Applying a Relational Approach in the Trump Administration?

It’s been one of those happy days when a journal article promising to be practical actually is, and might even be applicable to a paper I’m trying to finish. The article is about how local government-level senior managers in the United Kingdom use storytelling and narratives to get their work done and even improve their organizations. (You can find a blurb here, and the citation is: Orr, K. and Bennett, M. (2016), Relational Leadership, Storytelling, and Narratives: Practices of Local Government Chief Executives. Public Administration Review. doi:10.1111/puar.12680.) It is kind of a stretch to apply it to my paper, which is about public diplomacy at the subnational and national levels in the U.S., but they share the challenge in good governance to being an empathic, pragmatic, i.e., relational, leader. Letting my imagination wander a bit, maybe through the back door of federal level administrators, the following insights on managing relations with elected and appointed officials could be informative. See for yourself in this excerpt from pages 9-10 if you agree that the authors certainly offer vivid storytelling tactics:

"Managing Political Relations with Council Leaders

A second vivid story about relations with politicians—one that he uses in staff development settings—was provided by another chief executive. He recounts the tale in order to demonstrate the subtle art of leadership influence.


Story 8: Homer
A senior director and I wrote a book for a strategic planning series back in the day. We sent it to the publishers in February… In May the Conservatives won a majority, and this guy Homer, became deputy leader of the council and although he had very little formal education, he was a very astute guy. Harry and I decided we would try and get him interested in strategic matters because we knew that the leader was a “paper clip counter,” there was no way that the leader was going to have any understanding of anything strategic so we thought we’d work on the Deputy. So we started feeding Homer ideas, involving him in discussions and he was a very quick learner. In July our book was published and we gave him a complimentary copy and he came back to us a few days later. He said he was “very pleased to see that we’d picked up his ideas!” We d sent it to the publishers in February, long before he was on he scene, but he genuinely believed that they were his ideas and that we ’ d used them in our book! I tell that as a story about how although visible leadership is very important, so is invisible leadership. Sometimes people will only be  led if they think it was their idea in the first place. The chief executive is developing the strategic awareness of the political leader through talk and reading. The story suggests how ideas emerge within a relational network and are coproduced by actors. At first glance, Homer takes the chief executive ’ s ideas and claims them as his own. A relational lens suggests that in the process of everyday conversations (“setting to work on Homer”), the
authorship and ownership of ideas become jointly assumed. Over time, this episode became the basis of an instructional story that the chief executive shares to illustrate the complexity of that officer– member relationship to aid others’ learning. This relationship between elected politicians and administrators is regarded as a fundamental question in the study and practice of public administration (Georgiou 2014 ; Svara 2006 ; Wilson 1887 ; Zhang and Feiock 2010 ). Another chief executive described her role as a “buffer” between officers and members and said an important part of her job is to translate one part of the organization to the other and to enable communication between officers and politicians….

“The account suggests how leadership is collective and emergent within the to-ing and froing of organizational life. Political narratives are thus coproduced by a series of actors and networks in relation with each other.”

The storyteller’s scheme may sound manipulative, but haven’t many of us experienced failure when we haven’t taken the time to understand a politician’s priorities and behavior – to relate to her? I reckon that dialogue, public recognition of “her” good ideas, are “invisible leadership” rather than manipulation.  

P.S. For you organization and governance theory geeks, the authors engage Karl Weick’s organizational sensemaking approach, about which I have been obsessing for a decade. Hats off also to their engagement with Mark Bevir’s work on governance and storytelling, which underscore the increasing relevance of informality in public administration and all of the functions of government.

New volume on public diplomacy out in January!

Looking for some news you can use in this time of sound-bitten political transition? The 11 contributors to Nontraditional U.S. Public Diplomacy: Past, Present, and Future provide historical analysis, practice-based evidence, and forward-leaning insights for new and continuing actors in U.S. diplomacy’s expanding public dimension. The book is the U.S. Public Diplomacy Council’s newest volume in the Public Diplomacy Council’s series and will be available at amazon.com by mid-January. Find out more about the January 9th launch event in D.C. and the video of the panel discussion that will be available by the 11th.

The volume showcases key innovations and lessons in U.S. diplomacy since WWI. It delivers to practitioners, analysts, students, and others compelling engagement strategies and primary research for shaping and communicating policy among increasingly diverse, collaborative, and powerful publics.

