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Hillel final presentation darnell lynch
- 1. Richard Joel and the Re-making of Hillel Presented by Darnell Lynch MGT 505E Eileen Schiffer Fall 2012 Marylhurst University
- 2. Jewish Education- Ripe for Change • Nonprofit organizations -Social -Political -Religious -Philanthropy • Unable to keep up with rapidly changing campus environment and needs of Jewish students and society • Hillel: key lessons in leading organizational transformation
- 3. Hillel : A Foundation for Jewish Campus Life – A budget of over Problems $60 million Little respect for rabbis – Affiliated with multiple campuses and countries Students uninterested – Parent organization: the prominent No community support B’nai Brith – Hillels ran by Local Federations Decline in funding
- 4. The Federations vs. B’Nai Brith Leadership Issues • Federations did not have a positive view of B’nai B’rith – Little accountability across campuses • Federation did not support Hillel – Troubled relations : rabbis v. Hillel staff • Hired national director – Moses – Quickly resigned: both sides unwilling to compromise
- 5. An Unlikely Leader: A Lawyer and an academic • Used “unorthodox” leadership approaches – Excellent interpersonal and communication skills – Powerful Rhetoric – Disarming charisma • Fostered common commitment; establish urgency & need for change
- 6. Joel’s Approach Leadership Lesson: Academia Youth Lawyer Director Effective leadership Restructure encompasses the Hillel integration of knowledge and ideas from many sources (Rosener, 1990)
- 7. Important Change Factors Renames National Office to the National Center Centralizes Hillel Separates from B’nai B’rith Leadership Lesson: Leadership Con to centralizing: Board centralized decision making and does Management not promote team process
- 8. Focus on Quality • Fired ineffective directors • Implemented Accreditation Leadership Lesson: –Quality assurance and accountability –Staff evaluations All effective teams –Professional validation develop standards and rules to help achieve –Federation and lay leaders also purpose and benefited performance goals • Establish stricter hiring (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993) standards for directors
- 9. Setting a New Vision & Strategy • Initiated shift in Power -from Rabbi-directors to lay leaders -hired rabbis on basis of skill • Restructured finances -hired full-time fundraiser Develop specific strategies to achieve Leadership Lesson: vision & empower others to act. (Kotter, 1995)
- 10. Conclusion • Key lessons in organizational change can be applied to today’s organizations • The impact of Joel’s leadership brought Hillel to the successful organization it is today. •Successful shift in planning, funding, and staff development by a passionate, fiery leader = SUCCESS!
- 11. References [1] Katzenbach , J. & Smith, D. (2005). The discipline of teams, Harvard Business Review, 83 (7/8), 162-171 [2] Kotter, J. P. (1995). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 73(2), 59-67. [3] Rosen, M. & Sales, A. (2006) The Remaking of Hillel: A case study on leadership and organizational transformation.
Editor's Notes
- Jewish education on American university campuses before the1960s were largely unchanged. Many of the nonprofit organizations served the needs of the Jewish population in areas like politics, philanthropy, social, and religious needs (Rosen & Salas, 2006), just to name a few. Due to many factors, they were unable to keep up with the changing environment and faced many funding, operating, and leadership challenges. Rabbis received no respect, and students were uninterested in the Jewish communal world. This presentation is about one powerful organization that started as being underfunded, largely unknown and dismissed in the Jewish community. Strife with leadership problems and budgetary issues, Hillel failed to address the needs of the Jewish student and society. There are many important implications that we can learn from Hillel about leading organizational change that we can use in today’s companies.
- The Hillel foundation was started in 1923 with a mission to “enrich the lives of Jewish graduate and undergraduate students so they may enrich the lives of Jewish people and the world.” They are a large organization with a $60 million operating budget and serves the needs of Jewish students in multiple countries. B’nai Brith was a prominent Jewish organization with substantial resources. It invested in Hillel and , by 1940, establishes 20 other foundations in different campuses across the U.S., all with full-time directors. The local Hillels were run by federations in the National Office. B’NaiBrith experience falling revenues, and in turn the funding for Hillel declined. There were problems that the organization began to face. Rabbis who were committed to their life’s work were frustrated because they received little support or appreciation for their work. Because of the rabbi-dominated life, students were not interested in Hillel. The larger Jewish community was also not interested in Hillel or its mission. There was no fundraising base and membership was in decline.
