Nonviolent Leadership

For successful social change work, we need effective leaders. Yet within most
activist circles, leadership is still rarely openly acknowledged or
developed. One practical way the Australian Nonviolence Network (ANN)
validates its leaders is through the Nonviolent Leaders' Support Groups
(Leaders' Groups) based in Melbourne. I've enjoyed my involvement in one of
these groups and I'm hoping this article will give others inspiration and
practical ideas for developing leadership skills in their region. 

Leadership is necessary to any social change group and if it is not
consciously developed it will happen indirectly and, usually, less
effectively. Even in collectively-run groups, leadership skills are often not
passed on and power imbalances can become entrenched. Experienced activists
can become burnt out or 'stuck' in their powerful roles while others remain
disempowered. Then leaders can become isolated, unsupported and vulnerable to
criticism or repression from the outside world. 

We all have the potential to lead in some way, but the leaders' groups are a
way to validate individual activists in the Network who, brimming with
experience, are ripe to lead. Rob Burrowes established these by inviting
experienced activists from different activist groups within ANN. Two groups
formed with four people in each, including Rob as facilitator. These groups
have met every three weeks since March 1994 and are continuing into 1995.
This year three new groups have formed, making fifteen participants in all.
We meet for five hours each time with an hour for lunch. As Rob described
briefly in his article on nonviolence education1, the standard format has
four main sections: 
1. Support is given to each person in turn around any personal issues that
may have arisen in their lives.
2. Each participant can then raise any dilemmas, difficulties or questions
from their campaign. The leaders' group listens and gives suggestions as to
how the action group may be able to deal with these dilemmas more
effectively.
3. There is also opportunity for each participant to raise any issues they
have around their role as nonviolent leader in his or her group. Again,
suggestions and support are given by the leaders' group.
4. Finally, a new aspect of nonviolent strategy is taught so that leaders can
help their group develop powerful campaign strategies. 

The Leaders' Groups have been very successful. I believe they have been so
rewarding and effective because they meet the needs that nonviolent leaders
have as outlined here: 
Nonviolent leaders need emotional support. This has emerged as the strongest
need participants of the leaders' groups have had so far. Working as a
nonviolent leader is challenging and can stir up strong feelings. The
leaders' groups give high priority to supporting each other - in fact we
sometimes don't get to the learning part of the day because our need for
support is such a strong priority. 

Some of the features of the groups that encourage this meaningful support
are: the groups are small (only three participants); we meet for five hours;
and the groups are closed. The small size allows ample time for each person
to share fully their feelings and experiences in their personal lives, in
their campaigns and in their role as a nonviolent leader. We spend about one
hour listening to each person. Having ample time set aside for support gives
the group a sense of spaciousness and is an important way of validating each
other as people as well as leaders. In this way political work is not seen as
separate from our personal lives. This opens up all sorts of exciting
possibilities for our social change work when our personal lessons,
experiences, aches, pains whatever! are valued. This also helps create a
culture of nonviolent activism that replaces the 'never enough time', burnout
model of activism with making enough time. The closed groups help build the
continuity, intimacy and high level of trust needed for this level of
support. 

The combination of leadership training with support has been a poignant
lesson for me. Near the beginning of the group we discussed what leadership
has meant to us over our lives. From this I realised I've internalised some
standard ideas such as: leaders work alone, know everything and are not meant
to be vulnerable or need support. The basic structure of the leaders' group
as a support group replaces this isolation with mutual respect, support and
solidarity with other nonviolent leaders in ANN. It also makes our social
change work as leaders sustainable. 

Nonviolent leaders need training.
The work of activists to improve the world in some way - is difficult to say
the least. Nonviolent leaders often perform complex managerial type roles
with little training. In my leaders' group our leading roles are: one is an
experienced environmental activist providing leadership for her group in a
variety of ways; another plays a key role in facilitating several campaigns
to improve Victoria's water management and I'm initiating a long-term
campaign against domestic violence in a rural town. I'd say we deserve
training! Training in the leaders' group has been emotionally oriented, with
its structure as a support group, and more educational in its structure as a
learning group. One main focus of the training has been on exploring the
richness of nonviolent campaign strategy. Using the group's combined
extensive experience and Rob's in depth work on nonviolent strategy, we spend
time grappling with applying nonviolent theory to our campaigns. Each
session, we discuss one of the twelve components on Rob's Nonviolent Strategy
Wheel2 or other issues as we need to. This has included topics like: power,
conflict resolution, political purpose, strategic aims, community campaign
strategies, conception of nonviolence, spirituality, leadership,
organisational structure and so on. It's exciting to know that we're
furthering the global understanding of nonviolence by applying it to our
local campaigns. 

