Lyndon Rego of CCL and Christopher Gergen and Jamey Stowell of Life Entrepreneurs conducted a Social Innovation Leadership program for Ashoka staff. Ashoka is the organization that has done more than anyone else to put social entrepreneurship on the map. As the sector has grown, so has recognition of the need to develop talent. In many fast-growing social enterprises, leadership capacity is one of the foremost challenges for scaling.
The Social Innovation Leadership program was created to address this need. We recognize that education, even when provided in the social entrepreneurship field, often doesn’t include adequate emphasis on developing leadership or innovation skills. For the sector to grow, we need more empowered leaders who are able to work across boundaries.
The Ashoka program focused specifically on the leadership dimension – increasing self-awareness and collaboration skills, as well as creating an interdependent leadership culture. One of the activities used the Visual Explorer tool to call out attributes of social innovation leaders. Among the characteristics identified were:
- Courage
- Openness
- Empathy
- Holding multiple perspectives
- Giving and receiving
The participants pointed out the importance of dealing with polarities, building bridges where they don’t exist, creating an ecosystem that spans organizations in a field, and having fun. One participant, sharing a picture of a building under construction, described leadership as scaffolding — something created to give form to something else. Another, selecting a picture of a team of rowers, called out the importance of action – a boat doesn’t move unless you dip in the oars.
In a session focused on boundary-spanning leadership, participants found that the challenges they faced very much related to the nature of their specific work roles. What emerged from these conversations was how different things can look from different functions and layers of the organization. The opportunity to pause to share these different perspectives is often missing in the rush to get things done.
This is emblematic of the challenges for many working in the social entrepreneurship sector. The program surfaced a number of common themes:
- Living a balanced life in a culture that is driven towards achievement
- Building the space for conversation and creating a greater competency around relationships
- Taking a step back from doing to reframe challenges and approaches
Said one person, “the changemaker in all of us is the choices we make.” Said another, “the question is not the problem, but what you do in response.” Leadership development helps shift how we engage, think, and respond.
The Ashoka participants pointed the importance of taking time to reflect on themselves, learn about each-other at a deeper level, and make connections was powerful. “I found many hooks to latch on to” stated one participant. “This experience,” said another, “humanized us – I found that we think the same, we want the same.”
The idea of leadership as scaffolding is a powerful one for us. Leadership development is not something to be done for its own sake but because it brings something else to life. Along with Life Entrepreneurs, CCL will be offering the Social Innovation Leadership program to help budding changemakers build essential skills and help established social sector leaders transform their cultures to create more leaders and greater impact.
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