- Facing salary cuts and budget restrictions Rabbis vehemently opposed their treatment by B’Nai B’rith. There was little accountability for the quality of different Hillels (Rosen & Salas, 2006), and the control of the parent organization became under fire. Tensions surmounted and rabbis attempted to unionize. The foundation needed new leadership and B’Nai B’rith decided to hire Larry Moses. He was young, non-rabbi who showed some promise during his tenure, but resigned after one year. Hillel rabbis were excluded from the selection process and tension continued to mount.
- Richard Joel was a non-rabbi who was recruited to become Hillel’s new national director. While he grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family, his career first started as a youth director in a synangogue of his hometown in Bronx, New York. He then became a lawyer. He was recruited by Joel Paul, a regional Hillel director from Philadelphia who first hired Joel some 17 years earlier as a youth director. Joel was initially reluctant to accept the position. However, the foundation and B’Nai B’rith quickly caught on to his powerful presence and charisma. Joel’s approach to building the performance of Hillel as a team was important (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993). He established urgency in the need to transform Hillel, and achieved commitment through gaining the confidence and trust of both the rabbis and federation.
- Hiringan outsider brought in new, creative ways of thinking . Joel was able to bring about change by thinking outside of the box. He draws on his different experiences as a youth director to use his counseling and interpersonal skills to identify with students and rabbis. He initiates a dual board structure, an example taken from academics. This drawing from other sources is characteristic of a high-performing leader. He also used the group approach by building taskforces and commissions, using his expanded network of leaders and philanthropists in the Jewish community.
- Joel renames the National Office to the National Center, which then eventually becomes the Hillel’s International Center. This change in infrastructure allows Hillel to be centralized. The current infrastructure of Hillel was undermining their vision. One of the steps in positively transforming an organization as set forth by (Kotter, 1995) is to change systems or structures that are currently not working. Joel consolidated Hillel and used increasing credibility make improvements (Kotter, 1995). One major change was the separation from B’NaiBrith, Hillel’s long-time benefactor and host (Rosen & Salas, 2006). Joel built a dual board structure:-Leadership board-ManagementIn which he was both CEO and president, thus reporting and voting on the board. A downside to this restructuring is that it does not really promote being a team player, and decisions are centralized, where there is a dependence on front-line managers for input on Hillels on individual campuses. In the context of effective leadership, especially in the modern workforce, actions like sharing information and being involved in key decisions are crucial to the success and influence of leaders (Rosener, ways women lead).
- One of the most important change factors initiated by Joel was his focus on quality (Rosen & Salas, 2006). He fired non-performing directors who were ineffective in achieving the mission of Hillel. He also established outside accreditation of Hillel’s programs. Accrediting bodies would establish evaluations to assist professional staff in goal setting and planning. Additionally, it would provide professional validation to the community and funding bodies (Rosen & Salas, 2006). This was a bottom-up process that included staff, and all the way up the hierarchy to lay leaders and directors. -There is a lesson here in human resources: Joel also created more stringent hiring standards for directors. They must have skills in running a non-profit, and they did not have to be a rabbi.-Joel’s “franchise model” changed campus environments, as Jewish studies programs taught by non-rabbis encourage growth. (Rosen & Salas, 2006).
- Joel continues to lead the rapid change of Hillel. He establishes a new vision by communicating clear goals of the structure and management of Hillel. The Hillel boards and the Jewish federations were positively impacted by Joel’s leadership. They became more aware of the inner workings of their respective campuses, and lay leadership became more engaged in operations. Joel’s restructuring allowed each person in the hierarchy to involved, attaining specific goals to maintain focus and get results (Kotter, 1995). The strategy also aimed to increase local fundraising, and local Hillels started to achieve financial support through the community under the leadership of a full-time fundraiser (Rosen & Salas, 2006).