It’s often said that we are the average of the five people with whom we spend the most time. In our globally connected world, there is almost endless scope for choosing whom we want to shape our worldview.
Who is shaping yours?
I’ve found that since the pandemic, the circle of people that I spend time with has shrunk. I expect this may be true for you too. Despite the globalisation of work and the benefits of technology, our bubbles have actually become smaller.
In fact, the five people we spend our time with might be more homogenous than ever! This has consequences because diverse thinking is vital to working through the global challenges that CEOs are facing. By limiting perspectives to those very like our own, I believe that we lose out on some of the most special and unique parts of being human. Conversely, by expanding our worldview, we can become more rounded and more successful in all that we do.
The magic of Questing
What if you could expand your worldview in a safe space with time and guidance to make the most of it? If you could be immersed with a diverse group of people, what unexpected perspectives this might bring to your business and your own leadership?
Imagine spending time in an incredible place with fellow CEOs, plus artists, activists, indigenous people, policy makers, environmentalists, refugees, ex-offenders, and community leaders. This is the magic of a Quest (my colleague, Kim Coupounas, shares additional insights on what Quests can achieve).
What is a Quest?
When I joined Leaders’ Quest 15 years ago, I had little awareness of what Quests could achieve. I knew that Leaders’ Quest ran what sounded like leadership development events, some of them taking place in emerging markets. That sounded pretty interesting to me and so I took up the role without many expectations. It was only after I became immersed in the LQ approach that I witnessed the fundamental ‘rewiring’ that participants experience when they have the opportunity to touch and feel the world in a new and interesting way.
Fifteen years later I still get great joy from witnessing the change and catalyzing these moments. It is incredibly rewarding to be part of a project that offers up the conditions for change and enables people to tap into perspectives that they would simply not get in any other area of their life.
Changing the status quo
There is no doubt that we are hugely influenced by those with whom we spend most time. This feels comfortable for us as our natural confirmation biases are rewarded when we hear or see things that validate what we already suspected to be true. But in many spheres of our lives, including at work, our cognitive biases are keeping us trapped in the status quo and, since we are attracted unconsciously to people who think like us, we lose out on the power of diverse thinking.
Our perspective can be expanded in many ways whether it be through hobbies, travel, volunteering or being intentional about who we spend time with in our organisations. But for senior business leaders who have very little free time, these opportunities can feel few and far between. This is why Questing is such a rich experience.
We know that many senior leaders no longer commute. They no longer travel as much. They no longer come across the diversity of people that they did in the past. So, cocooned in an ever-shrinking bubble of CEO forums, business travel and time with like-minded peers, the perspective of these global leaders risks being not very global at all.
If we can break this habit, we have the opportunity to live a much richer life. When we take intentional steps towards more diversity in our lives, we broaden our horizons, find common ground and create meaningful interactions. A worldview that is informed by diverse perspectives, such as those we enable during our Quests, brings personal enrichment, better communication skills, more capacity for empathy, and career advantages. In a world where we seem to be ever more global, yet ever more isolated, I believe taking time out to expand our worldview is invaluable.
How did you react when you heard the news from the IPCC that scientists now believe with 98% certainty that we will cross the 1.5-degree threshold sometime between now and 2027?
Speaking for myself, I felt two conflicting emotions:
Firstly, I tried to switch off from the overwhelming news. Secondly, I felt numbness. nothingness. I’ve seen so much of it that it feels normalized, even though it’s anything but normal.
As I paused and really paid attention to this piece of news, tears began to stream down my face. Tears for the injustice that those who will suffer the impact of this have contributed least to the cause.
Citizens of Earth
I’m a proud ‘third culture’ kid. Born in Japan, Nigerian by origin, and with very deep roots. I maintain a close relationship with my mom who is from a village in South Western Nigeria called Igbojaye. In her village some of the wealthier homes just got running water – sporadically — about five years ago. So, most people still walk several miles to the river to get water for daily use.
I was fortunate to move to the US on a scholarship for high school and then to the UK on a Master’s degree scholarship. I’m now a proud Londoner and mother to a two-year old Londoner who only knows life in London so far.
I share this to articulate that I am a ‘citizen of nowhere’, and proudly so, because I consider myself a citizen of Earth. Earth is my home because I’m fortunate to have had several places on Earth I’ve called home — some in the global north, some in the global South. And I hope — along with my son — to have many more.
As a citizen of Earth, I felt a deep sadness when the UN declared the damning news that the 1.5-degree world is coming and even a bit fearful. I have friends who have chosen not to have children because of the climate emergency. I’m confident in the motherhood path I chose but I do sometimes look at my son and wonder what the world will be like when he’s my age?
