Defining Leadership: ICAN Celebrates 20 Years of Flagship Program
ICAN Press Release
ICAN’s Leadership Feature in the Midland’s Business Journal:
For 20 years, ICAN’s Defining Leadership series has evolved to meet the needs of the changing workforce, thereby empowering professionals to lead authentically and effectively.
“Five years ago, our customers were saying we needed to talk about ethics and how employees deal with ethical challenges, so we added a half day on ethics,” said Amy McLaughlin, vice president of programming & operations. “Two years ago we added a whole section on unconscious bias.”
Designed to let participants truly understand who they are as a person, the transformations that take place over four months only happen because of the unique structure.
The power of a circle
When Amanda Knight, a client experience senior consultant at Olsson, was nominated by her supervisor to attend the most recent cohort, she was excited. Olsson has a long history of sending multiple employees, both male and female, through the program each year.
On the first day of the program, which spans four months with two-day sessions each month, she could feel the nervous energy. But, by the end of the first day, she said you could see the light switches going off as the barriers came down.
“I think that by the end of that first day, you could just see everyone getting a lot more comfortable,” Knight said.
Ginny Curley, who went through the program before becoming a facilitator, said that comfortability begins to form with the first exercise. It’s a fairly simple one, where everyone sits in a circle, and then one-by-one shares their story and why they’re attending the program.
“As people are going around and sharing their story, you realize, oh my gosh, I am not alone. There are others who have had challenges, struggles and successes. It gives all of us permission to share our story too,” Curley said.
“I think that’s the magic of sitting in a circle … it allows you to connect with each other really quickly.”
Not another seminar
Over the course of four months, participants challenge their perceptions of self and others through activities.
One activity has participants combing through over 100 values to pick out three “core” values. Another challenges participants to look at a difficult workplace experience from three perspectives. This could be the participant’s perspective, and a boss, co-worker, or client.
“You step into their position and try to think about how they felt,” McLaughlin said. “It’s really hard … and it helps build empathy.”
It’s hard because the topics and activities are designed to get participants thinking in a way that’s different from their normal.
“It’s learning to appreciate not only your own strengths, but the strengths of others,” McLaughlin said. “And, how do we come together to work together?”
In an effort to help participants feel more comfortable, sessions are grouped by gender.
“We always evaluate the surveys after a session,” McLaughlin said. “We always ask if it’s still beneficial to run these programs as single gender, and they almost always say yes.”
There are also a few weeks between each session to help participants process what they’ve learned. McLaughlin said participants are also working on “homework” and communicating in small groups on the off weeks.
Lasting connections
By nature, sharing an intense experience bonds people together, and that’s what happens to participants in this program.
“I went through the program in 2010 and I still talk to my classmates,” McLaughlin said. “You now have 20 individuals from different industries and sectors that you can now call and say ‘I’m having this problem.’”
Curley, who spent 20 years in leadership development for women in higher education, said that even with her background, she is consistently learning new things about the topic.
“When I hear people talk about their experiences, it helps me understand my own,” she said.
“It’s learning to appreciate not only your own strengths, but the strengths of others."
Amy McLaughlin
ICAN
Read full article from the MBJ here: https://www.mbj.com/featured/defining-leadership-ican-celebrates-20-years-of-flagship-program/article_a3c6682a-b3ae-11ef-88bf-9b818b041f44.html
