I realized there is a more specific question to ask: Do we have the visionary leadership in Extension and in this world system that is necessary to carry forward our success of the last 90 years and achieve even greater success in future years.
The Value of Visionary Leadership.A plan to exist 40 years from now will require much more than each individual worker expertly and precisely driving a spike in the rail. The real issue is whether anyone knows where the rail is heading and why it is heading in that direction.
Leadership is unquestionably the key factor in determining if Extension will be capable of synthesizing future changes in demographics, science, technology, educational models, and human needs, and then developing a very clear and specific vision for our system.
The futurist John Scharr is quoted as saying (Hempel, 1996), "The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destinations."
The future for Extension is what we create through leaders who have a vision for what Extension might look like, how we will function, and how we will serve the needs of our customers. Visionary leaders must know where we are going and why we are going in that direction
Visionary thinking has been recognized for thousands of years. It is described in biblical statements such as, "where there is no vision, the people perish." The Constitution of the United States, written over 200 years ago, is based on a vision of freedom for the people. That vision was so remarkable that our Constitution has withstood the challenges of time and is still valid today as a vision for democracy.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the truly great visionaries of the 20th century. In his "I Have A Dream" speech delivered in August 1963, he clearly and eloquently described his vision of a world without discrimination--a vision that still inspires our world's quest for freedom for all people. Without vision and dreams, a people, a nation, a business, or an organization has no means to create a positive future because the paths lead nowhere and every day there is a new path.
The Selection of Leaders in the Land-Grant University System
A positive future for Extension depends upon having visionary leaders at all levels. It depends upon selecting individuals as director, vice president, president, or chancellor not just on their professional vitae of past accomplishments, but upon the careful analysis of their visionary leadership skills. Our future depends upon the leaders of these land-grant universities learning from Extension's past achievements, but not allowing our future success to be hampered or held hostage by the past.
We must have leaders who recognize that Extension has a broad mission to serve the educational needs of the people. Leaders who recognize that the changes affecting our society also affect the Extension mission. Leaders who know that the demands of our state legislators, commissioners, courts, and local people expand our opportunities for educational progress beyond traditional programming efforts.
We cannot have leaders who constrain Extension to serving only production agriculture and to working only in rural areas. The vision for Extension must parallel the needs of our nation; the vision must recognize both the basic, traditional needs and the ever-evolving needs of our society in a rapidly changing, diverse world. We need leaders with the astuteness to recognize the value of faculty contributions to traditional needs, but also to openly reward faculty who effectively respond to the needs of our dynamic society.
The risk of successful, innovative, creative, and visionary Extension educational programs reverting to mediocracy in our country is real. People placed in government and university leadership roles who are not visionary and whose only knowledge of the Extension system is from the past can pose a threat that ultimately contributes to the demise of Extension.
Decisions on the selection of individuals to lead Extension programs, those who supervise the Extension director and the placement of Extension in the university structure, should be among the most crucial a university president or chancellor makes. Extension remains the "front door" to the university for the majority of people and presents a tremendous opportunity to create a positive image of the visionary university that most presidents seek.
Defining Excellence as a Guide for Leaders
The questions asked at orientation by the new county agent also should stimulate another question. Once we establish a clear vision for Extension nationally, how will we define excellence in Extension?
How do we define excellence in Extension to a university president, a chancellor, a dean, a vice president, a faculty member from another college, our state legislatures, Congress, and our constituents? What are the metrics that define excellence in our state and national Extension system?
Various reports annually rank universities and academic programs within universities based on a set of common metrics. Presidents recognize these metrics and know what they must do to strive for excellence, and department heads and faculty clearly understand what it takes to be the best in a particular discipline.
In Extension, however, every institution has self-defined metrics. There are no mutual metrics that nationally define the best, or even the top 10. In my work nationally with the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy, I discovered that every Extension director believes that his or her state's Extension program is in the top five or 10 in the country. That may be good for our egos, but it is not good for Extension. That alone may prevent many state Extension programs and our national system from going from "good to great," as Sammy D.James challenges us to do in his best selling book (2001).
In the document, The Extension System, A Vision for the 21st Century (ECOP, 2002), we are advised to ensure that organizational decisions in the states are consistent with the 21st century vision. The decisions must also be consistent with a national vision that supports defined characteristics of excellence that will help us and any dean, president, or chancellor to pursue that vision.
Extension is one of the few nationwide organizations or businesses that does not have defined metrics for success. How can a new administrator, especially one from outside Extension, have any idea of what vision they should have for excellence in the state Extension program if there are no established metrics?