And because of that question, the much bigger feeling I have — stronger than my sadness and fear — is one of urgency. Of a fire in my belly to accelerate the transformation that I believe is already underway to change the global economy into a vehicle that delivers positive outcomes for people and nature.
What does a 1.5-degree world mean for you? For your home, your country, this world you are a part of?
I will be a Hummingbird
When I think about what is required of me and of each of us working on this challenge, I’m reminded of the story of the hummingbird; told so beautifully by Wangari Maathai — the first African woman Nobel laureate.
She and several women put their lives on the line to protect and restore Kenya’s nature. Those of you who have been to Nairobi know that there’s a beautiful urban forest called Karura right in the heart of the city. This forest exists thanks of the efforts of Wangari who suffered police brutality and death threats to protect it.
There is a huge forest fire, threatening to clear the whole forest. All the animals are standing by in fear and shock, and watching the forest burn. The elephant with its huge trunk. The cheetah with its fast legs. All standing by, panicked, watching. Except one little hummingbird.
The hummingbird is flying back and forth, from a local stream where it collects water in its tiny beak to the roaring fire where it drops the water. Back and forth, back and forth over and over — seemingly making no difference at all.
A lion asked the hummingbird, “what are you doing? You’re only a tiny hummingbird. What difference can you make?” And the hummingbird replied “I am simply doing the best I can”.
Do the best you can
Wangari says “I chose to be the hummingbird. We must all be the hummingbird. We cannot just stand by, no matter how overwhelming the challenge”. I agree, one hummingbird does not make a movement, but if we all — those with small beaks, and huge trunks — do what we can, I have NO doubt in my mind that change is not only possible but is already coming.
Why am I so convinced about that? Because we as human beings have made similarly difficult large-scale changes to the way we live in the past.
If you think our task is impossible, remember that 200 years ago, slavery was the basis of our global economy.
If you think our task is impossible, remember there was a time, merely 100 years ago, when I, a woman, would not have had the right to vote in most countries around the world.
Changing those systems seemed impossible. It was too lucrative, too baked into our economic models and too embedded in societal norms. It seemed unimaginable. And yet, here we are. And what seems unimaginable now is that these systems ever existed.
The second reason I believe change is coming is because I can see examples of the positive future that’s coming, everywhere. Let me give you some examples:
For the first time ever in the UK, in Q1 of this year, wind turbines generated more electricity than gas. 42% of the UK’s electricity came from renewable energy and 33% came from fossil fuels.
Amazonian deforestation is down 61% year on year.
Kenya now generates 93% of its electricity from renewable sources, and is building the potential to power the world with clean energy, which could provide jobs and sustainable development for millions of people.
These statistics, plus economic signals, political signals and polls that represent what people want, are pointing in the right direction. Change is happening. The question is how we can make it happen faster? How can we make it happen fairly? And what is our role as leaders in accelerating that shift?
We need wise leaders
I’m a Partner at Leaders’ Quest, an organization dedicated to growing wise leaders for a regenerative future. I use the word ‘wise’ very deliberately.
As human beings, we have grown in what we can call our ‘cleverness’ at a remarkable rate. That is – our technical abilities. We’ve put a man on the moon. We’re on the cusp of the next wave of artificial intelligence that will transform the way we live.
But as our cleverness has increased exponentially, you can see a similar exponential increase in many of the world’s problems. Global temperature rise. Loneliness. Obesity. Deforestation. Inequality.
So, while we have grown in cleverness exponentially, our growth in what we might call “wisdom” has been much slower. It has flatlined.
What I have learned in 10 years of working on systemic global challenges, is that technical solutions are only part of the picture. As leaders, part of our task is to grow our ability to see this bigger picture. To develop our wisdom alongside our cleverness.
This starts with deepening our self-awareness and understanding how to see the world from multiple points of view. Understanding that our mindset really shapes how we see the world, can shape how we then choose to act as a result.
A 1.5-degree world is coming. We are failing our fellow human beings on that front. But it’s not too late to create the movement of clever and wise leaders that can change the trajectory of our future. And that movement begins with each and every one of us.
He then proceeded to share the kind of radical shifts that happened in the months and years following his experience on a “Quest” led by Leaders’ Quest.
I’ve heard this same personal transformation story at least 10 times from LQ alumni these past six months since joining this company, each story with its own twists, personal epiphanies, and subsequent life changes.
Some individuals found the courage to radically change the direction of their companies.
Some quit their jobs and changed careers.
Some shifted their gaze and work to figure out how they can make a difference in the world.
