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Organizational Context

The year is 2019 and the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic is not yet on the horizon. Carizon Family and Community Services (a Mental Health and well-being Non-Profit of approximately 200 employees, based in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario) had been unified for over 5 years, but leadership was only just getting to the pieces that really mattered to our employees, our people. We had received feedback that Carizon’s culture was undefined, that our people wanted to have more input and that folks wanted to know how their work was directly impacting the Kitchener-Waterloo community. Leadership was committed to an engagement journey with our people and in 2018-19 there was the opportunity to create a four-year strategic plan to effectively deliver critical services to the community. We kicked off our strategic planning with our people an intentional choice to demonstrate that our people were a critical stakeholder in the process. This employee engagement continued throughout our planning whereby additional thoughts and ideas were brought back for our people’s feedback. At the end of the process, we had a strategic plan that our people could easily communicate and recognize their essential contribution. There were four strategic directions:

• Build Carizon Culture

• Innovate to improve the customer experience

• Promote system change through collaboration

• Deepen our Family Focus

Everyone in the organization could speak to and was invested in this new plan.

Why Followership?

As the Director of Talent, Engagement & Quality, I had several deliverables in our first year of the strategic plan – most of them falling under the direction of “build Carizon culture”. A key first step was to select a leadership model, but this was easier said than done. A number of potential models were explored, and options were shared with our leadership team. Their feedback was incorporated into our further search. Several models had great components, but nothing felt quite right. As the search continued, one of our contacts shared that she was a graphic recorder for an upcoming local conference that aligned with our general approach. It was the first annual Global Followership Conference.

If the message was ‘how to get people to do what we say’ a quick exit would be implemented.

Tracy Elop, Carizon’s CEO, and I decided to attend and see what “followership” was all about. Neither one of us knew what to expect but hoped that the conference message was not focused on how to get people to do what we say; if this was the message, a quick exit would be implemented at the first opportunity. Fortunately, the message was nothing of the sort, and a possible ‘fit’ seemed likely. Many folks in academia shared the potential benefits of followership along with a handful of consultants. It was fascinating. Samantha and Marc Hurwitz, authors of Leadership is Half the Story, A Fresh Look at Followership, Leadership, and Collaboration, explained everyone is both a leader AND a follower. This concept was experienced through Sharna Fabiano’s (author of Lead & Follow and host of Lead & Follow Podcast) experiential session that applied tango dance/ movement to demonstrate how this worked in practice. The more we learned, the more this model appeared viable for Carizon. What stronger message of valuing your people could be sent than “all of you are leaders, and all of you are followers”? This concept worked for every single person in our organization from the CEO to our frontline specialized employees who directly interact with clients. It just fits.

Instead of trying to combat the stigma of “followership” we gave folks the training that non-management employees are rarely offered.

How did we do it?

And so, discussions with Samantha and Marc Hurwitz were initiated and a mini pilot of their program in our organization was designed to see whether this model was as great a fit for Carizon as we thought (remember, we were on an engagement journey). Our pilot group consisted of folks from various levels and departments to create a group that was representative of the organization. In true leadership-followership fashion, we worked collaboratively with Samantha and Marc to share some key pieces of the model with the pilot group. The pilot was an overwhelming success, and the leadership-followership model would be implemented across the organization.

Carizon collaborated with FLiP University, Samantha and Marc’s business, to customize an approach and strategy that would align with our organization. Historically, followership training was delivered first and was followed by leadership training. One of the challenges with offering followership training is that you need folks' “buy-in” to followership right away. Being on an engagement journey, Carizon was concerned about what it would say to our employees, indirectly, if we started with followership training (ie we need you to do what we say, so we are going to give you training on how to do that). Instead, Carizon took a different approach and delivered leadership training first. Leadership training is what employees recognize and wanted. It worked incredibly well! Instead of trying to combat the stigma of “followership” we gave folks the training that non-management employees are rarely offered. Within the leadership training, they were introduced to the concept of followership and how it is critical for a leader to be easy to follow. When the time came to deliver followership training, it was just the natural next step in the training program and was well accepted by our people. Similarly, the delivery of Karen B.K. Chan’s Emotional Intelligence training that followed followership training was also well accepted. Given that Carizon is a mental health organization that employs skilled mental health professionals, it was anticipated that some of our employees would not see the value in emotional intelligence training as they would have had exposure to this type of material through their education. We were delighted and surprised to receive positive feedback from highly experienced professionals on how beneficial this training was.

