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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
05 June 2017
Updated: 22 October 2020
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About halfway through my Clore Social fellowship, shortly before the birth of my third child, this was the phrase I muttered to myself as I posted on a local parents Facebook group about setting up a ‘baby bank’ – where people could donate their great quality, unwanted baby clothes and kit, in order to pass them on to other local families in need.
Little did I know that 18 months on, I’d be running a fully-fledged charity, with two branches, and a third in the pipeline. In our first year, Little Village helped nearly 400 families across Wandsworth and Camden, and we’re on course to more than double that this year. This 4 minute video tells you more about our work and what’s important to us.
Little Village on Vimeo.
Little Village grew, without question, from the things I learnt during my Clore Social journey. I love a good catch-phrase (see: Start by starting) and these are the ones I’ve lived by since launching the charity.
What would you do if you were ten times braver?
This question, posed to us on our first residential, remains one of my favourite provocations. I still ask it every time there’s an important decision to be made about Little Village’s future. Asking this question gives me permission to be authentic. It reminds me that I don’t want to play safe, I want to play true and aim high. It has led to having the difficult conversations rather than brushing them under the carpet. It has given permission for my dreams to breathe, and to guide Little Village’s evolution.
Keep things simple, even when they’re not
One of the things people often say to me about Little Village is “how great, that’s such a simple idea!”. I nod my head while thinking ‘if you only knew the half of it’. I’m someone who loves complexity and has spent most of my career working on abstract concepts in the thinktank world. And yet building Little Village as a practical, approachable, friendly organisation has been one of the great pleasures of this journey. I’ve seen how the simplicity of what we do, underlined by our brand, draws people to us. It’s very powerful.
Harness frustrated female energy
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is juggling Little Village with 3 kids under 5. I’ve worked some pretty interesting hours, my kids are definitely better acquainted with CBeebies now than they were, and I’ve pulled in a LOT of granny favours. Little Village is powered by an incredible network of women who are skilled and talented and yet can’t find work that fits with their family life. That’s crazy. We work with the grain of people’s family needs. None of us work more than a 3 day week; some of our volunteers bring their children with them; we offer flexible shifts – and we have access to talent that extends well beyond our core business as a result.
So – start by starting. Putting one step down almost inevitably leads to the next step – so be ready for the consequences, and take great joy from the journey.
Visit Little Village to find out more about their work. Share your comments below, or you can join the conversation with Sophia on Twitter.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
19 April 2017
Updated: 04 December 2020
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Daina Leigh is Global Conversation Catalyst for the Bavubuka Foundation and founder of fashion social enterprise Fabric of Life.
Word – Sound – Power is the belief in the power of the vibrations within speech and music to impact the world directly, for better or worse. The power of voice, and its capacity to inspire and initiate change, are central to the practice of the young indigenous hip-hop practitioners that I have had the privilege of working with as part of my role as Global Conversation Catalyst with the Bavubuka (youth) Foundation in East Africa. Observing their practice over the last couple of years, I have noticed something important about leadership that I want to share.
These young leaders utilise the power and position of the Emcee - the leader/performer - to use spoken word to convey their authentic self using their indigenous language to communicate ideas and positive affirmations, and to engage dialogue around finding community solutions.
This performance medium is being used most powerfully within Cyphers (community spaces) where young people use their gifts, such as freestyle rapping, to tell stories, share ideas and celebrate who they are. This unique way of engaging young leaders has inspired even more young people to step forward and serve their community in their own unique way.
What I have learned from participating in these extraordinary events is that voice and sound alone, without a deep knowledge of self and context, is not sufficient to generate transformative energy within communities. The power to lead that these young Hip-Hop practitioners hold, is rooted within the discovery and nurturance of their own unique gifts and personal stories, which people in the community can relate to.
What has been truly significant for me is seeing the way young leaders continually offer themselves in service to people and their surroundings, totally transforming perceptions of a ghetto youth, while also developing a new sense of pride. The young leaders I encounter do this willingly because they believe in the underlying ethos, which is that without service and connection to the community, they really have nothing of significance to say on the microphone. This is powerfully shared within the Kenyan movement ‘Hip-Hop Beyond the Mic.’
Having watched this community activity through my own eyes as a development worker, I see that despite the challenges these young people face, they have some important lessons to teach me and other social leaders about the art of leadership. For me, this has been about understanding that everything I need to be as a leader lies within me, and my aim is to find my own authentic self, leadership style and compelling story.
Finding my own voice remains a challenge, but I continue to learn in my leadership role in Uganda. Here I support the personal development of the young people I work with to utilise the Word–Sound-Power magic that is available to them to help them address the issues they encounter, whilst learning to thrive within their surroundings. Being of service to the community in this way has given me direct experience of what authentic leadership is really about.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
04 April 2017
Updated: 04 December 2020
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‘How does social change happen?’ This question was posed at a leadership training residential which I attended as part of my Clore Social Leadership fellowship.
It stuck with me. I realised that in some form it has fascinated me since I was teenager studying history at school: How does change happen - any kind of change, but particularly major societal or political change?
The Clore Social programme gave me a chance to re-examine my thinking around change, and particularly the role leaders play in working for positive social transformation.
Margaret Wheatley, in her writings on leadership, suggests: ‘We live in a world of complex systems… These systems are emergent phenomena – the result of thousands of small, local actions that converged to create powerful systems with properties that may bear little or no resemblance to the smaller actions that gave rise to them. These are the systems that now dominate our lives; they cannot be changed by working backwards, focusing on only a few simple causes.’
In my longer provocation piece I consider the implications for leadership if the causes of radical societal change are the result of systems that generate their own results. How can we find agency and have an impact for positive change in such a complex world?