I’ve heard it from global multinational CEOs, climate change agents, everyday citizens, nomadic adventurers, and everything in between.
When I decided to join LQ in 2022, I’d been drawn into LQ’s orbit by the brilliance they lent to the co-founding of TED Countdown. I got to know LQ a bit and its luminous founder, Lindsay Levin, leading up to TED Countdown’s launch in 2020. The genius, passion, and commitment of the people behind that launch – including both TED and LQ – were evident and stunning in every aspect of the event.
And I committed to finding ways to collaborate with them again in the future. Little did I know that I’d be joining LQ full-time as a Partner in 2022!
When I joined LQ, my knowledge of their work was colored primarily by TED Countdown. I didn’t really have a sense yet of what LQ is most known for: its signature Quests.
What is a Quest?
Quests are powerful learning experiences designed to inspire and equip leaders to tackle complex global challenges by taking them into unfamiliar environments to be immersed in the forces shaping our future.
I had my first real taste of Questing when I led visits for a group of rising Partners at a major global consultancy in London this past November.
During one Quest, we visited Shashi Verma, the Chief Technology Officer at Transport for London who was also the creative genius behind the Oyster card, the largest smartcard-based ticketing system in the world.
The conversation between Shashi and the Partner was dynamic and inspiring. The Partners were wide-eyed and fully immersed in the experience. It was a delight to witness and be a part of. My love affair with LQ-style Questing was born that day.
A Quest can change your life via:
Active engagement: It emphasizes hands-on experiences and active participation, allowing you to engage directly with the learning material, enhancing retention and understanding as compared to passive learning methods.
Real-world application: It provides you with opportunities to apply both theoretical concepts and practical skills learned in real-world contexts, such as leadership, decision-making, adaptability, and problem-solving, which are transferable to different settings, including educational, professional, and personal contexts.
Emotional connection: It often involves emotionally engaging activities that elicit strong responses. By experiencing a wide range of emotions, you are more likely to remember the associated lessons and develop a personal connection to the learning process.
Reflection & sense-making: It emphasizes reflection where you analyze your experiences, draw insights, and connect them to broader concepts or principles. This reflection process deepens understanding and helps you extract valuable lessons from their experiences.
Collaboration & communication: It involves group activities that require collaboration and effective communication among participants. These experiences promote teamwork, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills, which are valuable in many aspects of your life.
Personal growth: They challenge you to step out of your comfort zone, confront fears, and push your limits, building self-confidence and developing resilience as you realize your capabilities and learn to overcome obstacles.
Long-lasting impact: It creates memorable and transformative experiences. The immersive nature of these programs can have a lasting impact on your attitudes, behaviors, and perspectives, leading to continued growth and development even after the program ends. When experienced at an organizational level involving multiple participants, it can drive culture change at scale. Many of the LQ “alumni” I’ve met these past months talk about their transformational LQ Quest experience as if it happened yesterday.
Who is Leaders’ Quest?
I’ve never shied away from ambitious, world-changing organizations, and Leaders’ Quest is no exception. LQ’s mission is “to develop wise leaders to build a regenerative future.”
One of the key ways LQ achieves this is through Quests. They’ve been leading Quests for over 20 years, delivering 500+ transformative learning programs around the world. And they’re not just good at it, they’re GREAT at it, by which I mean they deliver a world-class level of facilitative genius applied to humans and organizations in ways I’ve never seen before.
This is no ordinary c-suite advisory and consulting firm. Given my short time at LQ, I can brazenly say and with zero concern about it coming across as a sales pitch:
Leaders’ Quest changes lives. And it’s changing the future.
As a result of LQ’s genius, we’re been hired by some of the smartest, most successful and purposeful leaders and companies in the world, including Google, PwC, Bain & Co., Lord Abbett, PepsiCo, S&P, Daimler, Vodafone, CEMEX, HSBC, P&G, and many others.
Coming full circle in my career
I’ve recently realized how my professional life has come “full circle” in joining LQ. I spent several pivotal years early in my career in senior leadership roles at organizations that drove personal growth through experiential learning.
I was drawn to those roles because my most powerful personal learnings in life have come through real-world experiences – especially travel and outdoor adventure. I believed so much in this style of learning that I even became an Outward Bound instructor in my spare time because I wanted others to have the kind of life-changing wilderness journeys I’d had the privilege of experiencing.
Now and then, I tell my husband that I’ve got “itchy feet,” and he knows he’d better start packing for another crazy boundary-pushing expedition into the unknown. Every odyssey deepens me, changes me in fundamental ways. To realize that I’m once again having the privilege of supporting individuals on similar transformational journeys is almost too good to be true.
