{"id":243,"date":"2024-08-30T21:34:14","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T21:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/?p=243"},"modified":"2024-10-14T17:59:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:59:11","slug":"developing-future-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/developing-future-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing Future Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Nicholson Foundation worked to advance meaningful change in New Jersey\u2019s safety net service systems. Its journey is described in <em>Changing Systems, Changing Lives: Reflecting on 20 Years.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Effective and sustainable systems change cannot occur without flexible and strong leaders who are committed to the process. Leaders are the people in positions to influence funding, manage programs, set policy, develop regulations, and lead initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>Investing in developing future leaders was a good strategy because it increased the likelihood that projects and initiatives would continue and flourish over time. This process also provided opportunities to bring people together and build lasting relationships. Given the siloed nature of many government, health, and human services agencies, emerging leaders might never have interacted without these opportunities. Bringing future leaders together also helped to highlight common goals and enhance the potential for leveraging investments across multiple systems, creating opportunities for powerful, collaborative action.<\/p>\n<p>Our experience in developing future leaders generated a few key takeaways that might be useful to others who are engaged in similar work:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"list-blog-style\">\n<li><span class=\"blue-font\">Invest in programs designed to develop future leaders.<\/span> Nurturing people and providing opportunities for them to become leaders is a powerful way to foster systems change.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"blue-font\">Promote collective learning.<\/span> These experiences foster long-lasting connections and a sense of community, and can generate more impact than one-on-one training.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"blue-font\">Seek out people who have diverse professional and personal experiences and who play various roles in their organizations.<\/span> This approach creates a strong mix of participants who bring multiple perspectives that enhance the sharing and learning of specific content and strategies.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"blue-font\">Invite participants who have not previously worked together.<\/span> This can lead to unexpectedly strong collaborative relationships and new initiatives that endure long after the leadership development project has ended. These relationships are especially important for staff who come from state agencies or departments that may not otherwise have the opportunity to collaborate. Building strong interagency relationships is important for the present and the future.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"blue-font\">Cast a wide net. <\/span>It\u2019s hard to predict which individuals starting their careers will end up reaching the top rungs of power\u2014and will remain working in a particular field of interest. Building large and inclusive training cohorts provides the best chance of influencing future leaders.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr class=\"red-line\" \/>\n<h2 class=\"blue-h2\">Learn More<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"list-blog-style\">\n<li><span class=\"blue-font\">Read the other blogs in this <em>Key Takeaways<\/em> series:<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"blue-font\">\u2014 Engaging with Government for Systems Change<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"blue-font\">\u2014 Elevating Best Practices and Building Evidence<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"blue-font\">\u2014 Finding and Nurturing Effective Partnerships <\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"blue-font\"> \u2014 Investing in Organizational Nuts and Bolts <\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"blue-font\"> \u2014 Tackling Complex Problems with Multiple and Complementary Solutions <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"blue-font\">Read \u201cA Framework for Creating Systems Change,\u201d a paper by Drs. William Brown and Wynn Rosser. <\/span> The paper presents a model for systems change that adapts and expands the Foundation\u2019s approach, making it easily accessible to a broad audience and grounding it in the growing literature in this area. [Brown W, Rosser W. A Framework for Creating Systems Change. The Foundation Review, <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.9707\/1944-5660.1678\">2023;15(4):50-6.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"blue-font\">Receive or download a free copy of Changing Systems, <em>Changing Lives: Reflecting on 20 Years.<\/em><\/span> This book describes the 20-year journey of The Nicholson Foundation. <span class=\"blue-font\">Chapter 7<\/span> illustrates what\u2019s possible by developing future leaders. It describes how the Foundation:<br \/>\n<span class=\"black-font\">\u2014 Supported a <span class=\"blue-font\">leadership training program for Medicaid staff<\/span> and those of related agencies.<\/span><span class=\"black-font\">\u2014 Invested in a <span class=\"blue-font\">program to improve the practice of pediatric care<\/span><span class=\"black-font\"> in New Jersey by helping medical residents engage with their local communities.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"header-button-wrap\">\n<div class=\"header-button-inner-wrap\"><a class=\"button header-button button-size-medium button-style-filled\" href=\"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/changing-systems-changing-lives-book-request\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">REQUEST YOUR FREE BOOK NOW<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nicholson Foundation worked to advance meaningful change in New&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-key-takeaways"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447,"href":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}