skills and resources of leaders and organisations themselves?

Is it possible for leaders from different civil society organisations to work together to enable this?

The co-creation of the 'LEGACY: a leader’s journey' was an attempt to answer these questions, and respond to these needs.

Connecting to Learning Brief 1 In our first Learning Brief, Co-creating a Community of Change, we shared our core framework for thinking about leadership transition (working with the leader, working with the organisation, and working with processes of change and development at both of these levels) as well as our approach to the practice of cocreation with the leader-participants invited as active and resourceful contributors to the programme and the community it built, rather than passive recipients of services or expert support. We also expanded on the result of such an approach, which was the formation of a community of change able to support the individual leaders and their organisations in each of their own processes of change and development. The ‘how’ of this approach is also outlined in Co-creating a Community of Change.

In this report, the second Learning Brief arising from the LEGACY process, we examine the outcomes and impact of the process and the community on the 11 leaders and organisations that were part of it, as well an on our own practice and thinking about the work of leadership transition.

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3. Methodology The basic guiding questions informing our internal evaluation were: •

How were things for you as a leader at the beginning of the programme?

•

How did this change over the course of the programme?

•

What is different now – for you, and for your organisation?

The motivation to prepare an internal evaluation of the LEGACY pilot programme – rather than a more cursory summary of outcomes – arose from the extremely enthusiastic response of all participating leaders, and from our shared sense that LEGACY was a rich learning experience for all involved.

Further, it seemed significant to mark the end of this pilot by reflecting on the process – the journey – from the perspective of the people who embarked on it with us. Our main aim is therefore to prepare a synthesis that captures something of the essence of these leaders’ experiences, and of the programme’s main outcomes and impacts, from their perspective.

Wherever possible, we have made use of primary data – i.e. direct quotations – to illustrate key points. The small size of the cohort, and the unique nature of their experiences, led us to adopt a mainly qualitative approach, though we do explore a few more quantitative questions related to the uptake of between-module support, and the relative efficiency of our approach.

Data sources Five members of the LEGACY facilitation team conducted in-depth evaluative interviews with all participating leaders in September-October 2021. These were documented and analysed by the authors. These interviews form the main source for quotations in this document.

In addition, we drew on extensive monitoring records which include: •

Portfolios of Evidence from each leader/organisation’s engagement in the process: i.e. pre-invitation interview summaries; photographic and audio records from three modules; between-module assignments; records from TTG sessions; reports on any individual coaching sessions undertaken; reports on consultations or organisation-level facilitation work (if applicable).

•

Our own observations, notes and internal reports from contact work (in modules, coaching, between modules, etc.).

•

A video recording of the online closing session on 26 October.

Confidentiality Several leaders were happy for quotations to be attributed to them, but not all. In the interests of encouraging candour and making space for respondents to talk about important but sensitive subjects, we elected to anonymise all quotations in this document.

This also seemed appropriate, in light of the fact that organisational challenges or problems were often named in interviews. Publishing these kinds of frank reflections, made by departing leaders about their organisations, would be unethical without more organisational engagement and involvement than could be accommodated in our budget and timeframe.

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Limitations This was an internal evaluation. While this is entirely within the ethos of the programme – a co-created evaluation of the programme, by the programme – it does make the goal of objectivity more challenging than it might be in an independent review. The authors (both experienced programme evaluators) have attempted to address this by working mainly with primary data – the leaders’ own words – and by attempting to balance affirming feedback with more critical perspectives.

The experience of leaders was central to this programme, therefore their testimony is foregrounded here. In many cases, but not all, we were able to verify their accounts of changes and outcomes from our direct experience of the leaders themselves, and of their organisations. There were few contradictions between the leaders’ accounts and LEGACY facilitators’ perceptions of change.

Further, the footsteps-DGMT facilitation team worked hard to consciously co-create the programme with leaders, but the boundary between the leader system and the facilitator system was maintained. In other words, changes/outcomes may have been enabled/supported by the programme, but they belong to the leaders and organisations. Our primary interest in conducting this evaluation was in knowing what has changed (or not), and what worked (or didn’t) in order to strengthen future iterations of the programme. Ample positive feedback had already been documented – allowing us to adopt an open stance, and to listen for nuance and critique.

Nevertheless, this report would be strengthened by subsequent follow-up with organisations 6-8 months after programme closure to get a more in-depth picture of organisational health post-LEGACY. We hope to include this kind of follow-up in future iterations of the programme.

Finally, vast amounts of material were collected during programme monitoring – enough for full case studies focused on each individual- and organisation-level change process, and potentially enough for a book-length review of the programme. Our aim here is to produce an accessible document on a manageable scale. This has meant selecting from the wide range of materials in ways that limit repetition of themes. Single quotations often stand for multiple voices expressing the same sentiment. We have endeavoured to make these selections as representative as possible, and to ensure that all participating leaders’ voices are given space in these pages.

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4. In the Beginning …

This section briefly lays out leaders’ reasons for entering the LEGACY process and offers a snapshot of how things were at the beginning of the process.

The pilot group was filled by invitation. Originally 16 leaders and organisations from footsteps and DGMT networks were tentatively invited, with the aim of selecting a final group of 12. Leaders were invited because they had expressed an interest in moving on, or retiring, but most (with three exceptions) had yet to take any decisive action in this regard. We worked within existing networks because of the collaborative nature of this pilot – it was helpful to have a baseline level of trust and confidence in the facilitation team, since we would not be offering a pre-packaged programme, but crafting a new process together.