Every day I discover more and more powerful ways that this small-but-mighty consultancy is forging leaders who have the courage and perspective to tackle today’s most complex global social and environmental challenges.
Every leader I know deserves an LQ Quest experience.
To learn more about why I believe that every company I know NEEDS this experience for their team to help them meet the challenges of our day, take a look at a more in-depth piece on Medium here.
With Covid fast diminishing in the rear-view mirror, deciphering what ‘new normal’ habits are still standing is becoming a popular pastime. Although not immediately apparent, many of the changes have their roots in technology, the secondary and tertiary impacts of which have forced us to find new vocabularies.
Firstly, there are attitudinal shifts, giving rise to the ‘Great Resignation’, its humbler cousin ‘Quiet Quitting’ and its 2023 reboot ‘Conscious Quitting’.
Then there are behavioralshifts, such as ‘Hybrid Working’, which mean complete strangers can get away with calling me a ‘TWaT’ because I choose to come to the office only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Next are organizational shifts, which can be explained by increasing numbers of part-time workers and indie contractors, as well as the geographical redistribution of workers away from cities.
The final piece in this jigsaw will be widespread vocational shifts as a result of technology automating or augmenting existing roles, establishing new ones, or disestablishing those that are harder to fight for in light of all of the above.
AI isn’t playing by the rules
The quiet revolution going on in AI suddenly turned into a raucous house party when ChatGPT went from 0-100 million users in two months, making it the fastest-growing consumer app in history.
By virtue, the general public was finally given a taste of the future which AI evangelists and Cassandras had both been prophesizing. Its success has opened the floodgates of our curiosity about new AI products and services, only marginally surpassed by the deluge of articles and videos asking ‘will ChatGPT take my job.’ And if it doesn’t, maybe Google’s Bard or Baidu’s ERNIE will.
“2023 will be remembered as the year we shifted uncomfortably in our seats”
New technologies come thick and fast, though rarely do they register a blip on the historical seismograph. This time is different. To most of us, 2023 will be remembered as the year we shifted uncomfortably in our seats.
Until fairly recently, the received wisdom was that if tech was coming for our jobs, it would ‘find and replace’ those whose roles were largely repeatable, with a finite set of outcomes. Actuaries, not actors. Articulated truck drivers not artists.
Hans Moravec’s illustration of the rising tide of the AI capacity
The ‘landscape of human competence’ diagram created to illustrate Hans Moravec’s theory proved as much – creativity would be the last skill standing.
The trouble is, advancements in AI are refusing to play by the rules. Technologies like DALL-E have artists in their sights, while Flawless’ TrueSync are coming for voice actors. From retail to rocket science, AI keeps breaking our previously agreed understanding of which jobs it’s qualified for and which it ain’t.
The truth is, it’s impossible to know how technology’s encroachment on labor will occur, given we’re only at basecamp. Even amongst AI experts, the jury is out as to whether these technologies will augment our work in the short to medium term or completely supplant it further out. But if, as the old saying goes, the future is already here, just unevenly distributed, it’ll be too late by the time we realize the water has started to boil around us.
The imperative to re-skill
For several years, Edelman’s annual Trust Barometer has seen a growing belief in both individuals and institutions in the business arena, in inverse proportion to that of government, media and NGOs.
For the first time, this year’s trust index revealed that business remains the only trusted institution; at 62%, more people are ready to believe than disbelieve global corporations. The same study revealed that business is now the sole institution that respondents perceive as both ethical and competent following a three-year rise in its ethics score. This may surprise many people, but the fundamental truth at the heart of this matter puts the onus on organizations to rise to the challenge.
“Organizations should be doing more to educate their staff well before their skills become obsolete”
The simultaneous rise in vocational uncertainty and corporate trust presents businesses with a responsibility. If the skills of today’s workers are misaligned with tomorrow’s labor requirements, then organizations should be doing more to educate their staff well before those skills become obsolete or before the policy wonks make it law.
This needs to go beyond simply encouraging discourse and comprehension about the inevitable and seismic shift we’ll see in the world of work over the next decade. BigCorp will need to dedicate significant resources towards the retraining of their people in order to aid a ‘just transition’ to a more automated future, and to prevent a global pandemic of wealth inequality. Don’t take my word for it. Nearly half of the Edelman respondents think so, too.
A wholesale re-education of this scale needs to connect seamlessly with pedagogy, and not simply at the higher education level but from pre-school through to retirement.
New technologies will change the world of work irrevocably, but the outcome won’t be purely vocationally destructive. Alongside AI, Blockchain and the Metaverse – both merely taking a rest in the trough of disillusionment before figuring out what they’re actually good at – will create swathes of new jobs that have never existed before.
