Shared Leadership

In 2006 when ONE DC became a grassroots organization independent from Manna, Inc. to focus on community organizing, equitable development, popular education, and resident-led change, we knew that changing our name, mission, and engaging local residents in leadership (including the board of directors) was only the beginning. In 2010 we continued our tradition of transformation. In order to walk the talk, we needed to shift from a traditional community development corporation into a community organizing collective that is committed to living and practicing our values of inclusive and authentic grassroots organizing; democratic leadership; caring community; human dignity; collective sharing of power and resources; collective economics and cooperation; and “hell-raising for justice” in order to achieve meaningful, systemic change.

After a year of study and years of informally practicing shared leadership, in September 2010 we implemented a non-traditional self-management structure to reflect our participatory democracy goals and principles (as taught by Ella Baker). This includes involving grassroots people in the decisions that affect their lives; minimizing hierarchy and professionalism in organizations working for social change; and engaging in direct action to resolve social problems. We have now successfully transitioned into our shared leadership structure, and continue to learn and develop into this structure as time goes on.

Through this structure, ONE DC’s Shared Leadership Team-- comprised of our elected/appointed non-profit Directors and full- and part-time staff-- oversees and coordinates our organizational work through three committees: Administration & Organizational Management, Resource Development, and Organizing & Membership Development. Even though our organizational structure is not traditional, our organizing work and power has not suffered—quite the contrary, ONE DC has thrived because we value, affirm, incorporate our powerfully diverse leadership into our organizational structure. Without a doubt, our commitment to practicing our organizational values has enabled us to turn our alternative organizational structure into an asset, while also courageously modeling how one can develop and sustain a genuinely effective, member-led and democratic organization!

Click here for more information about the roles and responsibilities of the ONE DC Shared Leadership Team.

	ONE DC Shared Leadership Team Staff
Kelly Iradukunda	Poncho	Serena Jones
Resource Organizer [email protected]	Black Workers and Wellness Center Coordinator [email protected]	Homes For All Organizer [email protected]

	ONE DC Shared Leadership Team Directors
	Brook Hill	Tim Kumfer
	Co-Chair	Treasurer
Jessica Gordon-Nembhard	Jourgette Reid-Sillah	Ka Flewellen
Secretary	Co-Chair	Regional Member

Below are some of our organizational definitions and practices in our shared leadership model.

• Shared leadership encourages consensus and dispels the notion of subordinates, while offering guidance and support
  when necessary. Employing shared leadership within an organization ensures that a group of key stakeholders determines the direction of the organization as opposed to an Executive Director, CEO, etc.
• Shared work uses reflection and strategizing to develop and implement a work plan with input from key stakeholders that may include: staff, board, members, the community and elected officials. This effort results in collective responsibility and accountability.
• Mutual respect is a multi-directional value of and appreciation for others.
• Collective responsibility is reflected through a unified decision-making process that emphasizes personal and organizational accountability, initiative, transparency, and collective oversight.
• Appreciative inquiry is a co-evolutionary peer-to-peer support process that searches out the best in people and offers support in areas of needed growth.
• Consensus Building/Decision-making is a mutual agreement reached through an exchange of ideas and solutions. This often requires a degree of compromise by team members in order to include all perspectives and address opposing viewpoints.
• We practice participatory democracy through processes that allow each person to contribute to, and weigh in on, the organizational activities and operations. It maximizes and emphasizes multiple voices, equity, mutual respect, and collective action.
• Creative uniformity is a commitment to embrace shared goals, clear processes, and methodologies within the context of ONE DC’s mission, vision, and values while, at the same time, exercising flexibility and innovation in the effort to achieve these goals.
• One Voice/One Vision requires that each person has a fair opportunity to present their perspective, whether in support of, or in opposition to, a particular idea. The merit of all ideas is recognized and each team member, regardless of age, is viewed as a valuable contributor.
• Each vote receives equal weight in the organization so that there is an even distribution of responsibility for decision-making.
• Each of us has leadership qualities, and none of us has all of them.
• Leadership must be nurtured, cultivated, supported, challenged and shared.
• We are all interdependent. We each bring our gifts and talents together to accomplish the work.  None of us can do this alone, and our collective effort always creates more than we can create alone.
• Individual and collective effort requires discipline and unleashes creativity.
• We build trusting relationships, speak truth with love, show compassion for mistakes. We are all growing.
• A dynamic, effective organization is a learning organization. We must be willing life-long learners.
• Accountability is essential. We hold ourselves and others responsible to honor our commitments, ask for help when we need it, and offer support to others.
• Respecting each opinion, listening with an open mind, being willing to be challenged and to change all make us stronger and more effective.
• Critical thinking is essential, but just being critical is not enough.
• Developing and practicing creative solutions and building alternatives now is the mark of leadership!  We walk the road as we make it.