Once twelve suitable candidates accepted our invitation, we closed the group. Unfortunately, one leader withdrew close to the original start-date, leaving us with a cohort of 11 for the pilot. The date of Module 1 was renegotiated with the final cohort, and moved from mid-2020 to October 2020 because of concerns about inperson gatherings under COVID-lockdown conditions.

Where we started: leaders’ experience in October 2020 What insight and understanding did leaders have into themselves? And how did they perceive their organisations at this point in the process?

Below we summarise some common experiences and then offer a selection of illustrative quotations.

•

For several leaders, it was almost impossible to see themselves and their organisations as separate entities: ‘The organisation took its life from me; and my meaning resides in it.’ ‘This has been my life for 10/20/30 years!’

•

There was a strong sense of carrying - alone - the weight and responsibility of the organisation, including its future survival and sustainability.

•

Many had no prior experience in how to manage a transition of this kind – for themselves or their organisations.

•

Few knew of positive role models or experiences of successful transition; most narratives of transition that were familiar did not inspire confidence.

•

For some, there was the question of timing: is now a good time to leave?

•

Organisations were at different stages of their development - three had already moved through the pioneering phase and were facing less of a seismic change in terms of the organisation’s growth and development. Others faced the task of helping their staff and boards come to terms with a new way of being, triggered by their own departure.2

•

Many participants had some understanding and appreciation of processes of change and transition but hadn’t yet distilled it into an approach that they could lead on, particularly in the context of their organisation and their transition as a leader.

2 In organisation development parlance, the departure of a founder leader often produces developmental crisis and triggers the need to move from simple, less structured, more organic, pioneering mode, towards greater differentiation and formalisation. This is usually necessary because no new leader is able (or willing) to hold and guide the system in the way that the founder can. (The same transition can be triggered by other factors – e.g. growth in scale or complexity, beyond what a single person can contain and manage.) Differentiating organisations need a level of ‘law and order’ – rational, functional systems; agreed norms; a layer of middle management; and so on.

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•

The idea of ‘legacy’ was largely unexplored – the majority of people had not yet come to grips with the decision to depart (though a small minority had well defined transition processes underway already), let alone considering what they would like to leave behind them.

•

Their loneliness as leaders was striking - along with their hunger and desire to be with other leaders facing similar challenges and complexities

Some leaders’ perspectives I did not know that I needed this. I had a lot of fear and guilt coming into this process: what would happen to me, the board, the staff? I was also filled with self-doubt and quite resistant to the idea of facing change. I came in feeling like I managed but didn’t lead, because of COVID and everything else that was happening.

I didn’t have the freedom or confidence to leave. I was stuck - I didn’t know how to do this, or even how to communicate my intentions and plans to colleagues.

I was quite possessive and defensive of my role, and I was not ready to embrace departure as an option. I had a sort of flight response from the idea because of the stress and uncertainty of funding. It was a big shift to be considering leaving and I was struggling to articulate this.

I was resistant at first – even to the initial invitation, and especially toward paying a fee. But I took it to my Board, and they said, ‘YES!’ and immediately approved fee and travel costs.

I had tried to leave twice before but it hadn’t worked – possible replacements had fallen through, or not been right. So, I’d been stuck in the founder role for five or six more years than I’d wanted.

It was difficult to separate the work of the organisation from who I was… I came into LEGACY feeling that my work was unfinished and feeling very alone with it.

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I needed to untangle myself. I was stuck, unproductive, frustrated, resentful, but still carrying most of the weight of the organisation alone.

It’s difficult to let go of 30 years. And I was deeply uncomfortable about letting down the people who had really invested in the organisation: long term donors, partners, colleagues…

I had an intention to step down and had made the decision to move on, however I was stuck in not knowing how to move forward. I didn’t have information on succession planning – no tools, techniques, or sense of how to do it. Donors would ask about it, and I was never able to answer clearly. I didn’t know how to communicate my plans, and wasn’t confident enough to try … So, I kept my desire to leave to myself; not telling people about it, or about the new organisation I wanted to start.

5. The Journey The LEGACY process created space for leaders to undertake personal work on themselves, as well as to explore a range of organisational fundamentals. We explored questions such as: •

Who am I? What do I want?

•

Where are we? And what does the organisation need?

at many levels, and in many ways.

It also moved beyond thinking and into action, by encouraging participants to unpack the processes of change (or strengthening, or exploration) that were needed, and to find clear answers to questions such as: •

What shall I do next? What shall I prioritise?

•

What shall we (as an organisation) prioritise and focus on?

•

And how? And what support might I/we need?

Each stage of the process, and certainly at the end of each module, coaching session, or other engagement we sought to ground intentions in concrete actions. This helped many leaders to name their support needs, and, where appropriate, to use the larger LEGACY community of leaders and practitioners/facilitators as both a resource and an accountability space.

Each leader and organisation were provided the space and resources to chart their own course, and their own process of transition. While the three modules were attended by all participants (two leaders missed the final module for COVID-related reasons), and everyone participated in monthly Thinking Through Groups (TTGs), the uptake of elective between-module support varied considerably amongst participants.

This support consisted of: •

individual coaching; and/or

•

consultations on topics or questions (more content/advice-oriented support); and/or

•

facilitation of processes within their organisations (working with leadership teams, or with the whole organisation around matters of transition or related organisation strengthening).

