Global Sustainability Innovation Labs:
CONTEXT: Global developmental efforts to address sustainability challenges often get stuck at institutional & sectoral silos. Leaders world-wide are emphasizing the importance of deeper leadership engagement and cross-sectoral innovations. India in particular is confronted with deep societal divide between haves and have-nots
OUR APPROACH: In partnership with Presencing Institute & MIT, we bring cutting-edge processes for cross-sectoral innovation and systems change to communities in India and beyond. We work with top-leaders in different countries across the world on sustainability challenges like agriculture, health, nutrition, climate change etc. We engage leaders across sectors who are passionate about bridging the societal divides in personal & systemic transformation journey (based on U-process):
- Co-initiating: with other leaders who share your passion
- Co-sensing: Journeying to edges of the system to seek insights from the field
- Co-presencing: Reflecting and connecting with your deeper source of inspiration
- Co-creating: Transforming inspiration into action by prototyping innovations
- Co-evolving: institutionalizing the innovations into the mainstream
CASE-STUDIES:
Project: Transforming Anti-trafficking ecosystem in India
- Renewed commitment to each other and the purpose of the partnership. New projects started with network of 9 partner NGOs working on anti-trafficking bill
- Level of attention shifted from Level 1/2 (download/debate) to Level 3/4 (dialogue/generative engagement)
- Reallocation of resources for proactively bringing judiciary closer to community
- 2 prototypes started: 1. bridging gap between community and justice+police systems and 2. working with girls to redefine the mission from anti-trafficking to pro-dignity
- We prototyped the WILL with 20 women leaders over a year. They are now facilitators in Theory U & Social Presencing Theatre based systems change processes. 3 out of the 20 women got national awards for their outstanding work.
- SSP group inner transformation led to winning large grant and successful development of clean-energy entrepreneurial network of 1000+ women.
- Launched 6 resource centres that acted as an action-learning and networking centre for women entrepreneurs of the village.
- We hosted a learning journey for automobile business executives from Germany to teach them grassroots-women-led systems change. This exchange led to new dream scaling the resource centres upto 500 across India thru digitalization. We have invited leaders from Europe, Africa, USA for Global Forums in India and traveled there for learning exchange
- Creating “embodied leadership” as a way of being in Ashoka network. They are now establishing these retreats as annual ritual.
- Most participants shared a shift in the way they thought about future and their role as leaders
- 7 organisations we worked deeply with over 2017 have significant future outcomes. Example: The Goat Trust realised in the workshop that they were keeping the grassroots too away from the ownership model. They invited us again to work with their team to help them shift the ownership framework. The same in implemented on their 9th anniversary in November 2017. Iswar Sankalp that works with people with severe disability, has implemented circle leadership framework as a result of the workshop. All 7 organisations have started practising mindfulness and movement as a daily practice. Two organisations working on ecosystem activation and herbal medicines took learning journey and evolved a partnership to accentuate their efforts to whole ecosystem.
- 150 leaders trained. Leading to developing an ecosystem of leaders who share common vision and practice deep listening and dialogue.
- Ministries evolutionary history mapped surfacing the underlying assumptions and sources of inspiration. This lead to renewed commitment of new and old leaders towards their common purpose
- Synergos staff apprenticed with us to develop local capacity. They are now developing materials and raising funds to take this work to upto 57000 government staff in coming years
- More information on same: http://www.synergos.org/partnerships/ethiopiaagriculture.htm