Bob Coonrod on the book:

In his engaging opening chapter, Ambassador Quainton points to the ascendant “power of the public,” and the illusiveness of consensus on the meaning or practice of public diplomacy.  What then can we make of a book about the past, present, and, daresay, the future of U.S. public diplomacy?

Quite a bit.  

Collectively, the 11 chapters cover a broad array of topics, eras, and situations. They range from the very concrete – U.S. failure in Viet Nam -- to aspirational, evolving transnational applied cultural networks. Yet, inherent in each essay is a simple insight. It is not about who pays for it or who approves it.  It is, and continues to be, about how we do it.  How we listen, engage, collaborate, assess.

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Being the Change I Want to See in the World

The U.S. presidential election of 2016 is over,  and I feel sure that the tumult will continue. More than ever, our democracy needs collaborative, inclusive governance with citizen needs at the center of partisan and governmental policy.

What in blazes does that mean? It means each of us seeking out and listening to one another, ears open and voices quiet. We don't have to agree with each other after one conversation.

I live in a "blue" state with a "red" governor. My state has not experienced a seismic event in the last week, but I have work to do as a citizen to help extinguish spot fires. I am trying to figure out with my increasingly ethnically, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse neighbors, friends, and colleagues what we each can do individually and together to make sense of the political transition we are experiencing.

With sympathy and empathy. Smiling and caring. Patience, reflection, meditation. This is my challenge, and I look to other democracies across the globe for insight, for so many nations are also in tumult.

I have the power to be collaborative, inclusive, and deliberative. This power is bigger than party politics and competition for office, or bureaucracy. It is basic to the preservation of self-government in the United States.

Listening to the world, the nation, my neighbors, friends, and family, I draw strength and compassion. They will be necessary, because citizen-centered governance of increasingly diverse societies is a change that will take a long time.  

     

For U.S. Higher-Ed Institutions: Grant Opportunity Now Open!

My USC/Center on Public Diplomacy research fellowship recently found me in contact with Partners of the Americas. They are again accepting proposals for "Capacity Building Grants." These are flexible, strategic grants sponsored by the U.S. Department of State to help launch or expand diverse college and university study abroad programs. Check out this opportunity here.

Transnational Public-Private Partnership for Disease Control and other Humanitarian Purposes

I've been blogging over at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy for the past year in connection with my non-resident research fellowship there, and the fieldwork has taken an interesting turn. In the ever-converging space of diplomacy's public dimension and international development comes a response to the Zika outbreak through public-private partnering. As the mosquito-borne virus spreads, the costs of controling it mount. Governments at all levels in the Americas are working on mosquito eradication, public awareness, and a vaccine. On July 13th, the U.S. Department of State's Office of Global Partnerships and the Bureau of Oceans & International Environmental & Scientific Affairs will convene a "Public-Private Sector Roundtable Discussion on Zika." With so much relevant experience in international crisis response and scientific collaboration, most recently around the Ebola epidemic, discussants will surely be sharing plenty of lessons learned and effective practices. I'll be listening and offering what I can on communication and media interaction as well as culturally sensitive outreach and engagement with citizens in affected nations and their diasporas, pharmaceutical and pest control corporations, philanthropies, and governmental agencies in the U.S. and abroad. Here's hoping for a robust convening that adds to our toolkit for whole-community, sustainable development.        

The Three D's +

 

Donald Bishop, immediate past president of the Public Diplomacy Council recently posted on the efforts of Christopher Holshek to promote the effectiveness of diplomacy, development, defense and the boost they are given by peacebuilding. Chris' work is is a prime example of field-based capacity-building that integrates the Three D's. They are only sustainable through peacebuilding.

--Debbie Trent

 

The Importance of Listening

Harold H. Saunders was a diplomat who helped accomplish a lot in US-Middle Eastern relations and beyond, but he also made a substantial contribution to democratic governance. Saunders passed away on March 6th at age 85. He is remembered In one obituary for compelling young adults to focus on listening beyond talking in order to understand and learn:

“Dialogue is not about talking,” Dr. Saunders said in a 2011 commencement address at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania. “It’s first about listening. Dialogue is one person listening deeply and carefully enough to another to be changed by what she or he hears.”

