How do we transform leadership?

Given the remarkable challenges faced by organisations in our fast-changing world, we believe that it is vital to help equip leaders to make a transformational difference. This requires not only strengthening leadership skills, but also rethinking leadership itself. At Caplor Horizons, we believe that everyone is a leader. We also advocate for a reframing of leadership from traditional, hierarchical models to one that emphasises collaboration, resilience and a redistribution of power. To find out more, click the links to read our papers on ‘feminist leadership’ and ‘shared leadership’. 

Our ‘Transforming Leadership Programme’: We design bespoke programmes to make a transformational difference to leadership effectiveness. We deliver these online, in-person, or as a hybrid. We have highly proved tools, models and approaches that enable people taking part to learn more about themselves and their colleagues, such as The Caplor House. To find out more about what we offer, read our short flyer here. 

One of our partners that has recently been through our Leadership Programme is CBM Global. They are a disability inclusion charity, committed to transforming the lives of people with disabilities in some of the world’s poorest places. Over the past year, we have facilitated monthly online sessions with 30 leaders from 16 countries covering a range of topics including authentic leadership, creative problem solving, strategic thinking and inclusive leadership. Our work has also supported the wider Federation in articulating their 'Leadership Way,' enabling them to embed a shared vision of leadership across diverse cultural and geographical contexts.

Here is what some of the participants had to say about it…

Support CBM UK’s Zimbabwe appeal. Zimbabwe is facing one of the worst droughts and food shortages in decades. CBM UK are looking to respond to this growing crisis as quickly as possible – but to tackle an issue that is likely to persist, it needs to be more than just providing immediate aid. Their new three-year programme will help particularly vulnerable families build resilient livelihoods that produce food and income for struggling communities where climate change is having a very real impact. To support this project, or learn more about CBM UK, click here.

Change maker of the week

Quote: “‘Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it can change your life.” — Amy Poehler

Best wishes
Rosie, Lorna, Kemal and Ian

What are the essentials of leading change?

We are delighted to share our new "deeper dive" paper! This is called the Essentials of Leading Change which you can read here. As with any of our resources, you are very welcome to share this with other people. It has also been broken down into three shorter Ripple Papers called the Essentials of Strategy, Essentials of Structure and Essentials of Organisational Culture. 

What’s the context?  Day to day, we face challenges and opportunities to bring about change. Sometimes these are big with important implications; other times small with minor consequences. Like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly, sometimes change is transformational. Whatever the case, we deal with it as best we can, ideally strengthening our resilience as we move through life.

Who is our audience? If you are an experienced leader, then we hope that you will find some new learning. If you are relatively new to the world of leadership and change, we hope you will find it a useful resource. If you are considering working with us, or about to start, then it will give you some insights about our approach. 

How to make best use of it? Practical insights and guidance are given. These are based on lessons we’ve learnt plus perspectives from many relevant sources. Following a summary, chapter 2 explains our 12 core principles for leading change. We believe structure, strategy and organisational culture are the priorities in any change process and we describe 12 essential components of each of these topics in chapters 3, 4 and 5. These chapters can be read on their own. However, in each case we also recommend reading chapter 2 for the core principles. 

Strengthening resilience: perhaps the most significant thing we have observed about leading change is the importance of individuals, teams and organisations taking steps to strengthen resilience. This is an ongoing activity, both in advance of changes, during the transitions involved and afterwards – especially taking care to look after health and wellbeing when things are tough.  

Leading by example: we would also wish to highlight that whoever is responsible for leading change (whether an individual or several people), leads by example in a consistent way – e.g., modelling behaviours agreed by all. This will encourage colleagues across the organisation. 

Process. It will not surprise anyone that knows about our work that we also emphasise about ‘the process being as important as the result.’ We give illustrations of this in the paper. 

We hope that this deeper dive provides some useful insights about leading change, including understanding that change itself is a process, and reminding ourselves that things tend to dip before they improve.    

If you, your team or your organisation would like further support and/or facilitation to lead change more effectively, read our flyer here to learn more about what we can offer you, or get in touch with us here.

Change maker of the month 

Quote: ‘Change can’t be put on people. The best way to instil change is to do it together. Create it together.’ Lisa Bodell

Best wishes
Ian, Lorna, Kemal and Rosie

What's new at Caplor Horizons?

Who’s our new Co-Director? Hot off the press, at our September board meeting, Kemal (Shaheen) was appointed as a Co-Director. Kemal brings a wealth of experience, knowledge and expertise to our team and we are delighted to have him in this role. Kemal has been involved with Caplor Horizons, as a client/partner in the past with INASP and Paper Boat, and was involved as an advisor for many years before becoming ‘Director of Collaboration’ in 2022. 

Our stories? We see in our day-to-day work, the importance of sharing stories. Earlier this year, in our 10 Year Impact Report, we included a section called ‘Transformative Journeys Within’; we were encouraged to write stories about ourselves. The learning and reflection involved was very helpful. You can read insights about Kemal (here), Lorna (here), Rosie (here) and Ian (here).

What’s our latest resource? Recently we circulated a new resource on shared leadership. It includes a rationale for the approach, our reflections, wider insights and case studies. This followed an in-depth review led by one of our trustees, Shivani Singhal. 

We are always keen to engage with people on this topic. We are delighted to have been invited to speak on shared leadership at an upcoming conference of not-for-profit leaders. This is with Federation EIL, a global network of organisations that promotes intercultural learning experiences. The Federation EIL is a UN Peace Messenger organisation, and its members work together to develop new programmes and improve standards for international cultural education. The Federation is made up of member organisations in 21 countries. Stretching back to 2015, this was one of the first federations that we worked with in a substantial way. We have continued to support this federation through its members, EIL Ireland and EIL UK. 