On average, participants used four days of support from some or all these categories. But at an individual level, usage varied widely – from slightly less than one day to slightly more than ten: •

5 participants used less than 2 days.

•

2 participants used between 2 and 4 days.

•

4 participants used more than 5 days. o 2 of these used more than 8 days.

This variation in uptake could be for several reasons: the relevance of the in-between services, the capacity and interest of the leader and organisation to use these resources, as well as the varying needs and requirements of leaders and organisations. In some cases, organisations had pre-allocated budgets for various kinds of support; leaders from these organisations elected to pay for additional time from footsteps members or other professionals. These differences in needs, requirements, capacity, and resourcing were an important consideration in keeping our overall plans and time allocations flexible. At the same time, a few participants noted that they could have made better use of this support, but struggled to prioritise it and find the time to do so.

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In the remainder of this section, we aim to offer some of the flavour of the journey from a variety of perspectives. The full richness of the processes that arose from, and fed into, LEGACY cannot be captured fully here: there is no adequate, succinct way of capturing eleven 12-month personal journeys, and eleven 12month organisational processes of (often) greater complexity.

We begin by sharing one leader’s story of the whole process as an example, and then move on to exploring some of the layers of the process that unfolded for various participants.

A leader’s story It’s been painful, it’s been joyful, it’s been really fun …

I am so incredibly grateful for the privilege of being part of it.

Jun-Sept 2020

I was invited to join the LEGACY programme through my organisation’s relationship with DGMT – we’ve also benefited from other initiatives like the Fellowship Programme3. At first, I was uncertain, but I knew I needed to think seriously about moving on. I’d founded my organisation and been with it for thirty years. I accepted the invitation.

The first module at Salt Rock left me with some important decisions and messages: I was going to retire – it was no longer a ‘maybe’. I also took away the idea that I couldn’t be replaced – we shouldn’t be looking for another me, because there isn’t one, and that’s not necessarily what the organisation needs. Also, that replacing the director wasn’t the be-all and end-all of this kind of transition.

The facilitation team and the other leaders were great … But I felt a bit inadequate too. I had less experience of things like coaching and organisation development than some of the other leaders. And I started to worry about the state my organisation would be left in after I departed: what if the next director finds I’ve left big gaps?

Oct 2020Jan 2021

I started seeing the organisation in some new ways, and a lot of doubts and questions began to come up: Will I be letting staff down if I leave? There was huge dependency on me to be Mother.

There’s so much to strengthen in the organisation – especially around systems and staff capacity.

Oh heck, I’ve been micro-managing!

Change is inevitable, but … it feels so hard to do!

I’m alone in this … What if… But … I may never get another job – and I’ll need one to survive …

It was a bit of a down-spiral in my thinking about the organisation and my working future. But personal things were happening too. A combination of LEGACY plus the COVID experience led me to a few realisations: I long for family connection – I draw energy from it. I don’t want to die without giving my grandchildren the kind of attention I have given to so many others through my work. I long for time and headspace to do my own thing. I want to contribute to the sector I’ve worked in for thirty years, but no longer want the responsibility of keeping an organisation going.

In December, I made a commitment to my family that I would stop work by Easter 2022. I also reached out for some coaching support from a LEGACY team member. We continued to work together for the rest of the programme.

Making this decision and taking some small steps made me feel a bit more hopeful: “Maybe I can…”

Part of this was about accepting the imperfection of things, and of the organisation, and starting to look at what practical things would need to be done. The phrase, “It’s time,“ started to ring true for me.

I realised that, after thirty years, this was all the explanation I owed anyone for my decision.

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A programme for emerging leaders within DGMT-supported organisations (often new managers, or potential managers).

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Feb 2021

I came to the second module at Underberg feeling a bit desperate about what to do next, but felt lifted by the time I left the mountains. I started to feel proud of what I had achieved in my career and my organisation. I also felt much more connected to the group by this point – identifying with each other, experiencing similar emotions and fears. Several people, along with me, came to acknowledge that “we’ve done OK”. There was a great sense of mutual support.

There was also a shift in my perspective; I started to think about the process of transition itself, and to distance myself a bit from the organisation, see it more objectively and look ahead in more practical ways.

During Module 2, I’d invited two of the LEGACY team members to come and help me tell staff about my plans to leave, and start the process with people in the organisation. It was very emotional telling staff. I felt huge pride at the progress and growth that staff members had been through. However, they were also sad, anxious, and, in some cases, in denial about my decision to retire.

Mar 2021

We established a leadership group made up of middle managers to help hold the organisation through the transition. And I began to wonder if my original assumption that the new leader would come from within the organisation would hold true. The Board would need to play a more active role in figuring this out…

There was a kind of void in this period… Little movement or engagement from the Board around the question of a successor. Staff trying to convince me to stay.

I did take some personal steps towards the future: my husband and I visited the Cape to look around and start considering a move there. I met with a financial advisor to figure out my finances after retirement.

Apr-May 2021

It was a time of tension. In my head was always this sense of, “It’s time.” And also a feeling of frustration, or even resentment – “I don’t want to make the decision (about the successor, about the process)”. Since the change had been announced to staff, there was also the big fact that THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING! Help!

In a sense, the organisational process, with staff and board was a bit lost in the wilderness at this point. I was busy with all my own planning and decisions and neglected the organisational aspects.

The wake-up call came in Module 3.

