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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
19 March 2021
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This #CloreSocialFellowFriday, we sat down with Mohammed Ali Amla, a 2020 Leading Beyond Lockdown Programme Fellow. Ali is a freelance consultant, and the new Director of Bridge Building at Solutions not Sides.
Can you give us a little bit of background information about yourself and your new role?
I recently joined Solutions not Sides as the Director of Bridge Building, leading on youth empowerment, strategic partnerships and collaborations. Starting a new job during a global pandemic, navigating uncertainty is both exciting and nerve wracking. Leadership during periods of uncertainty and rapid change requires innovation, versatility, determination, humility and a willingness to manage risk, and I’m excited to embrace this new challenge and opportunity.
Solutions not Sides is an organisation that tackles the growth of Antisemitism and Islamophobia and the polarisation around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Britain. We provide education programmes that empower young people with the knowledge, empathy and skills to promote dialogue, conflict resolution, and to challenge prejudice in the UK. Our work is rooted in humanising encounters, diverse narratives and critical thinking tools. We run school workshops and youth leadership programmes that bring Israeli and Palestinian peace activists into schools, creating a safe space to talk about their experiences of the conflict and explore what peace means, taking a solution-focused approach and exploring different possibilities.
This pandemic has also allowed us to pilot our Student Leadership Programme (SLP) online, rebranded as Bridge Builders. We’ll be working with young people aged 16-19, nurturing their leadership skills by exploring social division, interfaith relations, cohesion, conflict, challenging hate, and community activism. We’ll also be looking at examples of peacebuilding from Northern Ireland, The Balkans, and Israel-Palestine. It’s an opportunity to learn, adapt and improve for the future as we continue to empower young people online. That being said, I’m looking forward to organising an in-person SLP later this year.
In addition to my role, I will continue to work as a freelance consultant. My freelance work primarily focuses on youth empowerment, nurturing future leaders, policy advice, leadership development, and inclusion and diversity training. Next week, I’m delivering a masterclass on tackling structural racism for Clore Social Leadership.
What inspired you to apply to the Leading Beyond Lockdown Programme?
The programme came at a time when I was at a number of different junctures in life, professionally and personally. I decided to press pause and reflect on my leadership journey thus far, while asking myself the questions: ‘what does it mean to step back into the professional world?’ and ‘what is my calling and purpose in life right now?’
The last 12 months have been an opportunity to step back and think about my key skills and direction. Coaching and the Action Learning Sets during the Leading Beyond Lockdown Programme created the space to articulate my thoughts and challenges and explore possible directions. It was also incredibly valuable to reflect on those questions within the current context of the pandemic because the world has changed during lockdown. Knowing what the world needs now is even more important than ever before.
It sounds like you’ve worn a lot of different hats throughout your career. Can you tell me a little bit more about your leadership journey and how you unlocked that potential?
It involved a process of trial and error and learning from my mistakes and success equally! I like to describe myself as a multipotentialite, which is a distinct term that just means that I’m not just purely a practitioner, strategist, policy maker, community activist, or academic researcher, but that I’m all of those things and more. During lockdown, I’ve even added theatre making to my repertoire, working on my first theatre project, building on my existing skills whilst nurturing a new direction. I believe in creating an opportunity when one isn't immediately available, and I’m always looking for new opportunities and new ways to expand my skills, knowledge and experiences.
I’ve always been in awe of individuals who have set their sights on a specific career from a young age, and boom, off they've gone. For me, my journey has been somewhat unorthodox. I’ve spent my life searching for my Ikigai, balancing my passion, what I’m good at, identifying what the world needs and finding a balance between volunteering and paid work. Learning from failure is as powerful as success in teaching you the direction that you need to take.
For example, when I was 30 years old, I was made redundant, which felt like a disaster at the time, but it actually opened up my world to freelancing. Freelancing also made diversification really key. It was about getting myself out there and networking, getting to meet as many different people as I can, learning from their journey and experience, but also allowing that to help me adapt, evolve and find my path. I learned how to identify opportunities and develop new partnerships and collaborations. All of those professional experiences—good and bad—have made me who I am and opened my world up. I’m a big believer in the idea that we shouldn’t be afraid to get things wrong, because they will inevitably allow you to get things right as well.
“There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.” Brene Brown
Ali is facilitating our upcoming Masterclass on Tackling Structural Racism. You can find him on Twitter @mohammedaliamla, and LinkedIn.
You can find Solutions not Sides on Twitter @ItmakesSNS, and Instagram, and Facebook.
