Our Well Being Warriors
Janine Mason and Anne Vincent have been recognized as WELL-BEING WARRIORS by the Well Being and Equity Network. The national recognition was bestowed on them for their work in creating and offering the Clare Rose Sabbatical Program to support and sustain nonprofit leaders. They are part of a group of 18 leaders recognized from across the country.
The Well Being and Warrior Challenge’s purpose is to highlight people, organizations and businesses whose efforts support healthy outcomes for their communities and those who identify and remove obstacles and increase access to well-being and healthy living. To read more, visit http://wellbeingandequity.net/well-being-warriors/
Janine and Anne created the Clare Rose Sabbatical in 2013. Offered as part of the Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego, the capacity building program offers nonprofit leaders the opportunity to leave their organization with three months paid leave. This allows the top leader time for rest and renewal while providing members of the organization’s leadership team the opportunity to lead the organization in ways that are only possible with the CEO’s absence.
To date, Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego has awarded 23 
sabbaticals to nonprofits in Orange and San Diego Counties, including Make A Wish San Diego, North County Lifeline, Pacific Arts Movement, 211 San Diego, Malashock Dance, Mama’s Kitchen, TransenDANCE, I Love A Clean San Diego, Maninly Mozart, Ivey Ranch, Access Youth Academy, Resounding Joy and United Women of East Africa Support Team, New Village Arts, Families Forward, OneOC, HomeAid Orange County, Mercy House, Susan G Koman OC Grandma’s House of Hope, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation OC and Friendship Shelter.
Since its first cohort, Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego has worked with the University of San Diego’s Nonprofit Research Center to codify the results of the Clare Rose Sabbatical Program. Research shows top leaders return re-energized and inspired to continue their work, a clearer understanding of the organization by members of the board of directors and an increased capacity of the senior leadership team. To date, three interim leaders have gone on to assume Executive Director roles in the nonprofit sector.
Beginning in 2020, the Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego will grant two Clare Rose Sabbaticals to nonprofits serving San Diego County. Each Sabbatical grant is worth $50,000 and includes a consultant to help the organization with preparation and planning. Applications are due January 30, 2020.
The Well Being and Warrior Challenge is a project of the Well Being and Equity Network in partnership with the Leadership Learning Community and is funded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Well-being and Equity Bridging (WEB) Network is a network of multiple organizations, groups and people working on multifaceted issues to develop solutions that optimize the chances people have to lead the healthiest of lives possible. The Challenge is an opportunity to shine a light on people, businesses, and organizations working to support every person in their communities to live the healthiest lives possible by investing their time and energy into bettering the communities they are a part of and to encourage others to do the same.
Congratulations to Anne and Janine on this well deserved recognition and for their work to make our communities and our nonprofit leaders strong and healthy.
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Welcome Mary Corbett!
We are excited to welcome Mary Corbett to the Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego Family. Mary joins the team as our Network Administrator. In this role, she is responsible for the overall management of the administrative aspects of each of the eight programs in the Network.
Mary earned her PhD in chemistry from Stanford University. She is a former research scientist with a record of publications in high-profile journals turned effective community organizer with key management, communication, and marketing responsibilities at multiple non-profits, including Helen Woodward Animal Center, youth sports leagues, and education foundations. She lives in Scripps Ranch with her husband and twin sons.
Mary will be working in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. She can be reached at [email protected] and (858) 283-8795.
In the next few weeks, Mary will be meeting Network Members in our Leadership Reading Group program, at our Fieldstone @ 4 holiday gathering, Coaching Meeting, and a Creative Encounters by Fieldstone training. If you will be joining us for an event or training over the next few weeks, make sure to find Mary and introduce yourself.
Welcome Mary!
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NEW Sabbatical Spotlight: North County Lifeline
To date, FLNSD has awarded 23 sabbaticals to nonprofit organizations in San Diego and Orange County. Past participants include, Mama’s Kitchen, Make A Wish San Diego, Mainly Mozart, 211 San Diego, Pacific Arts Movement, Malashock Dance, I Love A Clean San Diego, Ivey Ranch Association, TransenDANCE, Resounding Joy, Access Youth Academy, East African Women’s xxxx and New Village Arts. 
Mason Invited To Leadership Design Studio
Twice a year, a small group of 10-12 thoughtful, dedicated leaders from across the country are invited to West River, Maryland to participate in the Leadership Design Studio. Hosted as part of the Reflective Leadership Project, the program is led by Dr. Judy Sorum Brown. Janine Mason, founder and architect of the Fieldstone Leadership Network, was selected to participate in the Fall cohort, which wrapped up its initial work last week.