Jun 2021

Module 3, at Rain Farm (Ballito), replenished my energy and got me refocused on the organisation. It felt liberating to come to this point in the journey. During the module, I named my ‘rocks’ – the burdens I had been carrying with me and not putting down; and I put some of them down. I articulated my legacy for myself, and felt proud of it. I wrote a list of deficits and organisational challenges to pass onto my successor – and felt OK about this. I was reassured and encouraged by others’ stories.

After this module I played a more active role in reminding ExCo of the urgency of the recruitment process, and asked a LEGACY team member to work with the internal leadership team to get them b ack on track with the transition process.

Jul-Oct 20 21

The ad for the director position was published and applications began to come in. Staff dynamics changed a bit… Some people began doing extra work – seeking recognition or brownie points. There were signs of repositioning and small power struggles between some members. There were three internal applicants for the director position; they worked together on the surface, but some tensions and mistrust were exposed in the form of minor conflicts and other wobbles.

The board came up with a short-list and engaged in interviews around the same time the LEGACY facilitator came to work with the leadership team. I was reassured by team members’ commitment, but also worried that we might not find any suitable candidates… At the same time, I could see that

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we had options, and that the Board was taking the process seriously and leading it well. It was also clear that leadership group members could become a team; they had accepted more responsibility, there was less sense of them needing me, and a more integrated understanding of the whole organisation – less silo-mentality.

The recruitment process had a lot of ups and downs; a lot of uncertainty… In the end, this kind of appointment involves a leap of faith, since you can’t know for sure it’ll work out. Towards the end of it, we thought a highly experienced external candidate had accepted the job, but she withdrew at the last minute. The board decided to appoint from within – to do otherwise would send the wrong message to staff applicants, and there were some promising potential leaders inside the organisation. I’ve had to accept that it’s not about perfection, but about finding a workable way forward. The organisation’s work and financing is solid so there is room to grow into the position. And we’ve begun to do the work of preparing the new leadership to take the reins – aided by individual assessments and some planned team- and individual level coaching.

The focus going forward will be on putting in place support for the new director and their immediate colleagues to figure out how best to work together and step into their new roles. footsteps will continue to support some of this work after the LEGACY process, and I will play an advisor role for a limited time as well.

My own future is becoming clearer. The Board has contracted me to provide some ongoing support to the new leadership over the month after I depart (coaching/handover/advice). I will also be writing a history of the organisation – part of the legacy I want to leave behind me. And I’ve had lots of requests from donors and others in my sector – there will be opportunities to consult, to coach and problemsolve with people, and to share what I’ve learned over thirty years.

A lot of letting-go and freeing-up has happened over the past year, and a lot has changed in the organisation, and in my perspective, and my heart. It’s almost time to leave. I still feel anxious at times, but I’m also excited about the future. My actual departure will probably still be emotional and tough, but I’m increasingly ready for it, and so is the organisation. New things are coming. And they, and I, will be OK.

This is one leader’s story – aspects of it will be unique to her, but about half the group found themselves in somewhat similar situations, having entered LEGACY without a deep appreciation of what leaving would mean for themselves and their organisations.

Other minorities included: • People who entered with well-articulated transition processes who used LEGACY as an added support to the process they had already initiated; • People who were considering leaving or retiring, but did not have a time frame; most now do, as well being clear on where their organisations and their own lives are heading.

The journey of letting go, of finding me For many participants LEGACY offered a rare opportunity to prioritise work on the self; a space to face some deep questions that were due – or overdue – for consideration. The climate of the programme gave people permission to look after themselves. A tendency to dismiss one’s own needs is a common problem, especially in parts of civil society with a strong ethos of care for others (e.g. the children’s sector; community development) – a problem which organisations, and perhaps especially leaders, pay for in the long term. Selfcare and self-management are generally important, but at times of high stress, as in leadership transition, paying attention to the self is potentially transformative.

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Several participants used poetry to express something complex and nuanced about the nature of this experience for them. One such poem, by Rumi, is at the beginning of this volume. Another, written by a participating leader, captures some of the depth of her experience of letting go, of acceptance, and of connecting to her deep desire to make space for music in her life.

Nocturne

by Melissa Steyn Let me play Chopin into that good night.

Chords that spare no dissonance passion or thrill, Keys of heartache and love and tenderness and regret, Of life’s rhythms, Languid memories, Always and again The grief of all things temporal, Beauty exquisite, and sad The melody rises and falls Lingers in the darkness And gently dies Like a winter leaf having known its fullest colours fade cedes to the breeze yet reluctant to find the ground lifts a little higher holds a sweet moment there then settles on the forest bed deep in the silence of that soft night.

Several leaders reported that these inward experiences of giving time to one’s own journey, of reflecting on one’s own life, and of beginning to find meaning and peace with that – in the absence of the organisation – improved their ability to lead necessary organisational changes. Suddenly, they had the inner resources to have difficult conversations, and the perspective to take necessary, but sometimes scary, actions.

Many also spoke about the sense of a weight lifted or laid down…

I feel freed from the weight of leadership. As director, you symbolically carry the pain of the people the organisation works with – in a sense, you embody it, if you take responsibility for the organisation’s work. I’m not nostalgic about that at all; it was a huge thing to hold.

The power of recognition, and mutual support Being able to find and appreciate one’s legacy, one’s contribution and meaning – so that it’s possible to begin to close the door, to take constructive actions to move on – is easier if others see it too. The power of an active, positive community – one that sees and recognises one, was significant for many.

