College students as catalysts for social change: a case study

Leadership Models

SLP chooses to talk about leadership through “revealing” rather than “developing” leaders which is different from many traditional leadership programs. The following statement taken from their SVP grant application summarizes the SLP founders’ beliefs about leadership.

SLP’s mission is to reveal leadership through service, relationships, and action. We do not claim to create or build leaders; we believe leadership is within each and every person. Instead, SLP provides opportunities for young people to realize the leadership and potential they each have inside themselves. Through increased confidence, understanding of self and others, relationships, and a commitment to action, students are finding the leadership within them to make the difference.

In asking how someone becomes a leader Mackenzie responds:

I think it’s a self realization, that ‘reveal’ word… And I think that’s why we say reveal leadership, it’s just potential for kinetic. We’re just trying to take leadership that is already present, energy that is already present and put it into action. I believe that leadership colloquially now is more geared towards management like how to lead a group. A true leader isn’t necessarily leading any, we talk about leading a group, but it’s about assessing situations and to your best ability meeting the needs that are present. It’s dynamic which means it should always be changing so I think leaders, revealing ones leadership is a series of self realizations that happen, I would hope daily.

Robertson and Lubic (2001) define “a leader as someone who engages in self-development and is able to affect positive change for the betterment of others, the community, and society” (p. 91). This self-development is similar to Mackenzie’s beliefs of daily self realizations. One example of how SLP affects positive change is in the development of leaders during their high school leadership camp. Their goal is that by the end of the week the students are running the camp. The service component of the MAD tour is also focused on the betterment of others, the community and society as discussed in the Social Change Model (1996). SLP works to influence others and to have real change among the participants. Pete talks about SLP when it started and the intended changes in people that occur.

We do a lot of service and we do a lot of projects, community service projects but no one’s ever said we are going to solve someone’s problem in a few hours of volunteering, because it doesn’t happen like that. We do say that we can change people and their actions: anything is possible. We can change people in the communities we go to. We can change people on the trips and if they look at their lives a little bit differently…look at what they can do and what’s possible…that’s what we want. That’s why we exist is to change people. And it doesn’t matter if they continue to be involved in SLP or if they go out and do something else they are passionate about… and contributing to society that is what we are trying to do with students.

This philosophy ties into Owen’s (1997) Law of Two Feet that it doesn’t matter if someone stays involved with SLP or they chose to take their two feet and go somewhere else as long as they are doing something.

Another leadership concept that ties into SLP is what they call Mad Lib leadership; it is also referred to by the founders as Impromptu or Paint by Number leadership. Roy talks about the leadership style of SLP:

Our entire organization is built on this concept of impromptu leadership. Mackenzie will probably refer to it as Mad Lib leadership where you get into a city and you look around and you are like, OK, this is what we can do. This is what we will do, this is what I am feeling and you make quick decisions.

In following up with Mackenzie she explained the Mad Lib as a story that has blanks in the storyline and a person can put in an adjective or a noun in the blank to finish the story. It doesn’t matter what is put in and sometimes the story will be somewhat zany but allows students the opportunity to “personalize” the story and make it their own. Mackenzie explained this was very popular with students in her age group. In looking at the website for Mad Lib’s they actually have been in existence for fifty years. She explains that because Mad Lib is a reference that is not widely understood she has changed her terminology. She goes on to say:

I…have switched to like paint by numbers. What SLP in my opinion has done and will continue to try and do is develop a framework for people. So we believe our model is successful, so to develop a framework, but give people as much ownership as they can within that framework. So for us it’s like people we’re on the bus, it doesn’t matter what cities you go to, okay? Well on the bus itself, it doesn’t matter what activities you do, but you should be activities at this portion, these types of activities. And so it is scripted in a sense but not scripted like other organizations. Like other organizations script it, like, word for word. What I believe, we should be developing more of like a frame and a fill in the blank model. And so that is why I like Mad Lib leadership because we are painting by numbers leadership, like it doesn’t matter what the colors are, you still get this painting.

