Israel Institute for Leadership and Governance – March 2012 Update

Dear All,

This month, I would like to share with you a short summary of the Institute’s work in 2011, mainly the development of our strategies for change, and the status of the Institute and its three Centers.

Our Strategies

Over the year we invested considerable energy in crystalizing the Institute’s approach. We understood that our core business is to bring leaders to work together to achieve wide, measurable and sustainable impact in Israel. Isolated interventions of individual leaders and organizations cannot successfully tackle complex social issues. Collective Impact is an approach for solving, or minimizing, complex social problems through cross sector collaborations, involving nonprofits, government, businesses, and philanthropists.

The Institute brings leaders together to create Collective Impact through a combination of three strategies:

– Learning programs for leaders, oriented towards achieving social impact

– Mentoring and supporting transformative & adaptiveleaders to create system wide impact, which is measurable and sustainable

– Supporting high impact processes of leaders with the government, and developing the infrastructure needed for cross sector collaborations

The three strategies are interconnected. For example:

Last month I wrote here about Negev Circles, the program that we are running in the Negev to forge collaboration towards the move of major army bases to the South. Partners include the IDF, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Negev and Galilee, local municipalities, businesses and the third sector. This program will involve all three strategies, as there are task forces that are being developed with representatives of these groups to tackle specific issues, learning programs will be developed where needed for these task forces, and we are supporting individual leaders throughout the process.

Our goal here is to make the whole larger than the sum of the parts. The programs feed into each other, and are all aimed towards achieving impact. This is the approach that will guide the Institute moving forward.

For more information on Collective Impact.

Our Activities 

In 2011, the Institute made additional steps in becoming a reality, as did its three future Centers:

Center for Public Leadership and Management – in 2011, for the first time, a long term contract with the government was signed for a cluster of new programs, including training programs for senior elected officials and senior civil servants, as well as programs for graduates to help them lead systemic changes. Just last week, together with the Civil Service Commissioner, we launched a new program for Deputy Directors of Government Ministries, in charge of Personnel and Administration, aimed at improving the level of public service in Israel. Ninety senior managers attended the event, and 7 task forces were formed, each focusing on a different topic (such as compensation, training, and career paths).

Center for Regional Development – is leading the Negev Circles program, and our regional work in the North and South of Israel, where we connect municipal leaders to one another, in order to collectively create long-term development strategies. The programs foster cooperation by gathering local leaders and resources needed to enhance the quality of education, welfare, tourism, and employment services in the region. In addition, our Mayors Forum has created a platform for mayors to share resources, learn from one another, and to receive essential training about high impact strategies in public management. To date, the Center has worked with over 100 mayors.

The government is showing much interest in our Regional Development programs, and we expect that a contract will be signed by the end of 2012.

Center for Social Leadership and Civil Society – The Penni and Stephen Weinberg Center for Lay Leadership offers training programs for chairs and board members of non-profit organizations. To name just two accomplishments of the past year – we saw the growth of the Synergy Program (a program that encourages high tech managers to assume lay leadership roles in the non-profit sector), and together with a group of Israeli lay leaders, we finalized our work on a Manual for Best Practices for lay leaders, chairmen and board members in Israel.

In addition, we have been active in developing the Coalition for Infrastructure Organizations in Israel, with representatives of the 20 infrastructure organizations which serve the third sector. In these meetings, a focus was put on collaboration and developing a new language for cooperation.

We now hope to scale up our activities in this area to form the new Center for Social Leadership and Civil Society. A few government ministries have expressed interest in partnering with us to establish the Center. This is a first, as Israel’s government has never before entered a process with any organization aimed at developing Civil Society.

Please be in touch with any questions or comments. 2012 will certainly be an exciting year as we prepare to launch the Institute.

Happy Purim,

Michal