In LEGACY, I was doing probably the most difficult thing I had ever done, but doing it with a group of people really helping me in tangible ways – not just moral support, but real assistance, and interest, and care.

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It was so powerful to know that I could bring those resources into my life and my organisation. I feel like I’ve earned a Master’s degree – I feel important for being associated with all of you.

That recognition and that acknowledgement – as a leader, and part of a group of leaders like this - was important. We work ourselves very hard in this sector, perhaps harder than we should. Valuing and recognising leaders as important in such a concrete way, over an entire year, was deeply affirming. People often feel unacknowledged in the sector. This recognised us as an important thread in SA society; people and organisations who solve complex social problems, and often do so under the radar.

I had never had to plan or follow through – and be held accountable – for making this kind of big change before.

Each part of this program helped me to where I am now: the community of leaders – support, collaboration and sharing through the WhatsApp group; footsteps resources available – assignments, coaching, resource people, TTG’s; the facilitation process – and other leaders’ participation, engagement and willingness to share their stories, and their own tools and practices. Learning from other leaders through this process helped me shift and follow through with my decisions, especially in communicating and implementing them.

A human journey of organisational change Each Module allowed for clarity with decisions, way forward and planning for the next 3-4 months. This process helped gain clarity and buy-in from my staff and Board. This gave me the confidence to communicate what needed to be done for the process. Planning for the organisation at the end of each module helped give clarity – especially since my transition period was only 6-months.

It was hard to shut off the work stuff and noise. I could kick myself because I would have committed more to the process and shutdown fully during the modules. I realised this during Module 2 and tried to follow through in Module 3 – leaving the day-to-day work behind and really using this opportunity.

One of the most significant moments for me came in Module 2 when another leader spoke about her positive and pragmatic take on transition. She spoke with so much energy about activating the process with management and staff – setting the tone and being proactive. It was so useful to see that I could say to staff: “This is not the end, it’s just different; the new leader will take the organisation to new and exciting places – perhaps places I could not!” Hearing that helped me to hold that space for my staff. Some struggled. I listened and was empathetic. But I was also firm and clear about my decision… Otherwise I would have left myself open, and found myself back in the organisation next year! I’m also planning to do individual personal letters to staff (I learnt this from another leader) as part of my departure process.

LEGACY was a unique process – giving, as much as we were receiving. It wasn’t a passive thing. At conferences or training one is spoken to; this was completely different – something I had never experienced before. It did not feel rushed, I liked going away and being in nature, and really getting to settle into the process, and being free to show up as ourselves, without having to wear a leadership hat all the time.

If I had left without coming on the programme it would have been a mechanical process, not the human, learning process that enabled my transition.

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6. Outcomes & Impact In this section we consider outcomes and impact of LEGACY– both direct effects, and changes to which the programme made a contribution at two levels: •

Individual (personal and professional)

•

Organisational

We also consider emergent effects – outcomes from the programme as a whole, including initiatives from the participant group, and developments amongst the facilitation team (in particular in footsteps). We conclude this section with some general observations about programme effectiveness and impact.

Individual outcomes & impact We have already addressed the sense of liberation experienced by many participating leaders and touched on the process of letting go involved in achieving it. Other themes of significance included: • Making a clear decision to leave, and backing it up with a solid plan and concrete action; • Re-evaluating and re-valuing oneself; increased confidence, well-being and happiness; • Establishing a powerful sense of connection and community, beyond the organisation; • Learning afresh, from other leaders, about leadership; • Finding a direction for one’s life – with more space for self, and/or fresh contributions to civil society; • A strong sense of the legacy that will be left behind, and, for some, new legacies to be built.

LEGACY was wonderful for the organisation; but more than that, it really forced me to attend to myself – to deal with my issues. Do that work has had a wonderful impact on the organisation. I can come to it from a place of happiness. I have the strength to take the organisation through big decision making processes, and to restructure. I have moved from a position of loneliness to having a board and staff that’s with me – and to having you with me (the other LEGACY leaders).

I have found a legacy through this process which has freed me to leave. It has been totally life changing for me, the organisation, and some people within the organisation.

I found the courage to take the necessary (first) steps - I was able to make brave decisions about the organisation.

As a consultant, I quickly found myself swamped. I thought there wouldn’t be room for me in the market, but I’m oversubscribed. I’m working 40 hours a week – with some pro bono work – and I’m chairperson of a board.

People in the sector come to pick my brain every now and then – even some people from the LEGACY programme. I’m enjoying myself!

I’m also looking at people who are turning their consultancies into businesses – so that there’s something to sell on at retirement…

I’m thinking about that – there could be a legacy there too.

My health and happiness are important. I want to support community leaders in some of the ways that I found so helpful on the Legacy programme – to ‘pay it forward’. I have also started therapy and made significant changes to the quality of my personal and family life. The change had to start with me.

I have much greater awareness and clarity on my role in the organisation – now and in the future.

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My legacy doesn’t lie at the institution; it’s with all the students I have taught. My writing is also my legacy - I want to write this book capturing some of the main learnings I have tried to pass on to students. Some things would have happened irrespective of LEGACY, but the programme has made a big difference in terms of how I relate to these things. I have found a kind of equanimity, a peace.

I’m starting to consider myself more – who will I be? I’m in a regenerationof-me-and-my-heart space.

I became more aware of myself in relation to the organisation, and more able to disentangle from it because of this awareness.

