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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
03 August 2017
Updated: 22 October 2020
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Clore Social Fellow Baljeet Sandhu has published a report examining if, and how, social purpose organisations in the United Kingdom value lived expertise.
The Value of Lived Experience in Social Change shines a light on the social sector’s attitude towards, and engagement with, so-called service users and beneficiaries. Written as part of Sandhu’s Clore Social Fellowship, it was informed through conversations with eighty social sector leaders in the UK and US and twelve senior staff working in grant-giving and philanthropy.
The report unpicks the structures and implicit biases that reinforce a culture which undervalues the knowledge and expertise of those with lived experience and calls for a fundamental shift in attitudes. It also highlights the huge benefits that developing leaders with lived experience can have, both to social purpose organisations and civil society as a whole.
Calling for a change in attitudes, Sandhu highlights the need for a new style of leadership that is more “proactive, fluid, reflective and equitable… and recognises the vital role all key stakeholders play in the social sector’s ecosystem – including the people we serve”.
“To its detriment, the social sector often fails to recognise, cultivate and harness the insights, knowledge and lived expertise of experts by experience relevant to its work. The sector now broadly understands that lived experience is important, but still thinks of experts by experience primarily as service-users and informants, rather than drivers or leaders of change. There was general agreement that commitment to lived experience in our work is far from universal; that this is an underdeveloped and unsupported area and in dire need of better leadership."
Read the introduction to “The Value of Lived Experience in Social Change” below and access the full report and accompanying website.
This research was inspired by the simple notion that all members of society have the power to create positive social change in the world – including people and communities with direct experience of social or environmental issues our wider social sector seeks to tackle.
Indeed, history illuminates the power of individuals and communities who have worked to solve the social problems they have directly experienced. Consider the women’s rights movement; the civil rights movement; Alcoholics Anonymous; the world’s first safe house for women and children (Refuge), set up by a child survivor of domestic violence; the family from South East London tackling ‘institutional racism’ following the murder of their son, leading to far-reaching police service reforms – and the list goes on.
Throughout my own career in the social sector, I have and continue to be, inspired by the ingenuity, courage, compassion and leadership of ‘experts by experience’ who have ignited, designed and implemented significant social change initiatives on a local, national and global level.
The aim of this report is to explore how, today, the wider social sector currently cultivates, develops and evolves its social impact efforts through the work of such experts by experience, and how it can go further and do better to harness their knowledge and change-making capacity to lead positive social change now and into the future.
The full report.
Get involved in the conversation around "experts by experience" by using #livedexperience and Tweeting us @CloreSocial, or feedback to Baljeet, here.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
18 October 2016
Updated: 04 December 2020
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One of my favourite leadership quotes from Peter Drucker, management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things - sums up how I see leadership. Leadership is often about tackling difficult but pertinent issues. With this in mind, my Fellowship research explores why social leaders must ensure they build inclusive workplaces which value diversity.
Inclusive workplaces welcome diverse talent; they do not discriminate against individuals on any basis including age, disability, sexual orientation, marriage, gender, race or religion. Such workplaces are important because they have been proven to contribute to social integration (social integration being the extent to which people interact with others who are different to themselves).¹
My Fellowship research involved interviewing five inspirational leaders who were identified by peers and colleagues as having consistently nurtured inclusive environments: Julie Bentley - Chief Executive, Girlguiding; Sharon White - Chief Executive, Ofcom; Simon Blake OBE - Chief Executive, NUS; Sue Owen - Permanent Secretary, DCMS and Tunde Ogungbesan - Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Succession, . Inclusivity lessons from these leaders were highlighted for others who may seek to emulate them.
As we enter uncharted waters of what a ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ Brexit might mean for the social sector, our work must continue to tackle the root causes of societal discord in a multicultural society. Unquestionably, as social integration has never been more important, there is a need to ensure that our work and workplaces are more inclusive.
Leaders who wish to champion inclusion must avoid ostrich strategies which ignore the following:
- That diversity is still absent in some of our workplaces.
- Efforts to promote equality and diversity should aim to nurture inclusive workplaces.
- Attempts to nurture inclusion will falter without measurable targets to evidence tangible progress.
- Inclusive workplaces are critical to social integration.
On diversity:
Workplace diversity is about ensuring that people who work in an organisation are representative of the wider society². Even though progress has been made over the past few years, the reality is that certain groups are still excluded from many UK workplaces.³ As social leaders are people who lead change with a social purpose, the social sector should lead in ensuring that workplaces truly reflect wider society.
On inclusion and social integration:
With more organisations working to promote equality and diversity in the workplace, recognition must be paid to the fact that strategies which focus solely on championing equality and diversity are ostrich strategies as they fail to acknowledge the importance of inclusion.
As a first generation immigrant, workplaces have played a vital role in my social integration experience. An openly gay colleague and a manager - who just happened to have cystic fibrosis – were two amazing people who exemplified why difference should be valued and how talent was not monolithic. However, it was the fact that the working environment valued ‘difference’ that engendered a cohesive team.
A clarion call to avoid ostrich strategies:
While compelling evidence shows that a diverse workforce boosts innovation and stimulates productivity , my Fellowship research distinguishes between organisations that focus on developing a diverse workforce, and those that strive to nurture inclusive workplaces. This is because the latter not only makes good business sense, but it facilitates social integration and social mobility.
In today’s world, nurturing inclusion goes beyond being a ‘nice to have’ business consideration because inclusive workplaces are critical to social cohesion. Despite the numerous challenges, workplace inclusion and social integration remain lofty ideals that we must aspire to. Leaders in the social sector should be exemplars of good practice.
