Information:
info@uua.orgChristopher Cappy, Denise Davidoff, and Rev. Terry Sweetser
This major feature of GA programming focuses attention on "Leading Change," and how congregations can create a process for understanding and fulfilling their purpose and goals.
About the GA Workshop
Frances Hesselbein, President of the Peter Drucker Foundation for Non-Profit Management, spoke to the UUA General Assembly on Saturday morning, encouraging participants to understand the importance of mission to their congregations and to the UUA as a whole. Following Hesselbein's message, the Saturday afternoon General Assembly program featured Chris Cappy, a Unitarian Universalist from the Peterborough, NH congregation, who encouraged the more than 2,000 General Assembly participants to understand the basis of change.
Change, Cappy said, "occurs when the pain of 'what is' exceeds the perceived pain to change. " It requires several steps:
Cappy, who helped participants experience the sense of change by asking them to work in pairs of two while changing elements of their style and dress repeatedly. He then asked them to identify the feelings that came from those changes, and talked about the elements of making change. Cappy asked the participants to move into five groups for further focus work, by congregational size.
In each room, two lead facilitators and many small groups of fifteen chairs (each with an additional facilitator) were set up to allow for discussion of the five most important questions for any nonprofit organization, from management guru Peter Drucker. The questions are:
These questions, which use business language which the UUA did not alter for their afternoon presentation, represent the essential questions any organization needs in order to embrace its mission and serve its public(s).
An estimated 2,000 participated in the "Leading Change" afternoon, which directly connects to the Association-wide recovenanting effort with is the focal point of the "Fulfilling the Promise" program.
About the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management
The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management was founded in 1990. Named for and guided by the acknowledged father of modern management, its mission is to help the social sector achieve excellence in performance and build responsible citizenship.
By providing educational opportunities and resources to the leadership of nonprofit organziations, the Drucker Foundation aims to inspire and enable those leaders to realize the full potential of their organizations. It pursues these goals through the presentation of conferences, video teleconferences, and the annual Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation, as well as through the development of management resources and publications for nonprofit boards, staff, and volunteers.
About Frances Hesselbein
The leader beyond the millennium will not be the leader who has learned the lessons of how to do it... The leader for today and the future will be focused on how to be -- how to develop quality, character, mind-set, values, principles, and courage. -- Frances Hesselbein
In 1998, Frances Hesselbein received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor. The award recognized her leadership as CEO of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. from 1976-1990 and her role in leading social sector organizations toward excellence in performance through her work at the Drucker Foundation. In recognizing Ms. Hesselbein's work, President Clinton said, "In her current role as the President of the Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, she has shared her remarkable recipe for inclusion and excellence with countless organizations whose bottom line is measured not in dollars, but in changed lives."
The official award citation concluded, "She has worked to imbue other nonprofit groups with the hallmarks of true leadership: openness to innovation, willingness to share responsibility, and respect for diversity. With skill and sensitivity, Frances Hesselbein has shown us how to summon the best from ourselves and our fellow citizens."
About Peter F. Drucker
Peter F. Drucker is the acknowledged "father of modern management." His writing and advice have influenced millions of leaders in business, government, and the social sector.
"The effective leaders I have met, worked with, and observed...were not afraid of strength in their associates. They gloried in it. Whether they had heard of it or not, their motto was what Andrew Carnegie wanted to have put on his tombstone: 'Here lies a man who attracted better people into his service than he was himself'."
Information:
info@uua.org