I suggest that the election of Donald Trump and Brexit are the consequences of the function of complex systems – systems that are failing. These events are the result of intricate feedback loops that arise despite – perhaps even because of - concerted efforts of those working for change in the other direction.
If this is the case, what can our response be?
Drawing on the work of system thinking experts, I propose that there is a need for a different kind of leadership, one that no longer relies on the emergence of ‘heroes’, the strong leaders that we often idolise. Instead we need leaders to act as hosts to facilitate others to find solutions. We need leaders who genuinely embrace wider perspectives. We need leaders who are exactly the opposite of Trump.
I also consider Donella Meadow’s suggestion that the most effective intervention in a complex system is the power to transcend paradigms and that the way to achieve this is to refuse to accept the status quo, and instead to loudly and publicly assert the reality of a different model. Instead, we often find ourselves ‘Diddling with the details’ as Meadows calls it, tied up with the exact details of what impact this or that action will have, justifying this to funders and regulators.
Here we can aspire to be more like Trump: Trump didn’t care about the existing paradigm and certainly not about details. He asserted a new reality, and claimed it. Woefully, this reality is built on hate, exclusion and a version of human nature that believes in putting up barriers not building understanding.
I suggest our response needs to be on a similar level. What could we do, how would we act, if we genuinely believed that we are not constrained by our existing paradigms? What could we create if we exercised empathy, cared less about being a hero, and started to behave as if equality and inclusion were already the reality? Let’s start to claim that new reality.
Ruth is a 2016 Clore Social Fellow; she developed this blog as part of her Fellowship. You can download her full provocation piece here. Share your comments and views below, or join the conversation with Ruth on Twitter. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
03 April 2017
Updated: 04 December 2020
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As part of her 2016 Clore Social Leadership Fellowship, Amelia Viney developed a video blog where she explores what could be done to unleash the power of young people to help them transform their worlds.
Amelia said:
‘We all want young people to have the power to influence decisions about their lives, but the vast majority feel excluded from participating in our democracy. Not having a voice in the big conversations that directly affect their futures - like housing, crime and education - has a dangerous impact on confidence and aspirations of these young people. It also means that valuable voices are missing from the debate, leading to policies and provisions that fail to reflect the diverse experiences and interests of all our communities.’
Amelia debates these issues in her vlog, which includes some of the young people she works with at The Advocacy Academy. Join the conversation with Amelia on Twitter.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
20 March 2017
Updated: 04 December 2020
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The leadership industry offers numerous theoretical frameworks and models, ranging from the instructional to the inspirational. The majority of these models are focused on the exogenous – the external factors, and offer up-skilling and progression as a solution to overcoming leadership challenges. But is this enough?
After spending 2016 as a Clore Social Leadership Fellow, I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject, but with the knowledge that I have gained from that intense fellowship year and reflecting on my 15 years of working towards social justice I offer this: leadership should be more about regression than progression.
The chances are we probably once had many of the qualities that would make us a strong leader, but we have lost or forgotten them. Perhaps more concerning, we might have learned not to value them as we should. We need to tap into our inner-child and re-learn the qualities that childhood gifted us, and value them as leadership traits.
Key to this is our curiosity. I’m sure none of our parents expected to give birth to pint-sized Paxman’s but this is what many of them got. 'Do the trees make the wind?', 'Do they close the roads to switch on all the cats eyes?', 'Where is my soul?', and of course, 'Where do babies come from?'. As children we’re naturally curious about the world around us, and less willing to accept things at face value.
The circle of why is a phenomenon that delights curious young minds and frustrates parents in equal measure. Yet at some point we learned to be less curious. 'Why?' Because the very question becomes annoying and it stopped eliciting the responses that we liked.
Research shows that our questioning drops off dramatically after the age of five, suggesting that schools have a role to play here too. I remember from my own experience that school rewarded the children who knew the answer, not asked the best questions, and this pattern of rewarding answers over questions continues into our professional life.
So, what’s stopping us being more curious as adults? Potentially lots of things! Have you ever heard it quipped that there’s 'no such thing as stupid questions, just stupid people'? Asking questions can cause us to be perceived as naive or ill-informed. Asking a question might feed our imposter syndrome, or we could risk letting our demigod masks slip in front of those who we want to see us as strong and all knowing – so they can trust us to lead them.
But without leaders asking why, what if, and how, we stifle our creativity and, at best, are doomed to tweak existing behaviours, programmes and ideas, and at worst repeat the mistakes of the past. If we’re to lead the change that we seek, then it’s critical that we think differently, and maintain a curious approach to everything we do, and everyone we do it with.
I started doing this a few years ago, particularly in relation to who I work with. It’s now habitual for me to be more curious soon after appointment to get to know my new colleagues more closely. I start with two questions. First I ask 'what matters to you?'.
Beyond an interview environment and trying to impress the new boss, I aim to get to know my new colleagues more personally. I talk about what matters to me, and give the example of walking my dogs at lunch times, hoping to give them permission to share what matters to them and how we can fit work in to their life.
I also ask them to tell me about their favourite line-manager (or sometimes their lest favourite – depending how mischievous I'm feeling). This gives me an idea of how they do/don’t like to be managed and supported. This curiosity is simple, but it has had a big impact on my relationships with colleagues and helps me to create an environment in which we can all thrive.
I'm also more curious in circumstances and conversations where I disagree. In the spirit of curiosity, I have become better at listening to understand, rather than listening ready to challenge with my own view.
This blog was developed as part of Mark's 2016 Clore Social Fellowship prgramme and was originally published on Third Force News.
Mark Kelvin is programme director at the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland and a 2016 Clore Social Fellow.
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