“The future of human work will rely more than ever before on what truly differentiates us from technology”
The future of human work will rely more than ever before on what truly differentiates us from technology; our ability to connect with each other on an intimate level. Data, intelligence and analysis are nothing without the presentation layer of purpose, empathy and meaning, which we humans excel at.
And it is within this vein that the imperative to re-skilling should not simply be a reaction to the technologization of work, but a concerted effort to re-channel labor towards what will soon become the single largest industry sector humankind has ever known: saving the planet from ourselves.
Lessons from the Future: What Leadership Means in the 2020s
Leadership
A message from the co-CEOs of Leaders’ Quest
Published on February 21, 2023
Dear friends,
As we start our roles as the new co-CEOs of Leaders’ Quest, we’ve been reflecting on the extraordinary leadership that created this unique organization and what it means for our path ahead.
It began 22 years ago. Lindsay Levin, with a small team that punched above its weight, launched the first Quests in Silicon Valley and India. The idea was to immerse leaders in the forces shaping the 2000s, inspiring them to lead their organizations differently.
Over time, spurred by the desire to grow impact, they sought to capture the ‘LQ magic’ that infused Quests in new ways to help companies build a better future.
They defined three values that remain just as relevant in our work as we help leaders navigate the turbulent 2020s:
1. Clear-eyed optimism
Recognizing life’s tough realities whilst seeing possibility everywhere. Racquel Moses, CEO of the Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator, has a bold vision for the Caribbean to become the world’s first net-zero and climate resilient region. She leads a coalition of 28 countries to generate public-private collaborations. An example? A regional rollout using climate resilient agriculture to solve food security in five island nations.
2. Patient ambition
Big, urgent challenges need the space for bold change to emerge. For us, CORO India embodies this value in the work they’ve done over the last 20+ years to support grassroots leaders to tackle endemic issues in marginalized communities. CORO dreams of creating a society based on equality and justice. They work towards this by equipping each leader to deliver local solutions, while collaborating on state-wide campaigns which reach millions of people.
3. Relentless generosity
We strive to be loving to ourselves and others, even when it’s hard. The role model of this value for many of us is our founder Lindsay, who has just stepped down as CEO yet continues to provide her wisdom as a deeply-valued Board member. Those who know her will recognize this is how she shows up, every day.
As we embark on leading Leaders’ Quest, we want to take this moment to honor these roots: The founding team at LQ that enables us all to do this work today; our clients, who trust us to guide them on their own journeys; and the worldwide community of leaders and innovators who welcome us into their worlds to share learning and inspire new ways forward.
We invite you to look at your own values to see who’s shaped them, and how they influence the choices you’re making for the future. We’d love to hear your reflections.
Lessons from the Future: What Leadership Means in the 2020s
Leadership
Leaders’ Quest taps Regenerative business leader Kim Coupounas to join as core Partner
Published on September 16, 2022
Leaders’ Quest, a global social enterprise known for its pioneering collaborations such as TED Countdown and Count Us In, has appointed Kim Coupounas to its senior leadership team. During its 21 years of existence, LQ has built an engaged global network of exceptional people committed to cultivating wise leaders for a regenerative future for humanity and the planet.
A seasoned business leader in both the private and public sector, Coupounas brings deep knowledge and understanding of global impact work and systems change and a profound commitment to mobilizing the power of business to shape a regenerative future.
“LQ’s work to cultivate courageous business leaders and foster game-changing collaborations to address today’s complex global social and environmental challenges is needed like no other time in our history,” said Coupounas. “LQ’s work is centered in both reality and optimism, and it is literally changing the course of the future. What an honor to be able to join this incredible global team to help forward their vision and work while leveraging my own deep passion for amplifying the power of business to advance an equitable and regenerative future for humanity and our planet. ”
“We’re absolutely thrilled that Kim has chosen to bring her exceptional experience, wisdom, passion, and reach to our global team,” said Lindsay Levin, Founder and CEO of Leaders’ Quest. “Kim is a powerhouse leader who will bring courageous, out of the box systems-thinking mixed with an entrepreneur’s spirit to our work of growing wise leaders for a regenerative future and tackling big global challenges. Kim is a highly respected leader within the global sustainable business community, and we can’t wait to see the magic she weaves as part of the Leaders’ Quest team.”
Coupounas is joining Leaders’ Quest at a moment of tremendous growth and opportunity for the organization. In her role on the senior leadership team, Coupounas will be a highly visible LQ Partner focused on furthering the organization’s game-changing collaborations and partnerships, design and delivery of LQ’s trademark leadership programs, client engagement, public advocacy, organizational leadership, and business development.
