By: AK Sterling
Picture it: councilmembers and mayors from various-sized cities and towns in Washington state sitting in a circle, preparing to embark on a multi-day training. One has never been in an elected position. Another is encountering an idea for the first time. Someone else has been through the program before. And somehow, everyone still has something to learn.
This summer, I had the pleasure of co-facilitating the Washington Collaborative Elected Leaders Institute (WA-CELI) for the third year in a row that brought together 26 elected leaders from across the state. Each year, I get to watch the cohort build relationships with each other and begin to learn, grow, and share ideas on how they can tackle real-world challenges that their cities and towns face. One of the rewarding pieces of facilitating WA-CELI this year was observing the cohort begin to challenge their thinking and begin applying the lessons and tools learned to their work.
WA-CELI equips teams of city elected officials with practical leadership skills to navigate differing perspectives, build consensus, and collaborate more effectively across their communities. Cohort 3 came together for the first time immediately following the Association of Washington Cities’ annual conference. We set the scene for the program by providing framing for what attendees will experience then check in as a group by introducing yourself, where you’re from, the role you hold and what called you to public service. That set the tone for the entire program. Participants early on could see that despite the background they have or the size of their city, we all share commonalities about why we are public servants.
New this year, Cohort 3 went through a three-day intensive session versus previous year’s format of three two-day sessions spread throughout summer and into autumn. After the first session post-conference, I witnessed firsthand the participants becoming fast friends. From a facilitator’s perspective, it’s heartwarming to see all participants forming relationships with one another, especially so quickly. It was wonderful to come back together for the three-day intensive and continue to build on the collaboration from the first session. Across the three days, we dived into challenges each city team were facing and wanted to tackle using tools from the training. With relationships established, participants were easily able to cross pollinate and share ideas, experiences and feedback drawn from their lived experience and similar experiences cities have faced. That is one of the beauties of WA-CELI: creating a network of elected leaders to lean on and support each other.
What also made this year special was having Fred Brink, mayor of West Richland and Cohort 2 alumnus, join us again as a participant. Throughout our time together, he could share his experience going through the program for the first time and give real world examples of how WA-CELI gave him what he needed to create change in his city, especially after recently becoming mayor (Brink was a councilmember of West Richland during Cohort 2). The fact that he wanted to participate again speaks to the magic of WA-CELI and I look forward to dreaming up other ways alumni can engage with future cohorts.
We ended the last day of our last session the same way we started – in circle, reflecting what this experience has meant to folks. Throughout this next year, the facilitators will host monthly Community of Practice meetings to provide a touchpoint and a space for alumni to come together, get a refresher on a tool they learned and how they might apply to their councils and cities. And next summer? Picture another circle of councilmembers and mayors, each arriving with their own experiences, questions and ideas—and each with something to teach and something to learn.