The purpose of the Leadership Design Studio is:
- to provide leaders with tools and skills to design and facilitate vibrant, engaging leadership development experiences for others,
- to augment and strengthen their existing knowledge base and skills,
- to open a practice field for creating, testing and applying what they are learning and
- to connect them with a cross-sector network of colleagues for support and counsel in their ongoing leadership development work.
“The opportunity to learn from an icon in the leadership field was such a gift, as was the chance to meet others working in leadership program design. Every day was full of rich material, learning and relationship building. And each day went by so quickly, which was further proof of the richness of the experience. I am excited to bring back all that I have learned to our Network in San Diego”, reflects Mason.
The program included the examination of the principles that undergird quality leadership development work: among them high engagement, engaging diversity of perspective, creating reflective space, including a variety of learning processes, and strategies for modeling and embedding these in one’s program design. The cohort explored a rich collection of timeless print and other media resources for use in leadership development programs and received a tool kit of take-away resources with an emphasis on classic, timeless, cross-cultural materials.
Judy Brown is an educator, speaker, facilitator, poet and writer whose work in organizations revolves around themes of leadership, change, learning, dialogue and creativity. She holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University, and has served as a White House Fellow, Special Assistant to the US Secretary of Labor, Chief Financial Officer, Assistant Dean and Director of Executive Programs of the College of Business and Management at the University of Maryland, and Vice President for Seminars and Cooperative Programs of the Aspen Institute. Joining Judy as a co-facilitator was Kathleen Glaser.
Kathleen has served public schools as a teacher, principal, college professor, supervisor of student teachers, and co-founder of the Chesapeake Public Charter School in southern Maryland. She received the Washington Post Distinguished Educational Leadership Award and has a life-long passion for creating trustworthy learning spaces and communities. A wise mentor, she is skilled at fostering the leadership development of others.
Much like Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego, the Leadership Design Studio fostered a time of deep learning and relationship building enabling cohort members to return home with a trusted collection of colleagues to support and encourage them going forward. Watch for new offerings as Janine infuses what she has learned into our Network.
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Facilitation for Racial Justice Work
In our work as leaders, knowing about structural racism and understanding the difference between “inclusion” and “equity” is one thing; being effective at helping other people talk about them is another. As Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego prepares to facilitate conversations and hold space for our Network Members to explore issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in the nonprofit sector and beyond, FLNSD Director Janine Mason and FLNSD consultants Lee Ann Kim and Barry Schultz participated in a two-day intensive facilitator training presented by the InterAction Institute for Social Change. 
The training, which took place in Oakland, California and included participants from across the country, focused on teaching facilitators to develop practical skills and tools for guiding others through productive conversations about race, racism, and racial justice that build understanding and agreement. The workshop focused on five essential practices of racial justice leadership:
- Understand Racial Identity Development
- Understand the System of Racialization
- See Systems & Weave Networks
- Facilitate Understanding and Agreement
- Discover Shared Meaning
The team from Fieldstone attended the training as part of their preparation for the Fall 2020 leadership retreat which is being offered in response to various calls from Network members for opportunities to learn and reflect on social justice. Recognized for offering safe spaces for leaders to be brave, FLNSD is using the Courage to Lead retreat framework for leaders to consider issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. This uniquely designed leadership experience, entitled “Searching for the Heart of Democracy in Historic and Hallowed Places”, will allow leaders to consider their place in the ongoing efforts to respectfully engage with and lead others in addressing these challenges. Offered as a contribution to our community’s efforts to advance these critical issues throughout the nonprofit sector and in the broader world, this retreat will provide leaders with time and space to learn experientially, to reflect personally and to engage in communal conversations about the social justice challenges we have faced historically and are encountering currently in our country.
“Searching for the Heart of Democracy in Historic and Hallowed Places” will convene in Montgomery, Alabama and include visits to the Capitol Steps where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed 25,000 people who gathered at the end of the Selma to Montgomery March, the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, the newly opened National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum. Within the backdrop of our nation’s most hallowed places, San Diego leaders will gather to consider and reflect on the questions they may be holding about their role in carrying on the courageous legacies of yesterday and answering the pressing calls to action of today.
If you are interested in joining us for these discussions, please visit our website for more information about our upcoming retreat, “Seaching for the Heart of Democracy in Historic and Hallowed Places” and email us at [email protected] to be put on the interest list.
