2. Grew up with Jewish
tradition and values
Neither a Rabbi or involved
within the organization
Experienced in leadership
positions
Charismatic and Driven
3.
4. • Devise and • Develop and
maintain a maintain flawless
clearly stated, operational
focused strategy execution
Strategy Execution
Structure Culture
• Build and • Develop and
maintain a fast, maintain a
flexible, flat performance-
organization oriented culture
5. • Inspire and influence the
group with trust and
confidence
• Extended the focus primary to
the students
• Excellent communications
with sharing his vision to the
Jewish community
Implemented a plan to:
• Provide leadership for the
movement
• Provide services to the Hillel
network
• Financial independence from
B’nai B’rith
• Create an exit strategy
6. Bad reputation
Financial
dependency on Moral of Hillel
staff was poor
B’nai B’rith
Understaffed and Governance
underutilized office structure was weak
Identifying the Issues
7. National Office to National Center
Hired new team leaders
Effective campaign for funding
Increased job roles to students
8. Accreditation
Engaged
in self- Team visit
study report
Site visit Action
interviewing Plan
students
Everett Pilot Program for
Excellence
9. • Interdependent self-
sufficiency
• Supports new paradigm and
model to reaching Jewish
students on campus.
• Employs taskforces and
commissions
• Independent fundraising
through local Hillel’s
support
• Continual strategic
planning and quality
assurance
10. Talent
Mergers
Secondary
and Leadership
Practice
Partnership
Innovation
11. Too
Corporate Impersonal
Standardized
What criticism was taken from the infrastructure of
the new system?
12. • Exemplified a transformational leader style
• Excelled the four primarily and secondary practices
of management
Outcome:
• Saved Hillel from financial and management turmoil
• Redesigned a new structure that will initiate the
Jewish community involvement creating awareness,
appreciation, and concern
• A broader vision that directed Hillel to a successful
path for a brighter future
13. • Kotter, J. P. (1995). Leading Change: Why
Transformation Efforts Fail. (cover story). Harvard
Business Review, 73(2), 59-67.
• Nohria, N., Joyce, W., & Roberson, B. (2003). What
Really Works. Harvard Business Review, 81(7), 42-
52.
• Rosener, J. B. (1990). Ways Women Lead. Harvard
Business Review, 68(6), 119-125.
• Rosen, M. (2006). The remaking of Hillel: A case
study on leadership and organizational
transformation.
Hinweis der Redaktion
Why Richard Joel was the best candidate:Grew up with Jewish tradition and valuesMany experiences with being a leader in youth and institutions Was not a rabbi but can speak the language fluentlyWas never a partner with the Hillel FoundationPassionate in helping out the Jewish community Had a vision to improve the system“He was articulate, he was passionate, he had experience doing youth work and college work, he was Jewishly knowledgeable…it was clear that he thought outside the box…he was very smart…but he was humble and serious about this work, and he valued it as much as we did (Rosen, 2006, p.27-28) ” Was an international director from 1988-2003From 1988-1995, Joel changed the organization by:Shrewd political maneuveringDisarming candorArtful languageSophisticated strategic thinkingCharismaDeveloping friendshipAlliance with influential individuals(Rosen, 2006, p. 9) Richard Joel demonstrated as a transformational leader at an early age, which was why he was chosen to be a director for the organization. His commitment to the Jewish people and talent, made him an exceptional leader (Rosen, 2006). Image retrieved on 11/29/2012. http://www.cicu.org/about/bios.php?bio=Joel
Richard Joel had a much broader vision than improving the relationship between B’nai B’rith or the professional staff. He had a conceptual understanding of what problems were occurring within the organization, and saw beyond the scope of the issue was the students. In Leading Change, Kotter illustrates that creating a vision is essential to making a transformational change successful. “A vision says something that helps clarify the direction in which an organization needs to move (Kotter, 1995,p.63).” Richard Joel realizes that many Jewish students were still largely ignorant to their tradition and were uninterested in Judaism or Hillel. Yet the Jewish community did not seem to be highly concerned (Rosen, 2006). The broad vision Richard Joel created is a type of transformational style, where he is encouraging others to “transform their own self-interest into their interest of the group through a concern for a broader goal (Rosener, 1990, 120)”
