Close your eyes and picture a “movement” for creating a better world. What do you see?
It is likely the image you conjured is one of people making something happen. Perhaps you envisioned the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington or the individual protests that came before and after that single event. Or perhaps you saw the individual protests of the Occupy movement, or maybe a local rally for peace, or social justice, or environmental protection.
Students of movement-building know that it is not the single “hero” that creates change; it is the shared leadership across systems and silos that improves social conditions. It is not a Mandela or a King or a Gandhi that created change, but instead the mobilizing of hundreds of thousands of other leaders, working in formal and informal networks, who made those changes happen.
That spirit of shared leadership across whole systems is at the heart of the work of Jeanne Bell and the folks at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. In Jeanne’s words, “If you’re trying to lead alone, you’re not really leading.”
Common sense tells us that we are stronger together than we could ever be alone. So then, what does it take to build upon the abundance of strengths that we each have as individuals? What does it take to not only lead the organizations where change agents affiliate, but to also lead those organizations to combine their strengths with the abundance of strength found in others – to be stronger together than they could ever be alone?
Join Jeanne Bell as she explores these questions with Creating the Future’s co-founder, Hildy Gottlieb.
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