We modeled a leadership-followership approach by completing the activity with our leadership team before asking them to complete it with their teams.

The implementation of the leadership-followership program was carefully considered. An in-person kick-off meeting was the initial step and carried out at our next All Staff Event. The leadership-followership model was introduced and discussed with our people. Employees completed online micro-trainings and interacted with a group of their peers through discussion forums and activities. This was reinforced with monthly activities, to support embedding leadership-followership training into our culture. We even modeled a leadership-followership approach by completing the activity with our leadership team before asking them to complete it with their teams. Care was taken throughout the process to ensure that our employees could see our commitment to leadership-followership and how this could be implemented into their daily routine.

What was the Outcome?

Carizon was on an engagement journey and the leadership-followership model provided a natural framework for our organisation. Carizon was dedicated to our people and to building a supportive and thriving organizational culture. Organizational values were co-created – ones that our employees would REMEMBER and live by. Quarterly pulse surveys were implemented, and we worked hard to make and communicate changes that would support our people. Followership was a piece of the puzzle that complemented and enhanced our work. It recognized the critical input of all our employees in successful evolution.

Using the online training and supplementing it with inperson training and activities ... sends the strong unspoken commitment to your people: “you are investing in them”.

Our employees could see the value in receiving leadership and followership training and could envision changes that would happen once the model was fully embedded into our organization. Figure 1 shares some of our employees’ reflections on what successful implementation of the leadership-followership program would look like. When you consider the impact of all of Carizon’s efforts, we experienced an increase in our employee net promoter score from approximately 13 in June 2019 when our annual plan was launched to 41 by January 2021. The Leadership-Followership model provided Carizon with a framework and language that could be used throughout the organization. Samantha and Marc’s analogy of leaders “set the frame” while “followers create within it” was frequently repeated. This allowed our leaders and our individual contributors to have clearer roles and understand how their own individual contributions made a difference. After completing the training, the question remained ‘How frequently would our employees apply their leadership and followership training’? Employees reported that their leadership and followership skills were used almost equally. 71% reported using leadership skills weekly or daily while 75% reported using followership skills weekly or daily. Additionally, employees shared that they had the opportunity to demonstrate leadership in their current role almost 70% of the time.

Introducing formal training after a year or two of service would be a more sustainable and cost-effective approach.

As the formal training concluded, attention was redirected to embedding leadership-followership into our organizational activities. For example, leadership and followership-related interview questions were incorporated into our interview tools and our annual performance check-in questions. We also began working on organizational competencies including example behaviors that would further embed leadership-followership into the organization.

What did we learn? What would we do differently?

Selecting a leadership-followership model in 2019 naturally aligned with Carizon’s work. If you think about the alignment between leadership, followership, and authentic employee engagement, adopting a leadership-followership model provides a framework to naturally engage your people through your daily interactions. Complemented by a strong strategic plan and transportable values the leadership-followership model also supported Carizon in co-creating a thriving organizational culture. Leadership-Followership was a choice that not only complemented Carizon’s other initiatives but also enhanced them. Thinking back on our implementation there are two key takeaways worth highlighting:

1. Deliver Leadership Training First

There is a stigma with respect to being a “follower” despite follower contributions being vital. There is great work and advocacy being done with a focus on changing this, but the perception that being a leader is more desirable than being a follower continues to persist. The decision to deliver leadership training first to all employees across the organization allowed us to create excitement and receive buy-in from our employees right away. Perhaps it was also reassuring that everyone (even our leaders) would receive innovative followership training as well. We feel very strongly that this order of the training was instrumental in the program’s success.