I am more confident – I know what needs to be done, not anxious and uncertain like I was coming into the programme. I don’t feel overwhelmed any longer. I’m more able to delegate and know not to take on too many things.

I think LEGACY has enabled me to invest in a less clenched way, where, hard as it may be to leave, I feel it will be good for the organisation. I think I now have a better sense of myself because of the course and assisted by parallel work on understanding who I am, what drives me, what triggers me, and what I need to work at.

I’m not a bad leader. Before the process I’d started to look for a CEO – to look for a competent director, someone very unlike me! But during the LEGACY process, and especially in coaching sessions I saw that I have a lot to offer. Just because I’m not a typical director, doesn’t meant that I’m a bad one. I bring valuable things – the organisation just needs some different things in the next phase of its life.

Some of the shifts in my thinking were about these things: Lead with Integrity. Be vulnerable, but not weak (they’re not the same thing!). Lead with people – not from the front, or from ego. Take time out – me days, personal days – and give this opportunity to staff too. Know when to delegate, when to shoulder the load, when to be honest with the team that I am still struggling with COVID fatigue.

I learned how poorly I had prepared for the process of handover and so on. I learned from others the questions to ask – about regular organisation development (OD) stuff which was new to me.

I’m ready to walk away from full-time responsibility - by the end of 2021. I realised that I am not helping the organisation if I stay; just pulling dead wood along.

I am no longer being eroded by guilt.

Recently, I took a week to spend with my family – 2-3 years ago I wouldn’t have been able to separate myself from the work like that.

Organisational outcomes & impact In summary, of 11 participating leaders: •

3 have successfully transitioned out of their organisations, and the organisations have successfully adapted to this change.

•

5 will depart within a fixed term (plans are in place, and in most cases, new Directors have been selected) – all of these changes will occur within the next 3-6 months (by mid-2022), with one exception where the current incumbent will depart after returning from a sabbatical.

•

3 have longer-term, but still concrete transition plans to move on or retire within 2-3 years after achieving a range of realistic goals.

Below, we offer several examples of organisational outcomes (labelled A through H) achieved in the course of LEGACY. We begin with a reflection that speaks also to the potential significance of the programme for civil society in the country.

We came into LEGACY with a well-structured, well thought through, and well-resourced transition plan. But LEGACY gave legitimacy to our plan – I could take what I was doing and measure it against a group of people at different stages of the journey. It was like being able to consult a collective with an authoritative voice on this subject. That enabled me to bring so much more confidence to what I was saying and doing.

I felt so alone, putting something at risk that is of value to the country – it’s significant and visible. Making changes of this kind involves huge responsibility. The leadership of organisations like ours – ones solving complex social problems in South Africa – is absolutely vital. It must be effective and sustainable.

By mentoring people in the middle of this process LEGACY does something stabilising for the sector – something that will have ripple effects long after, for the country. It will mean more examples of successful leadership transitions – and more and more leaders who are wiser, less terrified, and with a map to help them navigate this process.

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Organisation A We have a new Director lined up to replace the current Director in April 2022. We are in a better funding position than a year ago and are developing a strategy for more focused fundraising going forward. Our 5-year strategy (which lay dormant for 2–years during COVID) is coming back to life. We have rebranded and are repositioning the organisation, in line with our strategy. There is a sense of new clarity and focus in the organisation; everyone is moving in the same direction.

Organisation B A new Director is in place; the outgoing Director is working on a Ph.D. in Oxford. The organisation has settled well, despite the changes in leadership – staff and board were able to embrace this change. Communicating the transition plan clearly, helped to steer us through this.

Organisation C The current Director is planning to leave the organisation by the end of 2021. The organisation has completed a community review and the board will use insights from this process to craft its future direction.

Organisation D The outgoing Director has taken sabbatical and will come back to the organisation with a different relationship to it, and in a different role. There is a possible candidate for the Director role within the organisation - someone who the current Director has mentored and supported for many years.

Organisation E A new Director is in place. The previous Director has a short-term contract to provide limited support around fundraising and any continued handover required. The new Director organised a farewell party for the outgoing Director; all staff attended – it was a wonderful celebration both of her contribution, and of the transition process.

The new Director has a different style of leadership that brings new and valuable things to the organisation.

She is also committed to embedding the systems that have been put in place over the course of the previous incumbent’s term – to preserve that legacy. She has also begun to use her authority to address challenges and blockages in the system (around underspending and management).

Much has been learned from the process of selecting new leadership, about the value of coaching and mentoring, and about consciously building systems and teams to support transition processes. (Several other leaders involved in LEGACY also benefited from insights and examples drawn from this experience.)

Organisation F The Director was facing burnout at the beginning of the LEGACY process. This made it almost impossible to think seriously about leaving, although it was clear that staying came at an enormous price. After resolving a range of organisational challenges and using the LEGACY experience to reflect deeply on the organisation’s future, and his own, he sees himself and the organisation in a new light.

There are two possible internal candidates for the role of Director, as well as several new funding opportunities on the horizon. A longer-term transition is planned, once inroads have been made around strengthening management and sustainability. Focusing on preparing for this is at the core of the Director’s role going forward.

Organisation G The outgoing Director will leave in February 2022. A restructured management team is in place and an incoming Director has been selected from within. A new organogram has brought greater role clarity, and new systems for supervision and monitoring are being rolled out. The board has been strengthened with two new members, and a new Chair and Vice Chair are in place. Various teams and subcommittees put in place to support different aspects of the transition (e.g. fundraising, communications, etc.) are functioning well, as are community accountability mechanisms. The organisation has moved out of its pioneering, informal stage to a stage of much greater maturity. This was not all achieved by the LEGACY process but sparked by it and supported by more intensive work with one of the footsteps practitioners.

