This is a CTP of initiative: Ashoka Germany
The CTP revolves around the transformation process of the AG leadership team. Co-leadership had already been established in the late 2000s in Ashoka Germany. However, the dynamics of the shared leadership that influenced the life of the organization between 2009 and 2016 was very different from the one that started after FO left the co-director position and the organization itself. The leadership of the organization was affected by the skills and network of FO and his close relationship with the founder of Ashoka Global. While before the CTP the leadership team had a “natural centre", and for the outside, FO was the representative of the organization in various situations, afterwards, the leadership team with the remaining 4 people became much more horizontal. While the “everyday team experience” was less influenced by the shift, the CTP effected “where the buck stops”, or how responsibility is distributed. While the development of an extended leadership team was a gradual process, influenced by coincidental factors as well, the co-directors were quite conscious about strategically moving towards the shift in order to respond to specific needs of the organization from around 2013-2014. They developed the model for team leadership according to three pillars. Firstly, they wanted to put more emphasis on talent development of AG staff and move towards a partnership type model that allows more senior people to join and take positions in the organization. Secondly, they wanted to increase the number of senior people Ashoka Fellows could interact with. The third pillar was having a strategy for succession planning and not have an “organization that is heavily depending on” the two original co-directors.
At each stage of the CTP, the already incumbent members of the leadership team were the ones who made it happen.
The CTP did not involve contestation as FO consciously prepared for his exit and the team leadership model was already developed and strengthen before the CTP happened. All this had enabled the model to change organically and him to leave “without any crisis in leadership, or any hesitation on the part of Ashoka”.
The CTP was anticipated by the organization, “it was clear that at one point [FO] would leave” and as opposed to the first transition of establishing a 2-person co-leadership, this time it “was a very strategic process”.
At “Ashoka Germany it would take a lot for the team to move away from the module, I think it’s there to stay. It’s very deeply ingrained by now.” The CTP presented AG with new challenges and opportunities. One of the important changes that the CTP brought with it was the fact that with the exit of FO AG became more distant from the headquarters. “Having distance to the boss means you are not as likely to get drafted into things you do not want to be drafted into, but also having distance means things can happen you don’t want to happen.” In connection with the CTP, they also started working on becoming an even less hierarchical organization “where people take more responsibility for their respective project or department”. However, they also need to find new ways of sharing the roles and responsibilities within the team. "I don't know how it's going to work after I left because I guess I was still in a way the natural, the most natural communicator of the team. Now, that is not so clear." They will have to “find the internal mechanism to determine who’s going to speak on what.” In addition, the CTP also highlighted that the team leadership module is especially fitting with the needs of a network organization. “You can’t have institutional partnerships only. It’s always about the people who have the partnership.”
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