Visit here for my Fellowship research which draws on inclusivity lessons from the five leaders interviewed to make eight practical recommendations for other leaders and managers seeking to nurture inclusive workplaces which contribute to social integration.
¹ ³ Social Integration Commission 2014. How integrated is modern Britain? Available at: http://socialintegrationcommission.org.uk/SIC_Report_WEB.pdf
² Inclusive Employers. 2016. Inclusion, Diversity and Equality. Available at: https://www.inclusiveemployers.co.uk/about-us/inclusion-diversity-and-equality
Hewlett, S. A., Marshall, M., Sherbin, L. 2013. How Diversity Can Drive Innovation. Harvard Business Review (online). Available at: https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-diversity-can-drive-innovation
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
10 May 2016
Updated: 04 December 2020
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Jean Demars is a 2015 Fellow and former Housing Lead at Praxis Community Projects. Jean is interested in the nature of complex change within various systems.
Notre-Dame-des-Landes is a small village in a bocage and wetland area, situated 20 miles North of Nantes (France). Wetlands are considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life.
Notre-Dame-des-Landes has been the site of a struggle between the French state, who decided to build an international airport on the land; Vinci, the largest construction company in the world who obtained concession for the development of the site in 2010; and the local population, who try and protect the land on which they have been living for generations.
Since 2009 it became the site of the first ‘Zone à Defendre’ (ZAD) when the local population invited people to occupy and repopulate the area which had been partly bought through compulsory purchase orders. Occupant-squatters came from radical[1] environmental movements and anti-capitalist struggles to live in the area and link up with the 50+ local groups fighting against the airport and its developers.
Commune for the 21st Century
In contrast to most social movements, which funnel difference and diversity into a unified whole, the ZAD cannot be simplified. For some, it is a local struggle against the building of an airport, whilst others see it as a concrete example of capitalist expansion and environmental destruction. Both these strands still believe in the legitimacy of democratic institutions, considering reform and more democracy to be the response.
Those most committed to social transformation go further in expressing that it is also ‘to defend the possibility of sharing a common future on this bocage’[2]. In order to create and maintain new social relations, another struggle is necessary, this time, against that which is embedded deep within us.
‘The autonomy that is being experimented in the bocage can’t be reduced to our food and material elements. We are not interested in self sufficiency for itself. What is happening here is political autonomy. What we are inventing, through trial and error, is the capacity to collectively decide our own rules.’ [3]
This typifies the depth of the social transformation at stake in the making of the ZAD. It should not be interpreted as some form of self-management, so prevalent in advanced capitalism, but rather as an exploration in modes of being and interacting that break with the imperatives of the market.
Tactics for Social Change
Legal proceedings against the French state have been going on for 15 years with the support of committed lawyers, expert economists and ecologists. Despite irrefutable proof of the damage the airport would cause, and despite the possibility of expanding the existing airport, the law continues to rule in favour of the state.
Outside the legal process, the primary form of resistance is expressed through regular protest marches, demanding the termination of the project. Similarly, some elements of the movement have engaged with existing political parties to access the higher echelons of power and attempt to influence the process and outcome.
Direct action has been an important element of resistance. When evicted by riot police in 2012, occupant-squatters resisted the destruction of farm buildings and refused to leave the area. The local community supported them and organised a re-building event that brought together 40,000 people. Following this, attacks were launched against machinery attempting to enter the ZAD along with acts of sabotage to ensure no preliminary works could be carried out.
Direct Action doesn't stop at self-defence. It has brought together the various elements of the ZAD via environmentalists recording protected species in the area, local farmers sharing knowledge and lending cattle to start a cheese-making workshop, the exchange of seeds, the weekly non-market where produce is exchanged and ‘sold’ for what can be afforded. The list is endless because it continues to be created in the everyday interactions of people inhabiting or engaging in the ZAD, without any external, superior or hegemonic body to arbitrate or intervene.
What lessons can be learnt from the ZAD for ethical leadership?
- Strong ethical principles guiding an experimental daily practice is key to the transformation of social relations.
- The importance of negating what exists as much as creating the new. Negation is a necessary but insufficient condition for the creation of the new. Trying to build participatory communities without first rejecting the current social order will sooner or later bring it against the existing order, whether that is in the form of eviction or recuperation.
- Dispersing power has to be a key feature of the new so that autonomous communities remain non-hierarchical. One consequence of this may be that mass movements are not desirable to build, unless they are the result of individual actions.
The ZAD is a community of struggle in becoming. Its inherent ‘messiness’ is its strength if only those involved don't see ‘difference’ as inhibiting, but the engine of the movement, the affect unleashed on its outside and the potential it can actualise in the everyday. As such the exchanges between local people fighting the building of an airport, and occupant-squatters building a commune for the 21st century are key, even though they could just as easily be exploited by the state to split the movement.
What makes this struggle so important is that it contains the world, old and new, within it and provides a concrete pressure point for people to get engaged in, far away from depoliticised community organising or abstract, even if radical, ideology.
Footnotes:
[0]: Crested Newt is a protected species found in the local area, which has been taken as a symbol for all species that will disappear as a direct result of the armed concrete poured over the wetlands to build the airport.
[1] : The use of the word ‘radical’ need to be reviewed in the current political context where states have been so radical in the imposition of inhumane policies. It is used here in the conventional sense of those seeking transformation rather than reform.
[2] : Defending the ZAD, Mauvaise Troupe Collective, p. 22, éditions de l’éclat.
[3]: Ibid, p.20
[4] : Ibid, p. 20
Further Reading
http://zad.nadir.org/
https://www.acipa-ndl.fr/
Defending the ZAD: A new little book about the struggle against an airport and its world.
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