Prior to Leaders’ Quest, Coupounas was an instrumental leader in the growth of the B Corp movement. She served as a senior executive at B Lab, the nonprofit behind B Corps, for over 8 years and focused on advancing stakeholder-based capitalism while activating business leaders and companies to operationalize sustainable and regenerative principles and to use their collective power and voice for systemic change.
At B Lab, she co-led the largest mobilization of companies in history committed to Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Prior to B Lab, Coupounas served as co-founder and CEO of GoLite, a purpose-driven outdoor products brand that was one of the earliest Certified B Corps. Coupounas is also past Board Chair of the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), the trade association representing the $887 billion+ active outdoor recreation industry, during which she helped launch and lead that industry’s groundbreaking sustainability efforts.
Coupounas earned MBA and MPA degrees from Harvard University, an AB with honors in Philosophy from Princeton, and attended Oxford University as a Rotary Foundation Graduate Scholar. She has received many awards, including being named Conscious Company’s “2020 World-Changing Woman.”
Lindsay shares how she combined her fascination with people, leadership and travel, with a burning desire to use her business skills to help businesses do and be better. Lindsay has sat with prisoners on death row, worked with community leaders in the slums of Mumbai and brokered talks between Israelis and Palestinians. She eloquently describes our shared humanity.
She has seen at first hand the impact of climate change inspiring her to co-lead the launch of Future Stewards and spearheaded the launch of TED Countdown, a global partnership to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. If you are looking to be inspired, this is the episode for you.
Finally, Lindsay shares her best non-money purchases for around £30, and her Climate Pearls of Wisdom.
Presenters Jo Confino, an LQ Partner, and Brother Phap Huu, a lay Buddhist practitioner, discuss collective leadership; guidance; spiritual awakening and nourishing our spiritual dimension; dependent co-arising; and saving lives through teachings.
Figueres shares deeply about what brought her to Plum Village, both now and years ago, during her first encounter with Applied Buddhism; her journey to spiritual practice, to overcome a personal crisis; the historical context of making contact with Thich Nhat Hanh; and the transformative power of Buddhist teachings – such as the art of deep listening – on the negotiation process during the Paris Climate Change Conference.
Additionally, she addresses the Global North-South divide; victimhood; and strengthening the arc between the inner and outer worlds.
Lessons from the Future: What Leadership Means in the 2020s
Leadership
Leading with wisdom through the global pandemic
Published on August 30, 2021
One year ago, almost exactly, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Just like that, our lives changed. Lockdowns, isolation, collapsing global markets, overburdened health systems, and uncertainty like nothing we’ve faced before.
For many of us, life as we knew it seemed to stop. Time moved both fast and slow. There was palpable urgency and profound stillness at the same time. Yet, amidst the chaos and disruption, we saw heroes rise. So-called “invisible giants” working on the frontlines to serve the most vulnerable communities, demonstrated the power of compassion, innovation and collaboration.
The Leaders’ Quest global community is made up of many such giants. The following are the stories of how some of our global partners have stepped up during the global pandemic. Their work has protected the dignity of the many women who have fallen victims of increased domestic abuse, the homeless facing even more precarity, the casual workers who have lost their only source of income, and the many communities risking segregation in the face of lacking communication infrastructure.
Their wise leadership is proof that, especially in the most challenging times, when we act from the core of our values, we’re able to pave the way for healing and, eventually, thriving.
Patient Ambition: Grassroots Innovation in India
For three decades, CORO has worked with India’s most marginalized, politically and socio-economically disadvantaged communities. Taking a bottom-up approach, their programs and campaigns empower India’s “unseen” communities to articulate and voice their rights, to a government who otherwise treat them with neglect. CORO focuses on community involvement and sustained engagement, equipping these populations with the tools and leadership skills they need to enable social movement in the long run.
CORO has built a robust grassroots infrastructure of more than 1,268 community leaders and 250 CBOs/NGOs. Through various times of crisis in India – from the Bombay Riots in 1992-1993 to the coronavirus pandemic today – CORO collaborative networks have developed a deep capacity for rapid, nuanced and impactful action.
When the pandemic first struck India, the strategy conceived by municipal and national governments failed to consider the country’s most vulnerable – daily wage and migrant workers, single women, victims of domestic violence, the urban poor, small vendors, the undocumented, Dalits (who belong to the lowest caste in India), and Tribal communities in rural areas. CORO moved into rapid action, providing aid packages of food, sanitary products and essential goods to more than 10,168 families, in Maharashtra and Rajasthan. But as the lockdown continued, it became clear that the consequences were nuanced, multifaceted, and called for multiple, simultaneous initiatives.