If you would like to be featured for a #CloreSocialFellowFriday, send us an email at info@cloresocialleadership.org.uk.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
12 March 2021
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This week, we sat down with Katy Dawe for #CloreSocialFellowFriday to talk about her experiences with transition and adaptability over the last year. Katy is a Clore Social Fellow from our 2019 Emerging Leader Programme.
Can you tell us a little bit about your experience on the Emerging Leader Programme?
When I started the programme, I had already made the decision to leave the charity that I'd founded and run for ten years, Art Against Knives. One of my main motivations for doing the programme was to give myself some space to reflect on my leadership and think about my next steps. In the end, the process (especially my cohort) ended up being a support mechanism that helped me through the process of exiting the charity. The coaching element of the programme was also huge for me, because it really helped me approach the questions of ‘where next’ and ‘what next.’ Through that process, I realised that I was really interested in affecting larger systems change, and that I felt like I had a responsibility to shift power on behalf of the young people that I’ve spent the last 10 years listening to and learning from in communities across London. That wealth of knowledge is theirs, but I really felt a responsibility to take that with me wherever I went.
So, I had all of that in mind when I graduated from the Emerging Leader programme in the beginning of March of 2020, and then literally the week later we all went into lockdown. Once COVID happened, I found myself unexpectedly back at the helm of Art Against Knives tasked with leading the charity through the pandemic, which turned out to be my biggest leadership challenge yet.. At the same time, I was also going through a really exciting and unusual interview process with a creative management consultancy company called B+A, who offered me the opportunity to join their team as a Problem Solver at the end of the year which set my exit deadline in stone and brought my ‘what next’ to life!
What were some of the biggest wins and challenges that you experienced while leading Arts Against Knives last year?
There was never a more important time to support the team to pivot, create, and innovate to ensure the hundreds of young people who relied on our safe spaces and support could still access this during lockdown.. In five days, we co-designed and mobilised a creative virtual support programme that reached over 100 young people in the first six weeks. We worked in partnership with Apple to run design and delivery virtual summer school to support young people who were falling behind in education and who were struggling as a result of digital exclusion. The young people on that course designed a podcast, which Apple then funded resulting in the launch of a year-long project. That podcast is hugely exciting because it’s not only owned by young people, it’s capturing and amplifying their ideas for systemic change.
One of the biggest challenges last year was also finding a new leader for the charity, and designing and delivering a recruitment process that was going to allow everybody in the team to be involved in that decision process. That meant doing a lot of culture work around who we are, what we needed, and who we needed. I’m really proud of the process we designed , and as a result we ended up finding an incredible new CEO who joined in January 2021. As a founder leaving a charity, it’s a wonderful thing to know that it’s in the hands of someone so incredible.
So, tell me about your transition to your current role.
B+A is a small creative management consultancy firm, with a team based in Portland, Oregon, Shanghai, and London. Their vision is to create a world of cultural, charitable, profitable enterprise, so I have the opportunity to work with organisations in all of these three worlds. Coming from a small, community-based charity, to joining a global team was a step into a whole new world. Having been so immersed in Art Against Knives for the past 10 years (since I was 21) I really wanted to go out and learn from the world, I’ve already had the opportunity to work on some really incredible projects.
Joining B+A was also an opportunity to effect systems change in a very different way. I’ve seen how much power the corporate world holds and how much opportunity they have to drive social change, so I wanted to bring my knowledge of the third sector and young people into that space. That being said, I also have a lot to learn. Starting at B+A felt like joining a new school with a brand new timetable. For me, the most comfortable space is the art room where I've got all of the tools and knowledge already. At B+A, I went straight into a top-tier maths set, where all of the sudden I went from knowing 100% of what was going on to maybe 40%. That experience was actually really liberating, diving in is definitely the best way to learn.
Looking toward the future, what are you most excited about for your own leadership journey?
Now that I’m in a very different role and environment, I’m excited to step away from managing a team of people and being the public face of an organisation. By making that change, I’m hoping to make the space to develop other aspects of my leadership and explore different leadership roles. I’m on the lookout for my next position at a smaller charity or a mentoring role to help a foundertake a charity from startup to growth stage, because I’d love to pass on my learning (especially what went wrong!)
The Clore Social framework of ‘know yourself, be yourself, look after yourself,’ is something I’m really challenging myself on this year. I’m working hard to strike a much healthier balance between work life, mum life, and my life. Especially over the last year, it has been virtually impossible to try and strike that balance, so that’s a huge part of my commitment to myself and as a leader moving forward.
You can find Katy on Twitter @dawe_katy, and B+A on LinkedIn.
Art Against Knives intervenes early to reduce the root causes of knife crime through youth-led, creative opportunities. They have an upcoming youth-led podcast, and you can find them on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
If you would like to be featured for a #CloreSocialFellowFriday, send us an email at info@cloresocialleadership.org.uk.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
01 March 2021
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In early March, Katie Chappell live illustrated our Emerging Leader: Women and Girls Programme’s transition day event. Last week, we sat down with Katie to talk about her experience of working and learning during the pandemic.
