DFF’s New Leadership Model – redistributing decisions and power
DFF’s New Leadership Model – redistributing decisions and power
We are excited to announce that after a period of collective visioning and work, DFF has officially moved away from a traditional single director hierarchy to a new distributed leadership model.
We have recognised for several years now, that to fully realise our potential as a human rights organisation, we must create more cohesion between our values and goals around social, racial, economic and feminist justice and how we operate internally. Drawing on inspiration from other organisations in the human rights field and reflecting on our internal working methods and policies led us to reform our working guidelines, most notably by introducing a permanent, fully remote four-day work week and by collectively developing a new non-traditional and more transparent salary structure. A distributed leadership model that spreads decision-making and responsibility more evenly throughout the organisation brings us one step further along the path in our collective vision of creating a fairer and more just workplace.
As we have worked on these internal topics, we have drawn heavily upon the experience of others. In turn, we have also received many inquiries about our experiences from organisations interested in making deep and meaningful organisational change.
Therefore, we would like to add to our series of blog posts on internal change to share how we made the change to a distributed leadership model and why we believe a distributed leadership better equips us to fulfil our mission to support the digital rights community in Europe to advance and protect human rights in digital spaces and reduce the negative impact of technology in the world.
Why make this change?
We decided to change our leadership model to allow for both better sharing and recognition of each team member´s contribution to our mission. We wanted to make sure lines of accountability in the organisation—who is responsible for what—are not only well understood but formally recognised and feel legitimate. This change is also about making sure that our external aims and principles, fighting for a world where justice is the norm, are practiced also within our organisation. This meant sharing power, creating better channels of communication, care, and enabling personal growth.
For more background and detail on the journey of moving towards this model, you can read this blog post from February 2024 written during the transition period as we put the finishing touches on our model.
How did we make space to imagine a new structure?
Once it became apparent that the entire organisational structure should be adapted, a working group was formed to lead the work. It was very important that the working group was representative and made up of staff in junior and senior roles as well as staff from both programmatic and support functions. Participation in the working group was on a voluntary basis and four staff volunteered to take part in the co-creation of DFF’s new leadership model: Adelaide Hirwe, Jihane Jadrane, Laurence Meyer, and Thomas Vink. The working group put in countless hours co-creating the model, in regular consultation with the rest of the team, and was decisive in translating our values and desires as an organisation into a concrete model.
The working group was accompanied by an expert in organisational reform, Gitanjali Wolf. She guided the working group through the process design, but the process ownership remained in the working group. Under her guidance, the working group built the vision and oversaw the co-design of the leadership model through a series of workshops for collecting input from the entire team and in consultation with the DFF Board.
The result is a “living” model we can continue to develop and adapt based on our experiences.
What is the model? Moving from a single director to working in circles
In a single director structure, the executive director often concentrates many powers – especially in small organisations. This power often includes management of the senior team, leading on fundraising efforts, being the lead on the strategic vision as well as serving as the face of the organisation. On top of this, through the director’s power of attorney, the director is charged with several formal legal and administrative responsibilities. Directors in this typical structure are often at the top of a pyramid with people under their management. In practice, however, this traditional model does not always reflect actual daily responsibilities. Our new model looks to divest from this traditional model in different ways, taking the lead from others that have come before us. As well as learning lessons from Gitanjali’s own distributed leadership experience at Wigwam, we have also been inspired by others that have come before us like Mama Cash, the Engine Room, FRIDA, Black Feminist Fund, Fund for Global Human Rights, the Whidbey Institute and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union.
"Nonprofit ED roles are often designed in ways that are practically the job of three to five different people (fundraiser, senior programmes lead, ops lead, finance lead, etc.)...shared leadership...allowed us to be able to contribute meaningfully, without having to comply with un-realistic expectations and the incredible stress of traditional leadership."
Instead of having one person with an executive leadership role in the organisation, we have broken down this function into several roles and formally distributed these leadership roles throughout the organisation. Importantly, leadership roles are not full-time positions that consume all of the staff member’s time; leadership roles are just one of several hats worn within the organisation.
A possible misconception is that we have simply replace one Director with two Co-Directors. In fact, we have changed the structure of the organisation to formally distribute leadership, and as a second step, further decentralised power by opting for two Co-Directors that equally share Leadership circle responsibilities.