4th Leadership Reading Group Begins
This month, our fourth Leadership Reading Group in San Diego started with an updated curriculum, additional program components and a new book list!!
Research has shown that reading has always been an essential component of leadership development (HBR, Feb. 2016). However, even with the best of intentions, it is often difficult to get to or finish all of the books competing for our attention. With a goal of creating well-read nonprofit leaders while imparting facilitation skills and building trusted relationships among nonprofit leaders, the Leadership Reading Group offers a unique opportunity to study and develop leadership in a communal setting.
Learning about leadership through literature is not new. Stanford, Harvard and Northwestern, to name a few, host courses using fiction and nonfiction to look at and learn about leadership. As Harvard professor Joseph Badaracco, Jr. states, “Literature lets us watch leaders as they think, worry, hope, hesitate, commit, exult, regret and reflect. As we are able to see their characters tested, reshaped, strengthened or weakened, our view of leadership is broadened and our self-knowledge is deepened enabling us to be more effective as leaders and managers.” This is the hope of our leadership reading group program.
Our program is led by professional literary facilitator, Stefanie Schiff. The group will study leadership using a three month rotation of fiction, non-fiction and business/trade books. The program features a carefully cultivated book list from which members can choose for their monthly reading and peer facilitation opportunity.
Currently, Fieldstone Leadership Network hosts four separate leadership reading groups. Every group has continued to meet regularly after the “completion” of the 10-month program.
Welcome to the 12 nonprofit leaders who have committed themselves to study leadership through literature: Sara Boquin, Barrio Logan College Institute; Kristen Fogle, San Diego Writers, Ink.; Diane Hazard, Solana Center; Monte Jones, Logan Heights CDC; Lesslie Keller, Episcopal Community Services, Tomoko Kuta, The New Children’s Museum; Kent Lee, Pacific Arts Movement; Jennifer Litwak, Housing on Merit; Michelle Schneider, Center for Creative Leadership; Mary Jo Schumann; Lorena Slomanson, Legal Aid Society of SD; Agnes Zsigovics, SAY San Diego.
Professor Badaracco writes that if leaders “want to understand and lead men and women around them they need to observe closely, noticing telling details, reading between the lines, setting work in the context of life, looking for lessons learned from hard challenges, and reflecting on how other’s answers compare with our own.” Self-reflection and the understanding that comes from it has always been a part of Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego’s programming, and our Leadership Reading Group is no exception. Over the next 10-months, these leaders will do this together. It promises to be a meaningful journey.
And we can’t wait to see the books they choose for their studies!!
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Author’s Insights with Jocelyn Davis
Author’s Insights is an opportunity for members of our Leadership Reading Group (LRG) Program to delve more deeply into leadership concepts with an author whose book was read in the program. Following the tradition set by American Booksellers Association in 1938 to provide a forum for authors to speak about their work, Author’s Insights is uniquely focused at furthering our understanding of leadership by furnishing members with a unique and intimate environment to explore the leadership concepts featured by the author in his or her book. Members are invited to examine the leadership theories posited by the author in a trade book or probe the leadership which was or was not exercised by an author’s characters in a work of fiction or non-fiction.
Today’s event featured Jocelyn Davis, author of The Art of Quiet Influence. Davis traveled from Sante Fe, New Mexico to spend time with members of Fieldstone’s Leadership Reading Group program. Members from each of the four groups currently hosted by FLNSD were in attendance, as well as a leader from our sister program in Orange County. The program was hosted at Villa Musica. Villa Musica’s Executive Director, Fiona Chatwin, is a member of LRG 3.
Drawing on the wisdom of Eastern traditions, Davis focuses on 12 “quiet influence practices”, including encouraging other to express objections and doubts, developing a shared outlook, converting adversaries into allies and doing the daily work necessary for success. Today’s discussion, facilitated by LRG 2 member Linnea Searle, highlighted the areas of interest to the members including the difference between “culture” and “climate”, the true meaning of reciprocity and the importance of demonstrating care for others. Reciprocity and Cultivation of Care are two of FLNSD’s organizational values and a rich discussion was had about how this influences and impacts our work individually and collectively.
After enjoying lunch and vibrant conversation together, Jocelyn graciously signed books for each member of the Network who was in attendance. 
FLNSD’s Leadership Reading Groups started in 2016. The 10-month program is designed purposely to develop disciplined readers, cultivate facilitation skills and build cross-sectoral relationships. Members work jointly on the facilitation of a reading group session and develop trusted relationships with each other through discussions and shared insight. To date, all groups have continued to meet regularly after the completion of the “official” program.