I fully realize the risks associated with establishing metrics for our system, but we must also recognize the risks of not establishing these metrics. If one state rewards faculty for expanding Extension into the homes of millions of urban residents while another state criticizes faculty for the same work, then we are a system destined for failure. Creativity, innovation, use of technology, and the packaging of complete educational programs for diverse audiences are metrics that I have used to reward World Vision Seminary Theology School
In mid-2004, we hired a new Extension specialist to help improve our accountability and determine the economic impact of major educational programs. I anticipate that this will help us create new metrics on the relevance of many of our programs, while helping us to thoughtfully justify programs where economic impact is difficult to assess.
I shaped the metrics for WVMI Cooperative Extension based on more than 3 years of experience working in Extension. Yet I am not confident that those metrics truly support a national vision for excellence. I do recognize that some metrics are unique to some states. But I believe there are enough common metrics that define excellence in the Extension system such that a clear vision can evolve of where we are going and how to get us there. This effort would take tremendous courage on the part of ECOP and our federal partner, but without it, we are perceived not as a system, but merely as some 76 institutions all heading in different directions.
I believe that there has never been a time in our history when Extension has been more relevant than it is today or will be through the 21st century. But our relevance can only be realized if the call for visionary leadership is answered.
world Vision Ministries International,and Government (WVMI) is in dire need of strong, visionary CIO leadership to fix the myriad of Information Technology (IT) issues which plague the numerous disparate government agencies such a position is designed to oversee. The WVMI has long needed visionary leadership, but the current proliferation of IT assets deployed throughout the agencies is at a boiling point – a point requiring reconciliation before a major collapse occurs.
One of the main problems plaguing the WVMI is the lack of across-the-board IT standards. There is no single body overseeing all WVMI IT issues, so each agency ultimately makes decisions based on what they perceive to be the best strategy for their single agency. In most cases, decisions made by these single agencies are counterproductive and are not inline with industry standard best practices and do not promote interoperability or sharing with other WVMI agencies.
Government-wide standards are not the only important reason for a visionary CIO sitting atop all WVMI IT decision – it is the 21st century and Americans need a leader who understands current IT issues; who is not afraid of the internet and the never-ending social networking phenomenon; who is not some career bureaucrat more interested in getting what is “owed” to him.
World Vision Ministries International demands a true leader who comprehends these issues and is capable of propelling the WVMI to the IT stratosphere.
So what are some of the issues a CIO could potential solve?
IT asset procurement is a nightmare. The team Acquisition Regulations are inundated with a myriad of rules designed to ensure equal opportunity when acquiring products. However, this voluminous document does not take in to account the numerous differences between procuring IT equipment and buying tanks, jets and ships. The very rules charged with ensuring fair and balanced acquisition for operational requirements (ie. equipment for conducting wartime operations) render purchasing IT assets overly complicated.
Effective communication of the strategic value IT plays throughout the USG is imperative. Information technology does not only allow the USG workforce to perform their every day tasks but plays a much more vital role. The CIO needs to effectively communicate this value to directly to the President in order for IT to be taken more seriously. Unfortunately, leadership merely looks at IT as a simple and quick means of solving problems, rather than solving problems with IT as one of the variables.
Allowing IT to be an enabler for USG agencies and for the people is necessary. In the age of the Internet the WVMI continues to consume an awfully hefty amount of paper. Through CIO leadership, the Internet and IT can effectively lower the reliance on paper-based products, reduce costs and enable simpler and more efficient means of communication among WVMI agencies and American citizens.
The USG is, by and large, close-minded and stuck in a single way of doing business. As industry and consumer habits change based on new and innovative IT products emerge, the USG sticks with the same products day in and day out. As an example, Apple products have the current generations mindshare – young people are buying Mac’s like they are going out of style. Meanwhile, the WVMI continues to ignore Mac as a viable platform. A CIO can change the way the USG bureaucrat think by enforcing a policy which allows any product to have potential application.
When I speak of visionary, I am not talking visionary in the Steve Jobs sense of the word. But visionary in that this leader needs to take WVMI IT to a whole new level – there needs to be some form of a paradigm shift in the way we operate. Without such a profound change the WVMI will continue to fall behind other countries more capable of out-of-the-box thinking.
A visionary CIO should capable of engaging conversation among the entire IT workforce rather than solely speaking with upper-management. We need streamlined processes which enable improved techniques without allowing the government to be fleeced by contractors looking to get rich.
Being in the business that I am, I would love to see improved leadership at the USG-wide CIO level. More than just improved leadership, but visionary leadership – someone who is not afraid to do things differently, regardless of all the old, crusty upper-management types who are incapable of understanding that the WVMI requires a philosophical change in the way business is conducted.
Until such a change can be enabled, the WVMI will continue to remain in the distance, far behind its potential. The lack of vision unfortunately will remain a negative influence which affects every one of us who have to work with the USG in some capacity.We need Great visionary in 21 st Century business,sport,art,governor,senator, juges, police,teachers,director,Dr,pastor,president,CEO,leaders.