Can you tell us a little bit about live illustration and how COVID has impacted your work?
I work as a live illustrator, which means that I attend meetings or events and draw them in real time. I basically listen carefully and turn what’s being discussed into easily understandable images. Before the pandemic, that meant attending events in person. So, at the beginning of lockdown, all my work was canceled all at once. I also dealt with the normal pandemic stuff like me and my partner being home all the time and living on top of each other.
It took me a couple of months to realise that everybody was having online events, and the pivot since then has been incredible and beyond what I could have imagined. Before the pandemic, I could only work with one person a day because I would have to get the train to London or Glasgow, whereas now I can be in up to three different places in one day. Although, working online also means that I can work all of the time, and sometimes it’s hard to get out of work mode, so I’m still learning to find that balance.
You did some live scribing for our Emerging Leaders: Women and Girls programme transition day! Can you tell us a little bit more about that experience?
It was brilliant! I was there to illustrate the final day of their six month programme, and it was so inspiring to hear people talking about their journey and how they had changed. One thing that stuck with me was all of the women talking about how they felt so much more confident, and I think that comes through in the illustration.
Looking forward, what are you most excited for?
I'm really excited about real life events coming back! I never thought I would say that because I'm not a huge fan of conferences, but I think that it’ll be really exciting to see what the new events world looks like. During COVID, we’ve had the chance to pause and rethink in-person events, and I think that when we come back to them people will have some really exciting ideas. For example, I’m looking forward to hybrid events where there’s an in-person element as well as an online element.
Have you done any learning and development work this year?
Yes! I'm a total nerd about learning! I'm always taking online courses and reading new books. In 2020, I also co-founded The Good Ship Illustration with my two good friends, Helen Stephens and Tania Willis, which is a resource of online courses and content to help illustrators navigate a creative career. It all started because the three of us realised that we were asking the same questions, and that other Illustrators might have them as well. So, we took it online and created a course. We were so nervous at the start because we founded the company literally at the beginning of the pandemic, and we were like, “is the worst timing ever?” But it has actually been so lovely to take people through a course, collaborate, and talk about learning, especially now. Illustrators are quite solitary creatures by nature, but we now have an incredible community where we can chat and ask each other questions.
You can find more details about Katie’s work and how to book her for live illustration and scribing on her website. You can also find her on Twitter @katiedraws and on Instagram at katiedraws.
The Good Ship Illustration runs a free live art club on their Instagram every Friday at 8pm UK time. They also offer a free downloadable drawing guide called The Sketchbooker’s Friend.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
26 February 2021
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For #CloreSocialFellowFriday, Adrian Leslie reflects on the COVID-19 response and the need for horizontal innovation in the sector and beyond. Adrian is a Cobseo Emerging Leader Programme Fellow and a Membership Support Officer for The Royal British Legion.
During the past 12 months, the pandemic has changed the ways that individuals lead as well as the ways that organisations adapt to change. In this rapidly changing operational environment, it has been necessary to react quickly. However, while some organisations have flourished in these conditions, others are still struggling to react to the transformation.
One of the primary reasons for this slow response is rigid organisational structure. Today, most organisational change happens through a vertical model, where an idea moves gradually from senior management down through a complex change matrix and various stakeholders before eventually being rolled out. In this model, an idea may also be passed from an employee up the line to senior management through various levels of managers before being bounced back down. However this vertical change model is often over-managed, with too much time spent on developing the system, and too little spent on enacting actual change.
In a crisis situation like COVID-19, this model also becomes susceptible to breakdowns in communication. When organisational change isn’t communicated in a clear or positive way, it can lead to individual and communal resistance to the “process” of change rather than resistance to the actual change itself. Finally, a vertical change model may also be inhibited by a lack of effective leadership. This may not necessarily be due to the quality of individual leaders, but due to a failure to create an effective process.
Smaller organisations, and larger organisations which have converted to a more agile system prior to COVID, have tended to fare better than large ridgid organisations. This adaptability is reflected in both the quality of their in-house operations, as well as the timely services that they have adapted to provide to their client base. Without a cumbersome vertical system, there is a greater opportunity for staff to horizontally innovate and introduce change quickly. Similarly, a horizontal change model may contribute to a culture of collective ownership, as opposed to personal or departmental ownership. In a crisis situation, these more agile organisations may also be able to bypass traditional mechanisms of training and learning and development to implement transformative change quickly.
