Building a Meta-Leadership Institute in Illinois
University of Illinois-Chicago Fellows Break New Ground Eight Illinois meta-leaders who participated in a University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health fellowship program made the case for the nation’s first Meta-Leadership Institute in Illinois. The nonprofit institute aims to provide a forum for public and private entities to learn about – and practice – meta-leadership.
Championed by Illinois business, government and nonprofit leaders, the Meta-Leadership Institute will hold seminars and meetings to further meta-leadership education and practice. The Institute will also work to integrate meta-leadership into emergency plans for agencies such as the City of Chicago Office of Emergency Management, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Illinois Terrorism Task Force.
Institute developed by MARPHLI Fellows
The Chicago leaders are researching and organizing the Meta-Leadership Institute as part of their 12-month fellowship with the Mid-America Regional Public Health Leadership Institute (MARPHLI). MARPHLI, a UIC program now in its 18th year, promotes organizational, professional and personal leadership skill development. Many of the fellows attended the Illinois Meta-Leadership
Summitin March 2009.
“The Meta-Leadership Summit was a great starting point to bring leaders together across sectors, but it’s important to get beyond a one-day meeting and put meta-leadership into practice over the long term,” said Dr.Louis Rowitz, professor at the UIC School of Public Health and MARPHLI director. “That’s something we took very seriously in Illinois, and it’s one of the reasons these meta-leaders are spending a year going through our leadership institute. We know that if we’re really going to improve the infrastructure of our community, leaders must work together across sectors over the long term.”
The Institute began with a four-day conference in October 2009, featuring speakers including Dr. Damon Arnold, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, and Fred Rosa, Rear Admiral, United States Coast Guard (Retired). At a second MARPHLI conference in April 2010, the meta-leadership fellows presented a “Tale of Two Floods” case study comparing communities’ responses to severe floods in Illinois and the Czech Republic in 2002 and 2007. The team’s case study will become part of a UIC meta-leadership casebook that illustrates real-world examples of meta-leadership in practice.
“From my perspective, the more we do individually to practice meta-leadership concepts, the better we can apply them,” said MARPHLI Meta-Leadership Fellow Diane Logsdon, president, Logsdon Consultation Services, Inc. “The fellowship is an excellent opportunity to expand my skills from an academic standpoint, and to serve my community by getting the Meta-Leadership Institute up and running.”
Other fellows are equally enthusiastic about the opportunity to take their meta-leadership skills to the next level. “It is great to work with a group of bright, engaged leaders who understand that diverse perspectives are critical to problem-solving – not just for emergency preparedness, but for any community-based issue,” said Peter Eckart, director of Health Information Technology, Illinois Public Health Institute.
Lisa Hunter, chief preparedness officer, American Red Cross of Greater Chicago, describes the meta-leadership fellowship as a way to knock down walls between government agencies, nonprofits and businesses. “If we get out of our silos, we have a significant chance to be as prepared as possible when the next disaster occurs,” she said. “In many cases, we have been practicing meta-leadership without the total toolbox to execute it. This fellowship is changing the way we think and collaborate across sectors.”
Fostering collaboration, resiliency
Geoffrey Downie, M.P.A., program manager, UIC School of Public Health, MidAmerica Center for Public Health Practice, said, “One of our goals is to frame meta-leadership as broader than the preparedness focus presented at the Summit. Through the fellowship, we’re looking at the cross-sector leadership focus in terms of community resiliency and broad system improvement.”
When fellows reconvene for their final 12-month meeting in September 2010, they will present their plans for sustaining the Meta-Leadership Institute of Greater Chicagoland. At the 12-month meeting, they will also share individual projects, developed in collaboration with local mentors, to address
specific challenges in their home communities that are as diverse as school violence and diabetes.
“I think what we’d like to see is not only where meta-leadership is now, but where it’s going,” said Rowitz. “What are the issues that need to be addressed to make the model stronger? We now have teams going through our leadership institute. Hopefully, we are building a meta-leadership casebook, and our fellows are defining an organizational entity that can promote meta-leadership over the long term. If you’re really going to improve the infrastructure of your community – not just public health – you must work across sectors. It’s critical that all partners work together.”
|
