Ramping Up To A New Vision Of Leadership
The Y is a cause-driven organization, and one of the leading nonprofits in United States. In the East Bay, the YMCA has served the community for over 135 years, as a resource for healthy living, youth development and social responsibility.
Why We Worked Together
YMCA of the East Bay wanted to step towards a new vision of shared leadership throughout their organization, and break traditional hierarchies. The goal: to empower their employees with the agency to create change, no matter what role they held.
Their CEO partnered with Late Nite Art to create a customized workshop that would allow his leaders to explore and co-design a shared leadership model.
What We Created
The Late Nite Art experience served as a ramp up to a long term change initiative for YMCA of the East Bay. It set the context for why this change was taking place.
We brought together a diverse group of the ‘Top 50’ of their directors & management, from 9 branches and 3 residential camps. The focus of our workshop was to:
Learn about each other beyond their roles, and collaborate.
Understand that they each have a voice that matters.
Co-design a new leadership model and culture.
How It Succeeded
Given that our biggest challenge was to break barriers within the team, and help them co-create a new vision, our imagination-rich space set the tone right. We:
Built a stronger sense of empathy and understanding between people.
Triggered clarity about how people could contribute to the new culture.
Opened new communication channels for all opinions to be heard.
Helped form a YMCA-centric definition of shared leadership.
Broke silos of departments, ‘old timers’, ‘new folks’ and management.
“The Late Nite Art experience inspired our staff beyond their usual roles and allowed us to discover new, amazing things about each other and our collective talents. Our executive team was blown away.”