Thank you, Harold Saunders, for your dedication to the art and science of dialogue for constructive coexistence, understanding and change.

-Debbie Trent

Free public celebration of Middle Eastern American Heritage: March 16th

MIDDLE EASTERN COMMUNITY

Montgomery County to Celebrate Middle Eastern American Heritage Month on March 16

The event, on Wednesday March 16, will include a proclamation presentation by County Executive Ike Leggett, a performance by world renowned opera singer Lubana Al Quntar, a presentation by Arab American Institute Executive Director Maya Berry, cultural exhibits, and information and resources.

The event will run from 6-8 p.m. at the Executive Office Building Cafeteria, 101 Monroe St., in Rockville.

 

The public is welcome and the event is free, but registration is encouraged given that space is limited.


Those planning to attend should RSVP Mimi Hassanein, Middle Eastern Liaison with the county's Office of Community Partnerships by email or by phone at 240-777-4949. 

Members of the Middle Eastern American Advisory Group met with County Executive Ike Leggett on February 8 to discuss budget priorities for FY2017. 

-Debbie Trent

MEAAG 022016.jpg

 

Pictured (L to R): Samira Hussein, Mahasty Sharifi, Akhtar Zubairi, Amjad Chaudry, County Executive, Sarah Iranpour, Mumtaz Jahan, Mimi Hassanein, Deborah Trent.

The publics are coming! The publics are here! The corporations are coming! The corporations are here!

A variation on the 1966 film "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming" speaks to a steady pattern in international relations whose origins could be arguably be dated to the emergence of the nation-state but certainly is vivid today. Global publics are increasingly powerful, and we know that private firms are, too. This piece in The Atlantic - http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/10/the-real-reason-saudi-arabia-doesn-t-want-friendlier-us-iran-relations/281013/?utm_source=feedburner&&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher#When:01:52:20Z (hat tip to the USC Public Diplomacy Center RSS) is only my most recent reminder of the commercial drive for profit in nascent or re-emerging markets, whether or not governments are ready for it. Where do the meanings of "public" and "governmental" and "private" begin and end? Ever boundary-spanning diplomats have to navigate and mediate between and across the overlapping interests and identities of civil society ethnic groups, co-religionists, unions and political activists (to mention just a few), their budget- and turf-conscious embassy and home ministry colleagues as well kick-start entrepreneurs and corporate giants. How? Public-private partnership -- a proliferating organizational patchwork with which scholars and government actors can barely keep up -- at our peril. In spite of the rise of independence-through-information and de- and self-regulation, these three dimensions of global society are interdependent and people still crave the rule of law and credible institutions. PPPs are coming! PPPs are here!

-Debbie Trent 

Global Relations and Plastic Blocks

This story by Public Radio International

http://pri.org/stories/2013-10-11/building-peace-and-security-one-lego-brick-time?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WhatsNewInPd+%28What%27s+New+in+Public+Diplomacy%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher#When:21:30:51Z 

hits home for me. I need to go back through my files for a photo where, as a Fulbright program manager for the U.S. Information Agency, conducting outreach and recruitment, I used some of my son's Legos to demonstrate how individual fellowships, international visitor exchanges, speaker programs, American studies, and institutional partnerships can be coupled to build strong international relationships among global publics and private firms. As my study and teaching of public diplomacy become more oriented toward cross-sector, participatory peacebuilding, I have continued to use the Lego analogy, most recently this week, working with a community college expand their global humanities programs. The new UN Lego set is on my list for holiday gifts and a donation to my congregation's social justice and education programs!

-Debbie Trent

 

New theory-building for better development practices!

Kudos to dear friend and colleague, Khaldoun AbouAssi:

http://bush.tamu.edu/news/index.php/story/new_research_on_ngo_donor_relations_wins_prestigious_award

New Research on NGO-Donor Relations Wins Prestigious Award

October 1, 2013

Research by a professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University on relations between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their donors will be recognized by the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) with the prestigious Gabriel G. Rudney Memorial Award for Outstanding Dissertation in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action for 2013. Dr. Khaldoun AbouAssi will receive the award at ARNOVA’s annual meeting in November.