In practice, this translates to a model with multiple layers, all with relative autonomy in deciding their priorities and internal functions. The key rule in this model is that decision-making should lie with those closest to the actual work. We therefore now have four layers, each representing a type of function at DFF:
- The programmatic layer consists of two circles: 1) “Community Strengthening and Support” to build capacity and collaboration for strong strategic litigation cases and 2) our grantmaking to resource organisations and individuals challenging digital harms through litigation.
- The operational support layer is for DFF’s internal facing work that keeps the organisation functioning day-to-day. This includes the logistical work without which there are no events, our finance which enable resources to flow and the communication which helps our work reach a wider audience.
- The coordination layer is for areas of cross-cutting importance for the sustainability of the organisation, in particular fundraising, and well-being and care.
- The leadership layer provides oversight, looks after governance, and coordinates strategy within the organisation.
What makes it a relatively flat, rather than pyramid-shaped model is the way decisions are formally delegated to and made at the circle level, with consultation of others. For example, the Well-being and Care circle leads processes around feedback and conflict resolution and coordinates the strategy for challenging oppression within the organisation. The Fundraising circle is now responsible for our fundraising strategy and priorities, with those in the programmatic circles having most of the direct contact with funders.
Internal democracy
One of the key components of any organisation model is how leadership is chosen or appointed. In a traditional pyramid hierarchy, the organisation’s Director is usually selected through a recruitment process led by the Board. In turn, senior leaders are selected ultimately by the Director. Given the choice to imagine a better model outside the norms of traditional models, it was clear that all staff should have a say in who the leaders in the organisation would be.
The working group focused on creating a democratic system for the fulfilment of leadership roles, which was approved by the rest of the team and the board. In our model, we agreed that the choice for who fills the leadership roles, as well as other new roles, is done through a nomination and election process by the whole team and all roles have terms, rather than being indefinite appointments. Roles are not the same as positions, and are not full time, with each staff member taking on multiple roles with the organisation.
We held our first nomination round and election in May 2024, with the team agreeing that Nikita Kekana and Darrah Hassell will fill the two Co-Director leadership roles for an initial three-year term. Other notable changes included the creation of dedicated circles and new roles for fundraising, and for organisational well-being and care. The latter is particularly significant as it is the first time we will have an internal role dedicated to ensuring DFF is a workplace that centres anti-oppression practices. The team agreed that Alexandra Giannopoulou will take on the Fundraising Lead role, while Joel Hide and Jihane Jadrane will take on new roles as Well-Being and Care Lead and Well-Being and Care Officer, respectively.
What’s Next?
The past year has been both challenging and rewarding for the DFF team. While it has brought many questions and at times doubts, it has also brought faith, a sense of empowerment and hope to the team as we joined efforts to push for a change and make DFF live up to its values. We have already been working under elements of the new structure since the beginning of 2024, including the organisation of our annual strategy meeting and several other events. The increased control and autonomy have reinvigorated us in our work.
The new model brings new opportunities for those who wish to thrive long-term within a small, autonomous organisation. We embraced the reality that working in a small organisation of less than 15 people limits vertical career paths, but there should be a chance for staff to develop diverse skills set and take on new responsibilities. The new structure further distributes tasks and decision-making, including with rotating roles, giving everyone more opportunities to grow, build new skills and either take on or hand over responsibility.
Over the coming months we will continue to develop and improve the model, particularly around new roles and new ways of making decisions in this distributed structure. We had our first major check-in at our annual team retreat in July 2024. There we set our priorities for the next six months and mapped the necessary tools for working with and improving the distributed leadership model. We agreed on a structure and schedule for ongoing check-ins over the coming year, with a more comprehensive review of the point of the situation every six months in consultation with the DFF Board.
Other changes have also happened with Weaving Liberation, an entity currently hosted by Digital Freedom Fund. Two of the members who participated in the leadership model working group, Laurence Meyer and Adelaide Hirwe, now work full-time at Weaving Liberation. You will read more about Weaving liberation and its relationship to DFF in an upcoming blog post.
As we continue this journey, we will post regular updates and reflections, and welcome any feedback, questions and opportunities for collaboration that explore alternative organisational power sharing models and other work practices and policy that centre organisational values and staff well-being.