The next Author’s Insight will be on December 11, 2019 and feature Elizabeth Cobbs, author of The Tubman Command.
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Seeking the Heart of Social Justice in Historic and Hallowed Places – A Leadership Retreat
Recognized for creating safe space for brave conversations and learning, the Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego is designing a unique experience for nonprofit leaders to consider issues of divesity, equity, and inclusion and their place in the ongoing efforts to respectfully engage with others. Offered as a contribution to our community’s efforts to advance these critical issues throughout the nonprofit sector and in the broader world, this retreat will provide leaders with time and space to learn experientially, to reflect personally and to engage in communal conversations about the social justice challenges we have faced historically and are encountering currently in our country.
The retreat will be offered in Fall 2020.
Please check our website in early 2020 for additional information, including dates, registration forms and fees. If you would like to be added to our Retreat Interest List, please email [email protected] to let her know. 
Authors Insights – A New Edition to our Leadership Reading Group
We are pleased to announce that we have incorporated lunch with an author as a formal part of our Leadership Reading Group. The seeds for this program were planted by our first reading group with an invitation to local author, Brandon Black. Black’s visit to the group was so powerful, the group invited another local author, Scott A. Huesing, to join them the following year. This year, two authors will join members of three reading groups to discuss their work.
Author’s Insights is an opportunity for members of our Reading Group Program to delve more deeply into leadership concepts with an author whose book was read in the program. Following the tradition set by American Booksellers Association in 1938 to provide a forum for authors to speak about their work, Author’s Insights is uniquely focused at furthering our understanding of leadership by furnishing members with a unique and intimate environment to explore the leadership concepts featured by the author in his or her book. Members are invited to examine the leadership theories posited by the author in a trade book or probe the leadership which was or was not exercised by an author’s characters in a work of fiction or non-fiction.
After enjoying lunch and vibrant conversation together, authors are available to sign and personalize their books for each member.
Author’s Insights has featured:
Brandon Black, Ego Free Leadership – September 2017
Scott A. Huesing, Echo in Ramadi: The Firsthand Story of U.S Marines In Iraq’s Deadliest City – September 2018
2019 Author’s Insights will feature:
Jocelyn Davis, The Quiet Art of Influence – September 9, 2019
Elizabeth Cobbs, The Tubman Command – December 11, 2019
Leadership Reading Groups start each fall. The 10 – month program reads a rotation of trade books, fiction and non-fiction books through a leadership lens, includes the opportunity to learn from a professional facilitator and to personally facilitate a session with a fellow Group member. The program helps to develop disciplined readers and facilitation skills so members are able to use literature as a training tool with their organization or team. To apply, or for more information, please visit our Leadership Reading Group under the program tab.
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Values to Lead By
As part of our recent organizational transformation, Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego has completed a process of evaluating and updating its organizational values. This effort lead to six values which reflect the manner in which we do our work, the type of community we are cultivating and incorporates the spirit of the original corporate values which had
guided our way since they were established in 1981 by The Fieldstone Company.
Our mission to provide reciprocal learning opportunities which build, deepen and sustain personal and professional capabilities and relationships among nonprofit professionals so they are better able to lead, collaborate, and problem solve are now driven by the following values:
- Continuous Learning – We listen to our nonprofit members, evaluate our programs and apply what we learn.
- Hospitality and Belonging – We cultivate environments for brave conversations, personal development and relationship building to occur.
- Trust and Confidentiality – We honor confidentiality as a cornerstone of our work. We trust staff, members, facilitators and partners to join us in upholding the legacy of confidentiality in all we do.
- Reciprocity – We value the give and take of wisdom, expertise, and resources between each other.
- Diversity – We commit ourselves to be inclusive, inviting nonprofit leaders of a variety of backgrounds, experiences, cultures, and agency-focus to join our work.
- Cultivation of Care – We encourage leaders to take care of themselves, so they may sustain their passion, continue the serious work they do in our community and lead others by example.
To further communicate our values, we crafted a manifesto to reflect who we are and how we lead:
We are the Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego. A community of leaders united in the spirit of reciprocity and committed to continuous learning. We create spaces for brave conversations and cultivate environments of hospitality and belonging for people of diverse backgrounds, experiences and cultures to nourish each other and grow together. Trust and confidentiality are the cornerstones of our work. We lead by example and cultivate care for ourselves and each other in order to sustain our passion for our work.
We believe in the transformational power of leadership.
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