2. Train Everyone but Think Carefully About When

Often in organizations leadership training is provided to only a select few. Training EVERYONE in both leadership and followership models was a key piece of our success. One is not better than the other and they are two distinct skill sets. Using online training and supplementing it with in-person training and activities to embed learning is affordable and customizable to your organization. It also sends a very strong unspoken commitment to your people: “You are investing in them”. During our implementation, we experienced several challenges. We initially had a timeline to complete leadership, followership, and emotional intelligence training in one year. As an organization that has commitments to the community it serves, this proved to be challenging. We problem by extending some timelines and setting aside time in team meetings to complete the training for teams that had limited flexibility to complete the training independently during their regular workday.

As a non-profit in the mental health sector, one of the challenges we face is high turnover, particularly in employees who are just entering the mental health field. Sometimes the field is not exactly what they expect, or folks get experience and move on to other growth opportunities external to the organization. When we rolled out leadership-followership across the organization, we committed to training everyone in relief /casual workers, contract employees, part-time employees, etc. New employees were also introduced to the training right away. This was a large investment in our people. In hindsight, it would have been better to provide some guidelines with respect to when the training was introduced to ensure an ROI. For example, we learned that we lost employees who had been working for us for less than 2 years at a much higher rate than any other employee group. However, we do not feel the leadership-followership training was a contributing factor to this. Giving a general introduction to leadership-followership and the language commonly used as part of orientation would provide new employees with the needed information to understand leadership-followership at a high level. Introducing formal training after completing a year or two years of service would be a more sustainable and cost-effective approach.

Why should you consider implementing a Followership Program in your Organization?

The way of work has changed yet organizations continue to use traditional approaches. Training only leadership-level employees impacts a very small percentage of your workforce compared to training your entire organization. Training everyone in the organization creates a significant improvement and with modern learning methodologies, this can be affordable.

Organizations increasingly face complex challenges and according to McLean & Company, (the HR research firm’s 2024 HR report, the top three HR challenges are recruiting top talent, providing a great employee experience, and controlling costs. Well-executed implementation of a followership program can address all three of these top challenges. Phillip Podsakoff and Scott MacKenzie, professors at the Kelley School of Business, who focus on organizational citizenship behavior, found that followership is linked to improvements of 17-43% of almost every single key organizational performance metric. Followership may very well be a key solution that has broad positive impacts on your organization. With the increased complexity and number of challenges organizations face, can you afford not to implement a followership program?

Where Did this Journey Lead?

In the non-profit sector, you are constantly looking to see how you can improve support to the community you serve while more effectively utilizing resources to improve service delivery. Carizon demonstrated this in 2013 when it became the new amalgamated entity of two smaller non-profits. In April 2023, Carizon did this once more when Carizon, KW-Counselling Services, and Monica Place unified to become Camino Mental Health + Wellbeing. The process of unifying (note the language of unification rather than take over or acquisition) in non-profits is quite different to that in the private sector. A great deal of care is taken around language as well as creating something that feels different from any of the In the non-profit sector, you are constantly looking to see how you can improve support to the community you serve while more effectively utilizing resources to improve service delivery. Carizon demonstrated this in 2013 when it became the new amalgamated entity of two smaller non-profits. In April 2023, Carizon did this once more when Carizon, KW-Counselling Services, and Monica Place unified to become Camino Mental Health + Wellbeing. The process of unifying (note the language of unification rather than take over or acquisition) in non-profits is quite different to that in the private sector. A great deal of care is taken around language as well as creating something that feels different from any of the originating organizations. This means that many initiatives get put on hold as the new organization considers the path they will forge to their future. For Camino, this meant taking a true leadership-followership approach by listening to its followers before deciding the next step in Camino’s leadership journey.