Call for Abstracts: Contribute to Upcoming Volume on Facilitative Leadership in Divisive Times

Our NCDD Board Chair, Lori Britt, along with co-editor Lisa-Marie Napoli, invites you to contribute to an upcoming edited volume titled "Facilitative Leadership: A Tool for Bridge Building in Divisive Times." This book aims to provide insights and practical tools for developing leadership in dialogue and deliberation, serving both academic and community practitioners. They are seeking abstracts of up to 800 words, outlining potential chapter contributions. Submissions are due by October 15, 2024, with selected authors invited to submit full chapters by November 15. The book is set for publication by November 2025. For more details, please see the full call for abstracts below or reach out to Lori Britt ([email protected]) or Lisa-Marie Napoli ([email protected]).

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​Release: Call for Chapter Abstracts
 
Facilitative Leadership: A Tool for Bridge Building in Divisive Times
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We are seeking abstracts for potential chapters to be included in an edited volume with a working title of  “Facilitative Leadership: A Tool for Bridge Building in Divisive Times.” This book is under contract with Waveland Press and will be co-edited by Lori Britt and Lisa-Marie Napoli. This book is intended to both serve as a text for courses related to leadership, dialogue, and deliberation, and as a book for those seeking to develop these civic skills and habits themselves and in others.
 
Abstracts of up to 800 words that describe the chapter and how it would fit within and add value to this volume are due by October 15, 2024. Editors will respond with invitations to selected authors to submit a full chapter by November 15 with full chapters (roughly 6,000-8,000 words) due by January 15. The timeline is to have the completed manuscript printed and available at the National Communication Association (NCA) in November 2025.
 
Following is the abstract of the book and the working outline. We welcome conversations to discuss how your work might fit into this volume. Lori Britt, brittll@jmu,edu; Lisa-Marie Napoli, [email protected].

Abstract: The concept of facilitative leadership is not new; it emerged more than thirty years ago with a focus on mutual learning where both the leader and followers co-create decision-making in a spirit of mutual growth and learning. Early on, the primary audience for facilitative leadership leaned toward the business community without apparent opportunities for application to larger society. This book encourages a shift in thinking about facilitative leadership from a vastly insular, underutilized management focus to how this can be a useful tool for anyone.
This shift permits a more holistic, cohesive view that encourages more people to see themselves as facilitative leaders. To meet this goal, we introduce an original framework for facilitative leadership that includes self-reflection, setting intention, developing mindset, enacting behaviors, and building capacity. This framework provides useful touchstones for those seeking to help people talk and collaboratively address challenging issues.
By renewing and extending the concept of Facilitative Leadership, it gives light to the often invisible and nuanced work of facilitating conversations about complex issues and shows the framework’s usefulness in many social contexts. The need for the intentional practice of facilitative leadership is crucial as we face and address this contemporary moment of divisiveness and seek to build bridges on college campuses, in local communities, and beyond.
 
Brief Book Outline:

Part 1: Introduction and Presentation of Framework
We will identify the background of facilitative leadership and the prior authors, ideas, and trainings related to facilitative leadership.

We will also present our original and normative, meta-framework of Facilitative Leadership that provides touchstones for those seeking to develop facilitative leadership in themselves and others. Attention is  paid to two key aspects throughout the framework: issue-focused talk and people-centered processes.

• Set Intention “Be”
  
  • Issues-Focused Talk: 
    
    • Clear Purpose/Goal Setting
      
    • Forward movement on issue in a context (connected talk and action)
      
  • People-Centered Process
    
    • Build inclusive, dialogic relationships
      
    • Respect human dignity of all
      
    • Collaborative
• Develop Mindset “Think” (Guides our attention to what to focus on)
  
  • Issues-Focused Talk
    
    • Embrace complexity of issues
      
    • Acknowledge that there are various perspectives on the issue inside and outside the “room”
  • People-Centered Process
    
    • We plan the process around the people and serve the group and their evolving needs
      
    • We develop a process that can help people transform tensions
• Enact Behaviors “Do”
  
  • Issues-Focused Talk
    
    • Asking questions that surface collective wisdom
      
    • Know how to move the group through challenging moments
  • People-Centered Process
    
    • Support learning and growth across difference
      
    • Listening at multiple levels
      
    • Emotional Labor/Intelligence
      
    • Vulnerability with others
      
    • Transparency

Chapter contributions will be welcome for the following sections 2-4. *Note: The sections may be tweaked or changed to better organize contributions cohesively. We want to remain open to having your contributions better shape the text.

Part 2: Facilitative Leadership’s Power/Potential for Helping Address Divisiveness

• Case study
• Use language of our proposed Facilitative Leadership framework
• Challenges and opportunities for the practice of Facilitative Leadership

Part 3: Facilitative Leadership’s Impact on Campuses

• Initiatives and Programs
• How does the proposed Facilitative Leadership framework guide curricular/co-curricular development (for students) and/or professional development (for staff and faculty) on college campuses

Part 4: Facilitative Leadership’s Influence in Communities

• How does Facilitative Leadership shape work in local communities (beyond the boundaries of higher ed)

 
Part 5: Reflection and Conclusion (by the editors)

• A dialogue between the editors about the hope and promise of Facilitative Leadership
• Highlight questions for readers (instructors, students, government leaders, etc.)  to consider after reading the text

Appendix:

• List of other resources available