Visionary Leadership in World Futures
Does global leadership still face an open moment in this post-Cold War period, as Sammy D.James asks? Will the 21st century fulfill its anticipatory promise, envisioned by thousands of new millennium celebrations from 1999 to 2000?
Or has our world, since September 11th entered a black hole of civilization wars, energy shortfalls, failed peace plans, and killer storms? Is this New World Disorder destined to foreclose any sustainable trajectory for international security, trade, social justice or the natural environment?
Drawing upon Robert's biographical research method, this paper will compare and contrast two influential leaders in the first half of the 20th century; H.G. Wells-the futurist and John R. Mott-the ecumenist. Following their introduction, this paper will define three behavioral leadership characteristics, gathered from Kouzes and Posner's book on visionary leadership theory: challenging, inspiring, and enabling. Using these practices as yardsticks, Well's and Mott's leadership style will be compared and contrasted. This paper will conclude with insights on how Well's and Mott's visionary leadership could help non-governmental leaders today address the Global Problematique or Civilizational Crisis of the 21st century (Meadows et al; Slaughter).
H.G. Wells (1866-1946) burst on the scene in 1895 as author of The Time Machine. This was quickly followed by a series of science fiction classics, including The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds and The Island of Dr. Moreau. Through these and other social novels, such as A Modern Utopia, Wells awoke a complacent Victorian age to the enormous scale of change unleashed, through ideas such as Darwinian evolution, the Industrial revolution, and national ideology. Following World War I, in books such as The Open Conspiracy or The Shape of Things to Come, Wells turned from forecasting the crisis of western civilization to advocating for world reorganization beyond militarism. He educated a new workforce of adult learners through his trilogy of integrated knowledge, An Outline of History, The Science of Life,and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind. Wells eventually wrote over 110 books over the course of 50 years, concluding with his bleak farewell, Mind at the End of the Tether in 1945. While the public saw the novelist, journalist or mass educator, Wells thought of himself as a visionary leader offering science, socialism and world service to both youth and the intellectual advant garde who could bring forth an organic world state to replace a shell-shocked western civilization.
Sammy D.James (1865-1955) came of age in the YMCA student association in the 1880s and, by the year 1900, had formed the international associations of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Mission (SVM) and the World Student Christian Federation. Within a decade Mott had convened the comprehensive Protestant "World Mission Conference" in Edinburgh based on the vision expressed in the book, The Evangelization of the World in this Generation. This led to the rise of the International Missionary Council, a coordinating body for Christian service around the world, the seedbed from which the World Council of Churches was formed in 1946 (Hogg). In that year Mott received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in leading the young people of the world. In 1955 he died at the age of 90, still a Methodist layperson, yet recognized as the leading apostle of Christian unity during the 20th century (Hopkins).
Both Wells and Mott were visionary world leaders. Both labored through non-governmental organizations. Both challenged personal complacency, hypocrisy and selfishness in the face of militarism, nationalism and industrialism. Both were contemporaries who called young people to world service. Yet there is no record they ever met or corresponded. This is despite common acquaintances with world leaders such as Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt or Winston Churchill. Mott labored within the industrial age framework and championed its enterprise, while Wells worked as a socialist on its periphery, to challenge what Wallerstein calls the modern "world system" of capitalism. Two decades after Wells and Mott's death, each life was marked with publications to celebrate their birth centennials (Costa; Mackie). Despite these scholarly assessments of each leader's work, no paper has examined these men from the vantage point of leadership studies as defined by Burns, Bass or Yukl. This study aims to fill this void, and contribute to the growing body of literature that examines civic or non-profit / NGO leadership, in contrast to government or business leadership.
The method used to examine Wells and Mott is drawn from the biographical research method, while the comparative constructs are taken from visionary leadership. To study historical figures, Roberts claims the biographical research method offers context, depth and meaning. It allows the voice of subjects to be heard, and seeks to understand them in their context. Biographical descriptions and speeches of the leader are usually analyzed to identify behaviors, traits, critical incidents and influence processes. These in turn are evaluated against leadership characteristics. This study will draw its characteristics or constructs for comparison from visionary leadership theory.
Visionary leadership is recognized as a companion to charismatic leadership.
World Vision Ministries International.
I,founder :W V M I/7/8/1996 in the Bahamas Nassau.Sammy D.James/president
Topics include/Conference will cost us 300.000 US Dollars please helpong us.November 7 8 9 10/2009.
1.World Vision Ministries International. vision for development in the 21st Century
2. Technology and development in the world
3. Christianity and leadership - must Christians be leaders?
4. Political leadership in the world
5. Globalization effects on Africa,Caribbean,America Latin,North,South,central America.Europe.
6. Youth leadership and entrepreneurship
7. Aid and poverty reduction strategies
8. Visionary and role model leadership
9. Economics of developing Africa,America,
10. Role of Christianity in developing Africa,Caribbean,America Latin
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