This Mad Lib or paint by number leadership seems to be especially attractive for this age cohort as seen from the next example. A college had found out about SLP after conducting a Google Search because they wanted to do a service trip. I asked the student Bob who had conducted the search what attracted him to SLP he said, “I was looking for a way to do it. I had a vision and SLP had a template to do it. They welcomed me. They have a framework together. It was a whole hell of a lot easier.” This ease of adopting a framework that is able to be tailored to the individual group ties into the paint by number concept that Mackenzie discusses.

The welcoming and accepting attitude of SLP is another factor. If someone doesn’t have leadership experience, that is fine and fits with another philosophy of SLP: “Fake it until you make it.” “Just like it sounds. They don’t know what you are thinking, and people never question confidence. I mean, what is confidence anyway? Keep on keepin’ on and no one will know the difference” (MAD Tour core manual). The group also uses the concept of “winging it” as well, as seen from this comment by Roy, “I won’t put a lot of work into the middle school tour until I get on the bus and then I will start thinking about it ‘cause I like the adrenaline of not knowing what is gonna happen, I like winging it.”

Reentry Model

Another aspect of leadership that SLP promotes is called the reentry model. This supports the non-hierarchical stance of the group. Kotter (1996) proposes one of the elements of change is that you anchor new approaches in the culture. The reentry model within SLP culture is a new approach. The reentry model in simple terms is becoming a participant again. After a person has been involved with the group and has held a leadership position as a chapter core, bus core or a Celebration City Core (CCC) leader they go back into the group as a participant. Roy explains it this way:

Then they have to do the hardest part which is go back and be a member of the organization and contribute at the member level and that is really hard and we can’t find any literature or research on the, I don’t know, what that would be the reentry model of leadership.

A CCC member stated, “That is how the leadership model is set up, the most involved and supportive move on to CCC to be a participant and support. That is the successful piece that is challenging.” Nickers talked about going on the MAD tour this year as a participant and having to let go of his ideas of “the perfect trip.” He stated he was trying not to dissect everything that was done by the bus core. He talked about what he thought were missed opportunities to bring in discussions and even to set the tone and then when he returned he discovered this:

I did Facebook when I got back. All forty-three other participants were so impacted by the tour that it just was interesting to realize, you know, it doesn’t look like in my eyes or my perfect tour isn’t what is needed to…create an experience…where people have an amazing experience and they’re impacted by that experience.

SLP created the role of the Celebration City Core (CCC) to help with organizational growth and to provide additional leadership opportunities. Mackenzie talks about the CCC being the hardest role. She states, “You take the backseat and bite your tongue.” Some CCC’s go on buses as a participant offering assistance if needed. CCC’s that are not on tour make themselves available should an emergency arise on the road such as a canceled service project or sleeping site. They then get on the Internet or the phone and try to solve the problem for the bus core. Mackenzie talked about their role being that of the “mystery shopper” with the bus participants not aware of their role. This has proved helpful if a particular bus core needs extra help in trying to engage students on the trip. Once the bus arrives in the Celebration City the CCC takes over the responsibilities of logistics for that location. The CCC also assists with presenting workshops at the various retreats. Mackenzie offers her views of the role of the CCC.

In some ways the CCC is not a great job. In most organizations you would have the minions doing what they do with cleaning up and preparing but here, it is the leaders that have the most experience. Sometimes when you sit on a bus and someone is doing something you cringe thru the activities but if you correct them then you make them feel bad and you let everyone else know they did not meet your expectations. How many papers have you written before you consider yourself a good writer?

Thus the leadership of SLP models servant leadership. During the three day winter retreat Pete and Roy along with some other SLP alumni spent the weekend in the kitchen cooking and cleaning up for all of the meals. Mackenzie met with the CCC, but when I asked if she was going to observe them while they did their presentations she said no. She commented that there are 100 ways to get to the end result and why should she ask them to do something and not trust them to do it? These support Buckingham & Coffman’s (1999) four activities to: “select a person, set expectations, motivate the person, and develop the person” (p. 59). The CCC members are selected and SLP sets high expectations, they are motivated and given many development opportunities through the chapter and the bus core prior to this level of leadership. In a SLP handout that was given out at the winter training retreat there is a section that discusses the messages that have been given to students during their lives and how SLP coincides with these. One of the messages is: “Be Successful-Achieve and be excellent. Accept nothing but the best.”