Third Sector Company

Please note: This Study Hall is only open to individuals who have completed the Interim Executives Academy. It is offered as a benefit of investing in the Academy.

You don’t have to build your practice alone. Post-IEA Study Halls are a monthly drop-in space for graduates of the Interim Executives Academy to stay connected to the material and to each other. Each session gives you dedicated time and a room of fellow alumni to work on things that are hard to find time for in a busy life. You can work quietly or talk it through with others in small breakout rooms. No curriculum, no instruction.

This month’s theme: Storytelling to Explain Interim Leadership

The Academy describes interim leadership as the intentional management of an organization’s pivot to its next iteration of service. It’s purposeful, methodical, profound, and transformative. But to a Board, a staff team, or a hiring committee, that can be hard to picture. Stories help people see it.

This month, we’ll revisit the Academy’s own images and language and work on telling the story in our own words. Some starting points:

• The emergency room physician who checks the vital signs on arrival
• The interim as a steward for a brief time, not the owner of the organization
• Building a bridge between an organization’s proud past and its hopeful future
• The difference between a consultant’s recommendations, an interim’s interventions, and a successor’s innovations

Bring a story you want to sharpen, an “about me” you’re revising, or the question you keep struggling to answer in interviews. You’re also welcome to bring something else, such as your résumé or a piece of writing about interim work.

Questions we’ll be considering:

• If you were presenting at a national workshop, how would you explain the difference between a consultant, an interim, and a successor?
• Which stories from your own experience show the transformative side of a transition?
• What is one story you can practice out loud and use this month?

How the session flows (Pacific Time): 

• 11:00 AM: Arrival and introductions 
• 11:10 AM: Study and work time, with breakouts for discussion 
• 11:50 AM: Check-out, one sentence each about how it went and what you worked on 
• 12:00 PM: Optional open studio. Keep working or keep talking, and drop off when you need to 
• 12:30 PM: Room closes 

Come for the whole time or just part of it. Class #24 graduates, this is your first Study Hall, and we’re glad you’re here. Study Hall is offered only to graduates of IEA and is presented to our valued colleagues without charge.

Third Sector Company is committed to advancing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion as foundational to its programs.

We acknowledge and honor the fundamental value and dignity of all people; and we pledge our individual and organizational efforts to build respect, dignity, caring, and equitable treatment for all. As an organization, we are committed to transforming the world into one that promotes social justice and freedom from oppression, including but not limited to, racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ageism, and ableism.

Thus, we aim to be adaptable, actively anti-racist, embracing cultural differences, and to be accessible for people who are differently resourced and differently abled. Since we do not want financial hardship to be a barrier to participation, there are several seats reserved in each of our fee-based programs for confidentially awarded scholarships. We encourage those from historically underserved communities to apply.