“Hands in the Pockets of Mercurial Donors: How Three Theories Explain NGO Responses to Shifting Funding Priorities” demonstrates how volatile relationships between NGOs in developing countries and international donors can affect the missions and behaviors of NGOs. The research focuses on Dr. AbouAssi’s native country of Lebanon.

“I found that NGOs respond to changes in funding in a variety of ways.  I studied the response of four environmental NGOs to shifts in the funding decisions of two common donors,” said AbouAssi.  “The responses from the NGOs to the changing donor priorities ranged from suspending the relationship with the donor, to trying to reach common ground and maintain the relationship, to automatically executing the donor’s interests and adapting to the situation.  I then used quantitative data to show that these responses were influenced by NGO dependence on the donor and the ties NGOs have in local donor networks. Understanding how donors think and how their priorities can affect the important work of NGOs can be a key to increasing NGO effectiveness in critical areas of the developing world,” he added.

The Rudney Award selection committee cited AbouAssi’s dissertation for its attention to theory, contributions to the field of research, and relevance to both nonprofit organizations and the broader environment in which voluntary organizations participate. The committee also noted the research’s innovative approach and challenging field work and that it moved theory forward in a non-Western context.

“We’re delighted to see Dr. AbouAssi’s excellent work recognized with this prestigious award,” said Bush School Dean Ryan Crocker.  “It is yet another indication of the high quality of our faculty and the impact their research has on public policy around the world.”

AbouAssi holds a PhD in public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.  He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public administration from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.  He publishes extensively on NGOs and international development issues, and has trained civil servants and NGO executives on citizen participation, fund development, volunteerism, and collaboration.

-Debbie Trent

A Syrian American community that is divided, but hopefully not forever

If you have not already been introduced to the radio program "Marketplace," allow me.
Here's a sample story on which I couldn't resist commenting:

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/syrian-americans-find-ways-help-afar



Palestinian youths flash V-signs while they hold Syrian flags during a pro-Syrian demonstration November 18, 2005 in Gaza City, Gaza Strip.
How best to deal with the extremely messy situation in Syria?
That’s the question the U.S. government and the international community are wrestling with right now. But it’s one that Syrian expats have wrestled with in a different, more intimate way for more than two years.
Metro Detroit has one of the nation’s largest and oldest Syrian communities. How have they dealt with the crisis? How are they using the community’s social and economic resources to help? 
A long history, but strong ties
Syrians started migrating to Detroit more than 100 years ago.
But today, many are newer immigrants who still have close ties to Syria.
Recently, about one hundred Syrian-Americans gathered at a tidy park in suburban Detroit. They chanted and held banners depicting scenes of atrocities in Syria, including victims of a chemical weapons attack attributed to President Bashar Al-Assad.  
Ibrahim Alkeilani stood on the fringes of the protest, holding the flag of the Syrian revolution. He said it’s hard to even get ahold of relatives in Syria.  And when you do, conversations take place in a kind of code.
“I call it secret Syrian ways of communication,” said Alkeilani. “We use funny words, and different expressions, basically to evade Syrian monitoring of the telephone lines.”
Even before the uprising against Assad’s government more than two years ago, there were nearly as many Syrians living outside Syria as there were inside.
And right now, those inside Syria rely on family members abroad more than ever.
Wael Hakmeh, a Syrian-American born and raised in the U.S., said it’s not easy to send money to his in-laws there. At this point, ex-pats basically have to find someone to smuggle money directly into the country. And even then, there are dangers to spending U.S. dollars in Syria.
“The Assad regime now is jailing people who use currency other than the Syrian pound,” Hakmeh said, “and they don’t want the continued devaluation of the pound.”
Finding ways to help from afar
Hakmeh is an emergency room physician. There are lots of doctors in Michigan’s Syrian community. Some have even gone back to Syria to provide medical aid.
There are other ways for Syrian-Americans to help out from afar—like frequent fundraisers for humanitarian assistance.
“Consistently, these fundraisers have all raised over a million dollars,” said Lena Masri, a Syrian-American attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Michigan.
One thing southeast Michigan’s Syrian community doesn’t lack is money. And they’ve raised millions upon millions of dollars in relief funds over the last two years, with the vast majority going to help the refugees in the camps that have sprung up around Syria’s borders.
Masri said what they do lack is manpower -- especially to help refugees who have ended up in the U.S. She’s taken on dozens of refugee cases, for those claiming political asylum and also what’s known as “temporary protected status.”
Masri said the community isn’t seeing a truly overwhelming number of Syrian refugees -- yet. But there are some, and she has personally taken on dozens of cases.
Masri said an informal network of support has popped up to support refugees here. She’s seen applications showing that many receive money, housing and other support from Syrian-Americans.
“They’ve consistently been able to list others who have provided financial support from shelter to utilities to, you know every day expenses,” Masri said. “And these are people who don’t necessarily know each other.”
“A generation of refugees receiving another generation of refugees”
That kind of generosity -- even from strangers -- is something Dr. Adnan Hamad has seen again and again. He works for Arab-American Center for Economic and Social Services in Dearborn.
Over the course of decades, Hamad has seen waves of refugees from the Middle East -- Lebanese, Iraqis, and now increasingly Syrians -- arrive in metro Detroit. He said that absorbing these refugees is almost second nature to Detroit’s large Arab-American community.
“This community is about a generation of immigrants receiving a second generation of immigrants,” Hamad said. “A generation of refugees receiving another influx of refugees.”
These networks of support are impressive, but not all is rosy. The civil conflict in Syria has split Detroit’s Syrian community. There are rebel supporters like the protesters above, but there’s also a pro-Assad faction. The conflict has ended friendships and split families.
But Hamad is confident the larger Arab-American community will pull together to support displaced Syrians.
 “I think the community is going to be more helpful to the Syrian refugees than any other influx of refugees that we have received in the past,” he said.
And Hamad, once a Palestinian refugee himself, has seen a number of families arrive in Michigan traumatized, penniless and friendless. And he says within a few years, many have re-built their lives to the point where they’re the ones contributing the most to the next wave of refugees.