To analyze Richard Joel’s leadership in the Hillel Foundation, the 4+2 model will be utilized to gain further understanding on how Richard Joel was able to manage the transformation. In What Really Works, the authors have developed this model as the primary formula for business success. The four primary management practices are strategy, execution, structure, and culture. “These are myriad tools and techniques available to help executives master these practices (Nohria et al., 2003, p.45)” The primary and secondary management practices will be the main focus of this model for Richard Joel. The authors has further mentions that if an organization can follow this formula, it will often have a 90% or better of sustaining superior business performance (Nohria et al., 2003). Analyzing Richard Joel’s process will be critical in determining the outcome’s success of the Hillel Foundation over the course of time. “The most general lesson to be learned from the more successful cases is that the change process goes through a series of phases…usually require a considerable length of time (Kotter,1995, p. 59)
Since Richard Joel was neither a rabbi or was an internal partner, he understood the amount of effort he needed to ensure his vision can be accomplished. Richard Joel understands the rooted problems and had a conceptual knowledge of the organization, he was able to initiate several strategies that were well planned. The importance in the strategy section, is staying clear (Nhoria et al, 2003), which Richard Joel was able to define his mission on the community and students specifically. Richard Joel took several steps in the strategy practices where:Created a sense of urgencyImmediately planned meetings ahead to meet with leaders, rabbis, and studentsPowerful guiding coalitionThe plan to share the vision where everyone had similar concerns and visions. Acknowledges that winning his influential group was the key to being effective in his new leadership roleCreated a visionAs mentioned on slide 3, Richard Joel’s pre-conceived vision had became the main factor to directing the Hillel Foundation to a successful path.Rabbi Rudolph recalls: “He was able to question things that we did. We were willing to think that fine-tuning would be all we needed. And he was willing to say ‘it aint working this way. You’ve got to change (Rosen, 2006, p. 30)”
While Richard Joel had a clear vision and strategy to develop a successful transformation for Hillel Foundation, Richard Joel realizes there were a significant amount of challenges that were barriers to the plan. The identifying issues were:Hillel had a bad reputationMoral of Hillel staff was poorGovernance structure was weakThe National Office were understaffed and underutilized Hillel was suffering on the financial dependency of B’nai B’rith To overcome these issues, Richard Joel must present clear communications to everyone with the vision, and also removing obstacles that could hinder the success of transformation. Richard Joel’s had his best intention to have everyone be involve, which is a transformational style attribute. “To facilitate inclusion, they create mechanisms that get people to to participate and they use a conversational style that sends signals inviting people to get involved (Rosener,1990).” The author in Leading Change, advises that communication comes in both words and actions, and the latter are often the most powerful form. Nothing undermines change more than behavior by important individuals that is inconsistent with their words (Kotter, 1995) Quality:To move Hillel forward, Richard Joel needed to convince the larger Jewish community that Hillel was indeed doing something new and that it was a changed organization (Rosen, 2006).