With the money raised through online campaigns, generous donations from philanthropic partners and collaborations with several vendors, charities and NPOs, CORO were able to work on five interventions to alleviate hunger and livelihood insecurity, reduce exposure to coronavirus, assess and mitigate levels of gender-based violence and increase access to clean public toilets.
To date, CORO has equipped 6,500 frontline workers with PPE they would otherwise have had no access to. Direct beneficiaries from this effort include sanitation workers, and those manning public toilets – whom a huge proportion of India’s population relies on.
One of CORO’s most inspiring efforts was in response to the uptick in domestic violence, afflicting women in India’s most vulnerable communities. In the urgent requirement for PPE, the organization saw an opportunity for these women to revive their livelihoods and have economic autonomy. In partnership with local grassroots, they employed groups of women to manufacture reusable cotton masks at home, which have been sold locally at affordable prices to those in need. Through this initiative, which has expansion plans, over 7,000 masks have been manufactured, and a vast network of vulnerable women are seeing the financial and mental rewards of occupying themselves with mask masking.
CORO’s connectedness and relationships with India’s local communities has been key in the distribution of aid and emergency services through the pandemic. Working closely with their grassroots network has enabled them to access communities that, particularly given the challenges posed by lockdown, they would otherwise have struggled to reach. Importantly, CORO’s unparalleled approach to collaborative work has helped India’s most vulnerable populations to organise their own relief systems and become self-sufficient.
Learn more about CORO’s initiatives here and, if you wish to donate, you can do so here.
Relentless Generosity: Safeguarding Dignity in Detroit
Detroit is an incredibly diverse city, buzzing with innovation, an exploding startup scene, and local communities injecting a strong sense of collaboration into its growth and development. All the while, its population is one of unique vulnerability. With a third of its inhabitants living in poverty, and an estimated 14,000 individuals being homeless, Detroit has become a fertile breeding ground for COVID-19 – and one of the cities worst hit by the pandemic in America.
But whilst the majority of charities and support centres have closed their doors to the pandemic, the team at The Pope Francis Center (TPFC) has been working harder than ever to support and protect Detroit’s homeless community.
30 years ago, the pastors of Saints Peter and Paul Jesuit Church opened their doors to those in need of refuge from a harsh winter storm. This spontaneous act of kindness gradually evolved into TPFC – a day centre providing nutritious meals, showers, laundry, hygiene, clothing, food, medical help and essential services, six days a week, to those in need. TPFC is committed to eradicating chronic homelessness in Detroit by 2030, and is seen as a real “beacon of help and hope” for the city.
“When we come together in aspirit of compassion and generosity, we can defy expectations and find innovative solutions to complicated problems.”
– Fr. Tim McCabe SJ, Executive Director
With the pandemic rendering more of Detroit’s population homeless, and sparking widespread food insecurity, TPFC saw a great surge in the demand for support. Seemingly overnight, they adapted and modified their services. They shifted all of their operations outdoors, installing heated tents, portable bathrooms, mobile showers and hand-washing facilities, they also continued to provide hot meals, but did so in take-away containers – with the number of meals served per day rising from 200 to over 500 as a result of the crisis.
In March 2020, they launched a drop-in COVID screening clinic, allowing individuals to be checked for signs of infection and, if necessary, transporting them to a location for testing and quarantining – all free of charge. Meanwhile, with most of the city’s other clinics remaining shut or inaccessible, TPFC offer a general medical clinic, where guests can receive treatment for other ailments and guidance on how to stay safe around the virus – helping reduce the probability of outbreak within homeless communities.
To help fund their invaluable work, TPFC launched the campaign ‘Sanctuary For The Season’, which raised $250,000. They have also been receiving support from local businesses such as Buddy’s Pizza, who donated 400 meals to the centre, and clothing label Carhartt, who donated 400 coats and pairs of gloves.
Whilst all of us are at risk of the virus, TPFC recognise that the lack of access to hygiene facilities, medical care, good nutrition and shelter, and the predisposition to poor health, put homeless people at an unquestionable disadvantage. But, the compassion, dedication and resourcefulness of this team of less than 10, has driven an army of volunteers and generous local businesses to make sure that this is not the case.
To make a donation for The Pope Francis Centre, follow this link.
Diverse Communities are Resilient Communities: Building Bridges in Bradford
The city of Bradford, in the UK, is a district of real ethnic and cultural diversity – a third of its population is of non-white origins. Amid post-industrial decline, social unrest has simmered, exacerbating issues around prejudice and discrimination. But, with characteristic Bradfordian grit, the communities that form this cultural melting pot are driving regeneration.