About the author

Sarah Cwiek is a reporter who joined Michigan Radio in October 2009.

Blogging on the intersection of peacebuilding and public diplomacy

Dear Members of the U.S. Congress:

Don't forget to fund a robust international peacebuilding effort! International diplomacy depends on the partnerships we build through non-violent communication from the local to the global levels. This recently published peace
http://www.allianceforpeacebuilding.org/2013/09/peacebuildings-vital-role-in-national-security-best-value-for-impact-at-all-levels/ is a collaboration with a dear friend and former U.S. Information Agency colleague, Michael Graham.

-Debbie Trent

 

Celebrating the past and enjoying the present

My dear aunt, Lorna Michaelson, passed away July 20th. She was a concert pianist and music educator 

http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/219131771.html?

Image courtesy of www.theaustralian.com.au

but I will continue to honor all Arab American artists, including Aunt Lorna, for their contributions to world-class song and dance. 

-Debbie Trent

An emerging trend in public diplomacy and development?

A nation's soft power has in a recent blog posting in The Guardian (hat tip to USC's CPD) been suggested as a governmental tool and process to alleviate poverty while increasing governmental credibility http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/aug/02/britain-aid-soft-power?CMP=twt_fd&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WhatsNewInPd+%28What%27s+New+in+Public+Diplomacy%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher#When:19:33:09Z

Is this a "blip on the screen" of trends in PD and international development, or an emerging trend? It's noteworthy that the blog is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, too, another major "influencer" and partner in governmental efforts to reduce poverty and disease.

-Debbie Trent

Arab Diaspora Event

I have been following the progress of a fairly recent organization,  https://www.facebook.com/arabempowerment . They are DC-based but have strong links through the U.S. and the MENA region. On August 18th they are convening a conference to get even more mobilized on socioeconomic development projects for the region. See
http://www.plussocialgood.org/Post/Harnessing-Global-Arab-Talents-Enabling-Arab-Diaspora-Knowledge-Transfer-Online-SocialGood/d2ba02bc-9570-4beb-b53f-29fb151b061f

Article on peacebuilding in Syria

The article at http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/lebanon/130801/syria-peace-lebanon-taif-accords?page=0,1 is by Reese Ehrlich, entitled "Do Lebanon's Taif Accords offer lessons for Syrian peace?" It may be a bit biased toward the Taif Accords, but the comments by the Lebanese interviewed are worth a read, for overall context now, for the hopefully-not-too-distant future when all sides put down their weapons.