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Organisation H A new CEO is in place and coping well. Because of the structure of the organisation, the outgoing CEO still has an oversight role. The new CEO is doing well on the management front, including making difficult decisions about cutting back on expenses and increasing efficiencies to align the work with available funding. Her next challenge will be to engage in more active fundraising, and to navigate the complex institutional environment within which the organisation is embedded.

Emergent effects and outcomes Several unplanned outcomes emerged from the process. These included the seeds of some future initiatives led by participating leaders, many lasting relationships and new networks, and some shifts in implementing partners (footsteps).

New networks and collaborations Several lasting friendships and collegial relationships formed between participants in the LEGACY programme and continue at its closure. The leaders’ WhatsApp group was an active means of connecting with each other and continues to be in use post-programme: a resourceful space to turn to for support, or to flag new initiatives and opportunities.

Several leaders expressed the desire to continue to work together in future – the basis for this has been well established over the past year, though it will, of course, dependent on the will and interest of community members.

Some leaders who have moved into consulting have already begun to work with other organisations in the group, or plan to do so in future.

Support for new CEOs: an online toolkit, and beyond During the programme, participating leaders began to compile material they wished they had had access to as CEOs starting out. The beginnings of an online NPO toolkit for new (and older) CEOs has begun to be compiled under the leadership of Claudine Storbeck – see the image at right, which contains a small sample of the categories under which materials have been compiled to date.

This initiative may be of interest to DGMT, as it addresses a cohort of CSO leaders which neither the Fellowship Programme (emerging leaders) nor LEGACY (exiting leaders) speak to. There is also the potential to expand this idea beyond a toolkit: to include notifications of events, conferences, trusted service providers, and so on.

Beyond this, it could also be the foundation for building online Communities of Practice which connect CSO leaders in new ways, around subjects of concern and interest. footsteps would be interested in supporting the design and development of this kind of initiative should the leaders and DGMT wish to pursue this idea further; our interest lies with the overall design, and more particularly in the process of forming Communities of Practice.

A range of other ideas for new writing and content development also emerged along the way – for example, a guide for building partnerships with communities. As well as increasing participants’ confidence to initiate their own transition processes, it also surfaced the depth of skill, experience and knowledge present in this group, and people’s desire to share it with others.

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Support for future iterations of LEGACY All participants favoured the idea of repeating the LEGACY process, and several have begun to channel potential participants to the footsteps team. Most participants in the pilot also expressed their willingness to share their experience with new participants, and some were eager to contribute to the process in other ways (e.g., as mentors or resource people).

In addition, several donor agencies (e.g., Kinderfons MAMAS; ELMA Philanthropies) have expressed an interest in the LEGACY programme as a potential support to some of their partner organisation whose leaders wish to move on.

Developments in footsteps Inspired in large part by our learning from LEGACY, footsteps has revised its core process and begun to position itself differently in the CSO space.

Core process: Co-creating innovative processes for change This has already found expression in some nascent collaborations with other units within DGMT (around institutional strengthening as a component of community development) and Kinderfons MAMAS (around support for older leaders facing the challenge of leaving their community-based organisations).

Based on the experience of LEGACY footsteps also has increased competence and confidence in offering similar programmes to new cohorts of leaders.

The value of the DGMT investment The outcomes reflected above seem to constitute a reasonable proof-of-concept for the LEGACY process, and to establish its value as an approach to supporting leadership transition, especially in relation to founder leaders and/or leaders who have profoundly reshaped their organisations.

It is worth including a note on the relative cost effectiveness of our approach at this stage. LEGACY delivered tailormade support to 11 leaders and their organisations over an active period of just over a year. The total investment (including fees paid by leaders’ organisations, footsteps in kind contributions, and DGMT finance) per organisation was < ZAR 100 000.

While many organisations invest very little in leadership change (sometimes with disastrous results), others spend much more. We have certainly encountered medium-sized CSOs spending upwards of R300 000 on multiple (often poorly coordinated and managed) consultants to help put out the fires that tend to flare up at times of transition.

LEGACY seems to provide a cost-effective scaffolding to support the transition process. The combination of residential modules, augmented by mutual support from within the community and wellcoordinated, targeted support from a diversely skilled facilitation team enriched the experience and outcomes beyond what could be achieved by any single consultant or process.

We conclude that a process-oriented, co-created, community-of-change-based means of supporting leadership transition can be both highly effective and potentially more efficient than more technical or expert-led approaches.

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7. Recommendations This section details two primary recommendations, each accompanied by a range of secondary suggestions.

Move beyond the pilot stage: replicate the LEGACY process with a new cohort of leaders Based on our experience of the pilot, and ongoing feedback from participants, we would recommend the following in relation to programme design: •

During the preparation phase of LEGACY 2, do a brief follow-up study with organisations that participated in the pilot. Interview the new leader, where appropriate, and/or another senior person.

Engage in a rapid review of organisational health. This should provide further insight into the aftereffects/lasting impact of the pilot and inform further revisions to the design of a second iteration.

•

Participation should be based on an invitation to co-create, not an open call. Diversity in the leader cohort adds value: seek a mix of sectors, ages, backgrounds, genders, races, etc.