After Richard Joel created a vision with strategy, and making clear communications to the group, the next phase Richard Joel had to initiate were taking actions to transforming the organization. The execution phase is to “develop and maintain flawless operational execution (Nhoria et al., 2003, p. 46). Kotter mentions that “successful transformations begin to involve large numbers of people as the process progresses. Employees are emboldened to try new approaches, to develop new ideas, and to provide leadership (Kotter, 1995. p.64). Richard Joel took a strategic approach to implementing the changes by:Changing the name from National Office to National Center “movements live in centers, businesses live in offices (Rosen, 2006, p.29).”Hired new lay boards and relied heavily on Bittker’s counsel. Remade the Commission:Appointed young, inspired, and intelligent membersConcerted effort to add womenAmend its constitution so that federation leaders, representatives, and students joint the Hillel CommissionEnlisted two critical partners: Professional and lay leadersEffective campaign for funding:Richard Joel realize he needed to be involve in the development of resourcesTo make the process attractive and overcoming resistance Richard Joel:Agreed to indemnify local Hillel’s certain fundraising costsSupport regional development person’s salaryProvide consultative support free of charge to local Hillel’s that were engaging development professionalsNew approaches for fundraising:Local campaignsBoard of GovernorsNational direct mail campaignEncourage students to be more involved by:Increasing job rolesInspiring to pursue careers with HillelCreated positions for leadership opportunities
After Richard Joel took actions successfully in creating the transformation, Richard Joel moves to the next phase which was building culture. Nhoria et al., suggests that promoting high-level performance and ethical behavior is important to maintaining that continual success in the organization (Nhoria et al., 2003). Culture is not only about the diversity of the organization or the religious aspect, but rather how Hillel was transformed to a performance-oriented environment. With Richard Joel’s strong academic background, he developed a system for Hillel which was Accreditation.The concept was adopted from Academia and was formalized into the Everett Pilot Program for Excellence, which a manual was published.The result was a success where both external and internal, strengthened local Hillel’s. The strategy of Accreditation was:Periodic evaluation with cement standards of qualityAssist the professional staff, partnership campus, and leadershipProvide professional validation to the community and funding bodiesDirectors work from the bottom up.What did the organization gained?Learn about their inner workings from local HillelAppreciation of the challenges faced by the directorDirectors became independent and creativeLocal Hillel reflected this mindsetLay leadership became much more engagedMotivation to raise money locallyMore academic programs in Jewish studiesThe outcome exemplifies Richard Joel’s transformational leadership by enhancing the self-worth others. In Ways Women Lead, mentions how leaders would expressed how they refrain from asserting their own superiority, which asserts the inferiority of others (Rosener, 1990). With all the changes Richard Joel has created, he further went into the system and structures that were not seen as consistent with the transformation vision (Kotter, 1995).
Last phase of the management practice that Richard Joel excelled in is structure. The key success in this phase is to make sure the structure is as simple as possible, while maintaining that performance (Nhoria et al., 2003). In Leading change, the authors has made two important factors in institutionalizing the change in corporate culture:The conscious attempt to show people the new approachEnsuring the next generation personify the new approach (Kotter, 1995)Richard Joel has accomplished these concerns where he made sure Jewish students were proactively involved with the organization, and continually shared his vision with excellent communications of the Jewish community
Richard Joel has further demonstrated secondary management practices of these four elements which can be reinstated from slide 7 of executionTalent: Hired new lay boards that would able to share similar vision and motivated to pursue the transformationLeadership: Relied heavily with Bittker’s counselReached out to rabbi Bill RudolphGained valuable advices from Seymour Reich to convene a panel of national leaders from B’nai B’rith and the council of Jewish Federations to formulate a strategic plan.Innovation:Focused on students and the Jewish community more than the staffAccreditation Developed an infrastructure of local Hillel’s to fundraise for funding supportMergers and Partnership:Acquired B’nai B’rithExpanded other resources from different organizations such as Study Group
Based on Richard Joel’s leadership with the Hillel transformation, several implications can be made from this case:Too standardizedCorporateImpersonalRichard Joel’s central focus of the International Center had each campus lack substance and were neglected. Richard Joel’s assumption can be criticized from lack of evaluating the details from the local Hillel’s. “Richard…assumed that he had paternal control over the independent nature of Hillel’s around the country and deliver a franchise product…he cant do that (Rosen, 2006, 67).” From a commentator, the new direction and programs was referred as the “mass-marketing Jewish cultural expression…the Jewish world’s Starbucks or Blockbuster (Rosen, 2006, 67).”Because Richard Joel’s main vision were to focus the students, there was lack of traditional values and teaching of Judaism (Rosen, 2006).
What can we learn from the case study analysis of Richard Joel’s leadership is that his passion, dedication, experience, and his skills allowed Hillel to a successful transformation.“Richard had a Jewish vision. He believes in the beauty and and mission of Judaism and Jewish community with passion, and more than anything else, Hillel, and most Jewish organizations require passionate leadership to succeed (Rosen, 2006, p. 30)
