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Indivisible groups have been organizing their communities for years! We’ve won elections and have been pushing forward progressive issues for years together. Over time, it’s good and natural that groups will restructure and go through leadership transitions.
With some intentional planning, a leadership transition can be seamless. A sustainable group will likely need to go through several leadership transitions over time. It’s a normal part of group development and will even strengthen the group to bring new folks into leadership. A successful transition takes some planning and forethought, but can ultimately make the group even stronger.
This explainer and worksheet will help you get started. Leaders who have been part of a group for a while (or even the very beginning) likely have a lot of institutional knowledge. This toolkit will help go through the different pieces of information to document and share with the group.
Assessing Transition Needs
We’ve been at this for years together and every healthy activist group will go through transitions over time. That might be finding ways to rotate who’s carrying the load or it might mean a more formal switching out of leadership. This indicates intentional and thoughtful leadership.
Part of the work of organizers is making sure we’re sustainable individually and as a group. Sometimes that means knowing when it’s time to step back or talking to others about stepping back.
Additionally, everyone’s circumstances are very different in the pandemic. Some folks may be unexpectedly balancing caretaking responsibilities, kids doing remote learning, illness, etc. Meanwhile, it’s also possible that some folks are interested in investing more time into their activism - perhaps they have more flexible schedules with remote work or are reminded of the importance of this work.
It’s important to reflect internally and talk about this as a leadership team. Some questions to really discuss and think about include:
- How much time do I spend weekly/monthly on this group?
- Do I realistically have that time to continue to dedicate?
- Do I want to dedicate that time?
- What is my ideal time commitment?
- Am I too busy to do other things I care about?
- Where do I get the most joy from this work?
- What do I love most about this group?/Why did I take on this role?
- Do I feel resentment about the time I’m spending on this (or that others aren’t taking on as much)?
- Do I get easily frustrated/annoyed?
- What gives me the energy to keep going? What motivates me?
- What am I most proud of? Am I proud of the work I’m doing?
- Do I feel like I’m never able to accomplish everything I’m trying to do?
- Do normal group tasks take me longer than usual?
This is not a time to think about who else will take on the work -- that comes later -- start by really assessing your own ability to keep it up. Once you’ve assessed the next steps for folks in your leadership committee, you can move on to leadership development!
Leadership Development
In some cases, it might be really clear who can step in for leadership transitions. In other cases, this may be more complicated and take some intentional leadership identification and development. The below outlines some qualities of a leader and the steps to take someone from leadership prospect to full on leader. These general steps can be applied for any leadership role within a group or even for a group sub-project.
Leadership Development Worksheet
Go through each step of this 4 part worksheet and determine the actions you need to take for your prospective leader. It’s a google doc so you can make a copy it or use this downloadable fillable pdf or download it and print it out.