This trend of effective horizontal change modeling is visible in the corporate and charity sectors, as well as in historical military manoeuvres. For example, during the First World War there were many individual units who saw action on their own, with little or no immediate communication through the chain of command. These new tactics often involved moving new knowledge and ideas horizontally between units. Many of these tactics were eventually adopted as best practise by the senior commanders for the whole army. This process of crisis decision making bypassed the months of decision making that a traditional chain of command typically involves.
As leaders, if we are serious about reacting and adapting to the challenges of the future, we should consider how to empower our team to horizontally, innovate and adapt to challenges themselves. In turn, this will help to enact a more agile and less cumbersome change system.
You can find Adrian on Twitter at @NorthWalesMSO and on LinkedIn at adrianleslie.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
19 February 2021
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This #CloreSocialFellowFriday, we sat down with Avatâra Ayuso, a 2020 Emerging Leader: Women and Girls’ Sector programme fellow. Avatâra is the Artistic Director of AVA Dance Company, and founder and Director of the charity AWA DANCE. She is passionate about celebrating women in the social sector.
Can you give us a little bit of background information about your organisation?
I'm the founder and director of a very new charity called AWA DANCE which stands for Advancing Women's Aspirations with Dance. The charity was founded at the very beginning of 2020, with the idea that dance can be a tool to empower our leadership practice.
The charity is very young, so it had to immediately adapt to the challenges presented by COVID. That ended up being a good thing, because it forced us to innovate, and it's been very exciting to see how the organisation fits into this different world straight away. At the moment, we’re running a mentoring programme for women, as well as bootcamps for both women and girls. We also work with schools to run workshops and activities that build confidence, physical wellbeing, and self-expression.
It’s been a busy first year! Could you touch a little more on your COVID response and the challenges that you’ve faced?
Dance is a physical activity that requires physical resources, so not being able to gather was the first challenge. However, rather than letting that be a roadblock, we realised that dance is also about wellbeing, so during a pandemic we need dance more than ever. We moved everything online right away, and hosted lots of workshops to support women and girls in the sector. One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced has been a lack of funding. At times, we had to start doing things on a voluntary basis, and acknowledge that we would get paid later on. But, this has also created a network of women and girls who are there to support each other. Before COVID, I think that network would have been much more difficult to build.
What does the next chapter look like for you?
The next chapter has already started! We’ve got online leadership bootcamps this month using dance as the core, and we also have our Women in Dance Awards, which are both very new and exciting. With both of these events, rather than having a Zoom webinar, we’re going to provide different digital tools to interact with. For example, during the workshops we’re going to use a virtual reality platform, and for the Women in Dance awards we’re going to use a gala-style networking platform. We’re hoping to use this technology to really engage with our participants and beneficiaries in a very interactive and participatory way. We also want to focus (even more!) on inclusivity in 2021, and make sure that everyone who engages with our charity is aware that we welcome anyone who identifies as a woman without question.
What inspired you to pursue leadership development with Clore Social Leadership?
Over the last five years, I've been doing some investing in my leadership development. In the beginning, I was leading an independent dance company, but I knew that I wanted to build something bigger than myself with impact beyond the dance sector. By the time I came across Clore Social, I knew that I wanted to grow a charity, so I had a big new responsibility, and I needed the tools to push my charity, my vision, my team to another level. As soon as I saw the Emerging Leader: Women and Girls Programme, I knew it was a perfect match in terms of content and timing.
What are the tools from the programme that you’ve found the most useful?
There are so many things already that I have applied in terms of the way I work, how I communicate, and how I empower my team. The sessions on feminist leadership were a real highlight. As a cohort, we actually asked for more sessions on feminist leadership theory, and Clore Social was incredible in adapting to our needs. Now, that theory is the umbrella that encompasses the charity, as well as my personal and professional life, so that’s been an incredible revelation.
Another thing that I’ve gained is a peer network of women. I never thought that I would be able to make such strong friendships online. Thanks to the fellowship programme, I now have friends who are experts in their fields and bring many different perspectives to the table, which is very, very enriching.
Looking forward, what are your hopes for the future?
I hope that all of the fantastic women in the world and in the social sector keep on connecting with each other, learning from each other, and encouraging each other. Women in the social sector all deserve to be celebrated, and I hope there is more of that celebration in 2021 and beyond.
AWA DANCE charity is running a Women in Dance Online Leadership Bootcamp on 26, 27 and 28 February.
They are also hosting the Women in Dance Awards online on 26 March, which is the first award ceremony to specifically celebrate women in the UK dance sector.
You can find Avatâra on Twitter at @AVADanceCompany
If you would like to be featured for a #CloreSocialFellowFriday, send us an email at info@cloresocialleadership.org.uk
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