Fostering Individual and Community Leadership

The concept of Boundary Spanning Leadership has been developed by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCLP) to help businesses, government, and nonprofits and offers many useful ideas for coalitions. Boundary Spanning Leadership is defined as the “capability to create direction, alignment, and commitment across group boundaries in service of a higher vision or goal.”  Through nearly 300 interviews and 2,800 surveys, CCLP has identified the most common boundaries as well as set of practices for leading across such boundaries. 

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has partnered with CCLP to train selected community coalitions on the concepts of boundary spanning leadership.  United Way of Lane County’s Financial Stability Partnership was selected by RWJF to receive training and technical assistance to implement these concepts into their work and share these concepts with others in Lane County.

Resources related to Boundary Spanning Leadership include:

• Overview of Boundary Spanning Leadership
• Boundary Spanning Leadership Presentation

Governing by Network

There is increasing recognition that governing bodies must work through networks to achieve community goals.  The book, Governing by Network, published by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Brookings Institution offers observations and strategies for governmental entities.