•

The same principles which informed the design and facilitation of the pilot should be applied. At the centre of this is a strong process-orientation: LEGACY is a journey taken in company, not a series of topics or content areas to be covered. (For more information, see also Learning Note 1.)

•

The core footsteps team from the LEGACY pilot should continue to hold the process.

•

The core model (focusing on the leader, the organisation, and the transition process) is a simple and useful design tool; continue to use it.

•

Three modules, over the course of one year is a workable time frame – sufficiently spacious, without lacking a sense of urgency. Four months between each module would allow the whole programme – including pre- and post-module work (i.e. selection, preparation, reporting) – to unfold over approximately 18 months.

•

An emphasis on self-care and personal work is essential but may not be chosen by leaders early in the process when it could add most value. Built in personal work, in some form, as a compulsory postModule 1 activity (e.g., require that people select one self-care activity, so they have some experience of it – whether coaching, or a creative activity, or training in trauma release exercises, etc.). The footsteps team can offer a range of modalities and participating leaders may also bring a range of relevant skills to share with their colleagues.

•

Modules should be residential, in peaceful (non-urban) settings. Online engagement may augment these, but face-to-face contact is essential for building intimacy, trust and depth of community.

•

Continue to highlight the importance of the whole group as a resource. Underline this by finding ways to make participants’ strengths, skills and knowledge visible to each other. This could take place in Module 2.

•

The TTG form was highly valued and considered effective by 90% of participants in the pilot. Consider allowing TTG members to change groups at some point in the process – not all groups will be equally effective and keeping them stable across the life of the whole programme might mean that a few participants miss out on their full value.

•

Assignments add value but should be kept simple. Experiment with alternative forms and consult participants about this.

•

Reduce the monitoring burden to the essentials (the pilot involved extensive data collection which need not be replicated now that the basic framework has been developed).

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Explore the possibilities inherent in the CEO’s online toolkit/community of practice This initiative from participants in the pilot is worthy of serious consideration. It could offer an efficient and relatively low cost means of supporting new and mid-career civil society leaders. As outlined in the previous section, the concept includes a set of tools, templates and core pieces of information about what it takes to run effective civil society organisations. Beyond this, there is the potential to build communities of interest and practice around a wide range of topics and questions.

A collaboration between interested leaders from the pilot (Claudine Storbeck, Kathleen Dey, Laurel Oettle, and Jenny Boyce spring to mind), DGMT, and footsteps might produce valuable results. A useful first step might be a design conversation involving these parties.

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8. Conclusion We hope you have found this brief review of the pilot of LEGACY: a leader’s journey thought-provoking and perhaps even inspiring. The process itself certainly was!

If you would like further information, to access to Learning Brief 1, or simply to engage around these findings, feel free to make contact using the details on the back cover or by writing directly to the authors (contact details on inside front cover).

LEGACY was a journey with an extraordinary group of people, a path with heart. It was also a rare and precious opportunity to create something new together with committed, skilled and experienced civil society leaders. We remain deeply grateful to the leaders and organisations that made it possible. And we wish you all well on the next steps of your journeys, and hope that our roads intersect again.

The value of your work, your contribution – your legacy – will continue to inspire us in the years to come.

Warren Banks & Carol-Ann Foulis For the LEGACY pilot community December 2021

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Leaders & Organisations The following leaders and organisations participated in and helped co-create the LEGACY process in this pilot (2020-2021).

Name

Organisation (& provincial base)

Jenny Boyce

Mariann Coordinating Committee (KZN)

Kathleen Dey

Rape Crisis (WC)

Sue Hedden

Woza Moya (KZN)

Mary James

LETCEE (KZN)

Anton Krone

SaveAct (KZN)

Laurel Oettle

AFRA (KZN)

Mandisa Shandu

Ndifuna Ukwazi (WC)

Melissa Steyn

Wits Centre for Diversity Studies (Gauteng)

Claudine Storbeck

Hi Hopes (Gauteng)

Anthony Waldhausen

Uthingo Network (KZN)

Rose Williams

BioWatch (KZN)

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Facilitation & Support Team The following practitioners and organisations helped co-create the LEGACY process in this pilot (20202021).

Name

Organisation

Roles in LEGACY

Davine Thaw

footsteps

Concept and design; module facilitation; consultations and facilitation of between-module work; financial oversight

Warren Banks

footsteps

Concept and design; module facilitation; consultations; facilitation of between-module work; monitoring and documentation

Simanga Sithebe

footsteps

Concept and design; module facilitation; facilitation of betweenmodule work

Carol-Ann Foulis

DGMT

Yolande Toohey

footsteps

Concept and design; module onsite admin & support + small group facilitation; TTG facilitation; consultations & facilitation of between-module work

Anita Simon

footsteps

Concept and design; coaching; TTG facilitation

Tsitsi Maradze

footsteps

Concept and design; TTG facilitation; coaching

Peter Court

footsteps

Concept and design; TTG facilitation

Patsy Church

footsteps

Concept and design; team debriefing

Ros Bailey

footsteps

Administration, logistics & bookkeeping

Concept and design; module facilitation; consultations and coaching; monitoring and documentation

Most members played a role in concept and design of the overall programme as well as fulfilling specific roles.

The four team members above the red line acted as the core team; they led all modules, and the programme as a whole.

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For more information about the partners that initiated and helped co-create LEGACY – a leader’s journey, or to contact us, please visit our websites: https://footsteps.org.za

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