1. Transformation Through Education
The Power of a
Community Organization
Presented by Damon L. Spight

2. Transformation Through Education:
The Power of a Community Organization
 Objectives
– Define “community organization”
– Determine the relationship between alignment
and transformation
– Present how to move from toleration to
transformation
– Experience two key practices for transforming
through educating
– Celebrate our success

3. Transformation Through Education:
The Power of a Community Organization
“Community Organization” defined
– Centers of meaning
– Cultures for the practice of
democracy
– Transcends the individual without
disrespecting individuality
– An organic system
 Relevant background factors
 Internal/External influences
 Consequences

4. Transformation Through Education:
The Power of a Community Organization
 The Righteous Man, The Lottery, and God
 The Power of Alignment
– Visualize to Actualize
– PassWord Mission
 Helping kids in crisis access their full potential, one step
at a time
– PassWord Vision
 To assist youth in becoming productive community
citizens by improving their educational, social, and
mental health outcomes

5. Transformation Through Education:
The Power of a Community Organization
 “Today if we want to avoid further breakdown of the web of
meaning anywhere in society, then organizations can best
serve that purpose by becoming practice fields for the skills that
will lead to democratic behavior.” Peter Senge, et al, The Fifth
Discipline Fieldbook, p. 508.)
 “The potential of ordinary people fully emerges only when they
are able to translate their self-interests in issues such as family,
property, and education into the common good through an
intermediary organization.” The Kettering Review, Summer
1996, p. 37.)

6. Transformation Through Education:
The Power of a Community Organization
 Exercise Time!

7. Transformation Through Education:
Moving from Toleration to Transformation
 “Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness. They
are able to weave a complex web of connections among
themselves, their subjects, and their students so that students
can learn to weave a world for themselves.” (Parker Palmer,
The Courage to Teach, p. 11. )
 To teach is create a space in which the community of truth is
practiced. (Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach, p. 90)
– Renew self and community
– Reinvent the future
– Utilize “Just-In-Time Learning”
 coaching, training, actual work: one process (Peter Senge and et al,
The Fifth Discipline, p. 512)

8. Transformation Through Education:
Moving from Toleration to Transformation
 “When we reject that with which we cannot
become intimate, our lives are diminished.”
(Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach, p.
91)
 The pastor, the bear, and the lion

9. Transformation Through Education:
Moving from Toleration to Transformation
 Leadership, Managing,
Coaching
– Leadership
 Mission, vision, values
– Managing
 Bottom line
– Goals
– Objectives
– Outcomes
– Production
– Coaching
 Individuals and teams

10. Transformation Through Education:
Moving from Toleration to Transformation
 Leadership competencies
– Diagnosing the situation (mental)
– Adapting the influences (behavioral)
– Communicating the messages (process)
 Success vs. effectiveness
– Power down
– Power up
– Power convergence

11. Transformation Through Education:
Moving from Toleration to Transformation
 Management Competencies
– Technical deftness
 Knowledge
 Methods
 Techniques
 Equipment
– Interpersonal prowess
– Conceptual agility
 Success vs. Effectiveness
– Power split or convergence

12. Transformation Through Education:
Moving from Toleration to Transformation
 Transactional vs. Transformational
leadership
– “The ability to motivate people to work toward
challenging goals, creating transcendent
organizations through bold, visionary thinking and
calculated risk taking.” (Lea Williams, Servants of
the People, p. 26)

13. Transformation Through Education:
The Power of a Community Organization
 Transformational Leadership
– Builds on man’s needs for
meaning
– Is preoccupied with
purposes and values,
morals, and ethics
– Transcends daily affairs
– Is oriented toward meeting
long-term goals without
compromising human
values and principles
– Separates causes and
symptoms and works at
prevention
 Transactional Leadership
– Builds on man’s need to
get a job done and to
make a living
– Is preoccupied with power
and position, politics, and
perks
– Is mired in daily affairs
– Is short-term and hard-
data oriented

14. Transformation Through Education:
The Power of a Community Organization
 Transformational Leadership
– Is proactive, catalytic, and
patient
– Values profit as the basis of
growth
– Focuses more on missions
and strategies for achieving
them
– Makes full use of human
resources
– Identifies and develops new
talent
 Transactional Leadership
– Confuses causes and
symptoms and concerns
itself more with treatment
than with prevention
– Focuses on tactical issues
– Relies on human relations
to lubricate human
interactions
– Follows and fulfills role
expectations by striving to
work effectively within
current systems

15. Transformation Through Education:
The Power of a Community Organization
Transformational Leadership
– Recognizes and rewards significant contributions
– Designs and redesigns jobs to make them meaningful and
challenging
– Releases human potential
– Models love
– Leads out into new directions
– Aligns internal structures and systems to reinforce
overarching values and goals
(These descriptors taken from Steven Covey’s Principled Centered Leadership, pp.
285-286)

16. Transformation Through Education:
The Power of a Community Organization
 Exercise Time!

17. Transformation Through Education -
Phase 2
The Power of a
Community Organization
Presented by Damon L. Spight

18. Transformation Through Education:
The Power of a Community Organization
 C‘s that transcend the average and create
transformation
– Cause
– Commitment
 Core values
– Communication
 Core values
 Expectations
– Stretch
– Confidence

19. Transformation Through Education:
The Power of a Community Organization
 C‘s that transcend the
average and create
transformation
(continued)
– Confidentiality
– Consistency
– Change

20. Transformation Through Education:
The Power of a Community Organization
 “When authentic community emerges, false
differences [i.e., race, gender] in power and
status disappear.”
 Leverage Your Strengths
 “Press with determination in the right
direction and your circumstances will be your
helpers, not your hindrances.” (Christ Object
Lessons)