The Bradford Council is determined to push these efforts. Instead of being defeated by the physical isolation brought about by the pandemic, the Council has identified the opportunity to define and address the needs of the people of Bradford. Bradford Council’s vision has come to fruition in a wealth of initiatives to help cultivate compassion and build stronger relationships between the city’s various communities.
Citizen Coin is an innovative mobile app, unique to Bradford, which recognizes and rewards people for acts of social-good. It is a virtual monetary system which “inspires acts of kindness”. The app grants users “digital coins”, earned from time volunteering in the local community, which can then be exchanged for discounted products and services in the area.
Whilst encouraging voluntary work and creating opportunities for individuals to learn new skills, the scheme also drives flow to small businesses. With local trade and retail feeling the pressures of the pandemic, the Citizen Coin has been a real source of support.
Bradford have also got involved with the nationwide project Creative People & Places (CPP) (supported by Arts Council England), establishing their own, local strand of the initiative called THE LEAP. The mission of CPP is to cultivate creative experiences “for, by and with” local communities, in areas where there is lack of engagement with arts and culture. THE LEAP is focussed on inspiring young people between the ages of 16-25 to use art and creativity to tackle prominent social issues in the Bradford district.
Over a 12-month span, it offers successful applicants financial support, one-to-one mentoring, training and access to a wide range of tools and resources to help bring young creatives’ ideas to reality. From documentary film-making to activist theatre, THE LEAP is helping carve the futures of Bradford’s promising artists, whilst advocating the influence and impact that art can have on society.
So far, through the Bradford For Everyone initiative, Bradford Council has developed and commissioned over 40 projects – providing a range of meeting places for people of all different religious, socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. Through these opportunities for community engagement and involvement, they hope to slowly unite Bradford’s various social divisions and sculpt a brighter future for the city.
Radical Collaboration: Collective Action to Combat Food Insecurity in New York
West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH)’s work is founded on their three principles of ‘Dignity. Community. Choice’. They work in partnership with their customers, with many volunteering their services or acting on the board of directors. This model provides direct insight into the communities that they cater to, and ensures people’s needs are heard. Striving to challenge the perceptions around hungry people, the WSCAH community is built on foundations of respect and autonomy, providing “access with dignity”. The organization places a strong emphasis on healthy food, with fresh produce constituting 47% of the food distributed in 2020.
For over forty years, WSCAH has worked to alleviate hunger across New York City. A true pioneer in the field, it was the first ‘customer-choice supermarket style pantry’ in the US, developing a unique model that promotes empowerment and self-sufficiency within the communities it serves.
The organization operates across all five boroughs of New York, giving low-income residents access to healthy food, support services, culinary training, nutrition workshops and cooking demonstrations.
Before the pandemic, WSCAH operated several open pantries across the city where residents were given points to spend on their own selection of groceries, allowing customers to shop to their preferences and specific requirements. But, with the mobility restrictions brought about by the pandemic, the model needed adapting. The organization responded to this by developing its ‘Mobile Market Program’, which serves the needs of those unable to reach the other locations. The ultimate purpose: to ensure no-one in New York is left unaccounted for.
Last year, as coronavirus cases in New York rose exponentially, so did the levels of food insecurity. April saw a threefold increase in WSCAH customers, compared to their usual average rate. It became clear that their help, throughout the pandemic, would be more crucial than ever.
Since the onset of the virus, WSCAH has been joined by over 1,300 new volunteers. The teams delivered food directly to New York’s most vulnerable citizens, moving their pantry locations outdoors and distributing healthy food parcels to recovering COVID-19 patients upon their discharge from hospital.
Over the winter of 2020, they collaborated with 32 different organizations across the 5 boroughs of New York, such as Uber and Lyft – who helped with distribution and delivery of food boxes to peoples’ homes. Meanwhile, they have been working virtually to connect customers to over $1.3 million worth of food stamps (SNAP benefits), ensuring that they have the additional resources necessary to provide food for themselves and their families.
As the pressure on WSCAH has increased, they have responded by expanding and adapting their services, reaching staggering new numbers. In 2020 alone, they reached 12,727 new families and distributed 2.2 million pounds of food; the number of individuals they served increased by 178% and the number of household visits by 93%.
WSCAH have used this crisis as an opportunity to grow and consolidate their services, proving they are a truly reliable resource for the residents of New York. They have worked tirelessly to remove any shame or obstacles around seeking help, making sure nobody has to face the pandemic malnourished or on an empty stomach.
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