Nonviolent leaders need to explore and develop the concept of nonviolent
leadership itself. What is leadership? What is nonviolent leadership? How can
leadership be shared? To explore these questions we've used Starhawk's3 work
describing the different leadership roles as follows: the crows who have
vision and keep and overview of the group's progress; the graces who inspire
and expand the group; the snakes who deal with the group's emotions; the
dragons who maintain the group's limits and the spider who weaves the group's
connections. We've used an exercise where we draw our leadership abilities in
these five areas to identify our strengths and weaknesses. Nonviolent
leadership aims to develop all these five functions in a group, in ways that
are empowering for all involved. This means sharing leadership which, in
essence, means sharing skills, knowledge and power. With leadership comes
responsibility and - too often - over-responsibility.  A leader's commitment
and planning ability can become burdens if not shared within the group.
Shared leadership reduces dependency on particular leaders and reduces the
likelihood of an individual being targeted for repression. Though in practice
it is a challenge, nevertheless nonviolent leaders need to share leadership. 

Nonviolent leaders need inspiring role models. I've learnt so much about
leadership by the example other participants in my group have set. Within a
world that promotes leadership based on patriarchal power, we need to seek
out ways to learn from nonviolent leaders. As the facilitator of the leaders'
groups, Rob has been an inspirational role model offering wisdom, care and
dedication. By 'inventing' the leaders' groups, he has provided a way to
validate the wisdom nonviolent elders have and, at the same time, enable
these inspiring leadership skills to be shared. In Rob's words, he finds
offering his personal support "immensely rewarding because I am involved in a
process in which nonviolent leaders learn how to support each other, learn
how to better support and empower the activists with whom they work, and
learn how to build solidarity across issues. I enjoy facilitating these
groups because I work with great people and I am able to share some of what I
have learned during my own years as a nonviolent activist." 

Nonviolent leaders need affirmation
Leaders need to be told they are doing a good job, and why they are. Often
leaders don't get direct praise or only a quick "That was great". In the
leaders' group we often give affirmation to each other that is specific and
meaningful. In this way leaders can be proud of their efforts and can
remember the group's enthusiasm and encouragement in difficult times. It's
heartening to be able to bask in the glow of each other's successes. 

Nonviolent leaders need critical feedback. The leaders' groups provide a
space to give constructive critical feedback on our leadership roles. It's
important that we respect each other's ability to hear constructive criticism
so that leaders can keep on learning. This is a chance to practise
challenging each other in a direct and caring way. As leaders in our groups,
we may need to actively encourage submerged criticism (perhaps of ourselves)
to surface. In the future, as ANN matures and we're dealing with increasingly
complex conflict situations, the leaders' groups could provide supportive
accountability where honest feedback can be given to leaders who are being
counter-productive or unethical in their position. 

Nonviolent leaders need encouragement to look after themselves. Those in
leadership roles can be so focussed on their group or campaign that their own
self-care is neglected. For sustainable work (perhaps for the rest of our
lives) we need a steady, self-nurturing pace. In the leaders' group, we
gently challenge each other when we go beyond our own personal limits and
affirm steps taken by individuals to look after themselves emotionally,
physically or spiritually. By doing this, we value time-out, self-nurturance
and plain old simple rest. 

Nonviolent leaders need to develop their own leadership style. Within the
broad framework of nonviolent leadership, there is plenty of room for
individual leadership styles. The discussion, affirmation, feedback and
support within the Leaders groups increase awareness of our own leading
styles and how we as individuals enhance the groups we work with. With an
overview of all the different leadership functions and with an understanding
of our own abilities, we can then call on others to provide leadership in
areas in which we ourselves are not skilled. In this way the leaders' groups
are helping ANN to create many leaders with diverse nonviolent leadership
styles. 

The leaders' group has helped me slowly absorb my identity as a 'leader'.
This has been a long process and still sometimes I have a slight tinge of
embarrassment when I say I'm in the Nonviolent Leaders' Support Group, just
like in Grade Six when I was excruciatingly embarrassed to be picked as House
Captain. I still sometimes think, like then, that I get into leadership roles
'by accident' as though it's nothing to do with me. One reason I had so much
difficulty thinking of myself as a leader is because of society's message
that the words 'woman' and 'leader' don't fit. The Leaders' group has put me
straight on that one! 

The leaders' group is an anchor for my nonviolence work. It has become a
sacred place of intimate sharing and learning. I want to thank all the
leaders in my group and especially Rob who dreamed the whole thing up. I
would encourage others to consider forming their own Leaders' Support Groups
in their region and, in this way, continue to strengthen our practice of
nonviolence personally and as a Network. 
Jo Barter

Footnotes:
1. Robert J. Burrowes, "Nonviolence Education: What and How?" in Nonviolence
Today, Jan/Feb 1995.
2. As described in Robert Burrowes, The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense: A
Gandhian Approach. Albany: State University of New York Press, forthcoming.
3. Starhawk, Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery.San
Francisco: Harper Collins, 1987.