Change maker of the week

Gaza and Lebanon Appeal. One of our partners, the Irish Emergency Alliance, is responding to the current crisis through their brave humanitarian workers across Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, to bring life-saving essentials to those who need them most. Watch their 1-minute video about the situation here, and to donate, click here. 

Quote: “When we listen and celebrate what is both common and different, we become wiser, more inclusive, and better as an organisation.” — Pat Wador

Best wishes
Rosie, Lorna, Kemal and Ian

How coaching helps identify purpose and convert it to action

As we finish the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics, the power of coaching is in the global spotlight. One inspiring story is that of New Zealand swimmer, Tupou Neiufi, a Paralympian whose journey to Paris has been significantly shaped by their coach. After facing self-doubt post-Tokyo 2020, her coach Hannah McLean helped her regain confidence. For Tupou, coaching has been about more than just refining technique; it has provided a space to build resilience, challenge limitations, and stay focused on her purpose despite the pressures of the global stage. 

In a fast-paced world, leaders face challenges that are similar to athletes. They are tasked with driving change, often with limited resources and under immense pressure. Individuals need a space to pause, reflect, and reconnect with themselves and their purpose. Formal coaching offers a safe and structured environment to explore challenges, develop greater self-awareness, and enhance skills to navigate change. As one of our coachees remarked, “It was excellent to have my coach support me in what turned into a time of great change. It particularly benefitted me to have time to focus on my evolving needs and to have an external safe space to talk in.” To find out more, read our two-page flyer here.

Coaching isn’t just for qualified coaches. We believe everyone can use a ‘coaching approach’. Coaching uses the art of questioning and active listening to enable someone to find their own solutions to challenges they face. This can be part of your day-to-day approach to leadership – e.g., in meetings, in brief one-to-one conversations (watch a short example of this here). A key to effective coaching is taking great care about giving advice. This has been described as ‘taming your advice monster’ (find out more about what this means here.

The benefits of coaching can be felt at an individual, team and organisational level (illustrated below). One of our coachees said, “Going into this I was a little apprehensive or perhaps cynical, but I have had my mind completely moved. My Caplor Coach helped me see myself far more clearly in a professional context - perhaps more than at any time through my career. I have come out of the process with far more self-belief and confidence.”

We have a unique coaching framework called the Caplor Coaching Way. Structured around our Caplor House model, this helps guide a coaching process in a way that is straightforward, flexible and focused on the coachee’s needs. For example, building rapport takes place in the ‘Family Room’, where we explore the coachee’s values, beliefs, and preferences. Goal setting is refined in the ‘Library’. Visions can be explored in the ‘Observatory’. Realities and practical plans can be considered in the ‘Kitchen’. Find out more here.

Interested? Whether you are seeking one-on-one coaching or looking to embed a coaching culture within your organisation, we are here to support you on your journey. If you are interested in exploring how coaching can benefit you or your organisation, please get in touch with one of us.

Change maker of the month 

Quote: “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because its trust is not on the branch, but on its own wings." - Charlie Wardle

Best wishes
Rosie, Lorna, Kemal and Ian

What’s the next wave of leadership?

What’s the next wave of leadership? This artwork by Hokusai, created in Japan nearly 200 years ago, depicts people rowing through stormy seas. In the foreground, turbulence dominates, yet on the horizon, a snow-capped mountain symbolises a vision of a calmer, more peaceful world. We believe that shared leadership – plus other forms of collaborative leadership – should be the next big wave to break across the shores of organisations and communities worldwide. This approach promises to bring significant societal and environmental benefits, while fostering inspired and resilient change makers for the future.

What is shared leadership and why does it matter? Like leadership, ‘shared leadership’ means different things to different people, however it is ultimately about sharing responsibility, decision making, power and influence. In our newly updated ripple paper here, you can read about the case for it in our troubled world, including how it can help accelerate opportunities for positive transformation. 

Guiding principles? We have recently reviewed our experience, as four people that share leadership together, and considered how this is part of a wider ecosystem. Using our story as a case study, you can read the lessons we have learnt. This includes the identification of strengths, challenges and principles (plus conditions for success and much else besides).

What else is included? We are also pleased to share other case studies, including extended ones of Ella’s and Water For People. The people involved are pictured below – Minke and Emily (Ella’s) are on the left, Mark and Samson (Water For People) are on the right. We also have insights about other organisations, plus learning from relevant research and articles. 

Thank you! We are particularly thankful to Shivani Singhal, Professor Sharon Turnbull and Dr Lynne Sedgmore for their key roles in our review process, plus all of our board members.

Change makers of the month 

To find out more, read a recent article here.

Ryunosuke Satoro quote: ‘Individually we are one drop, together we are an ocean.’ 

Best wishes
Rosie, Lorna, Kemal and Ian

Are you communicating as effectively as you could?

We all communicate multiple times a day, but could we be getting better results? From a simple text or phone call to a job interview or big presentation, the way we express ourselves and get our point across can really matter. In a recent podcast series, Ros Atkins speaks to an array of fascinating guests such as a comedian, doctor, magazine editor and Olympic athlete to reveal different techniques and approaches to communication. Each episode is only 15 minutes long and can be found here. 

Purposeful communication. One of the episodes is with Barack Obama’s former speechwriter, Sarada Peri. She talks about how she would prepare speeches for Obama and her first key point is about “inquiry”. She always seeks, first and foremost, to understand the purpose of the speech or communication. This means asking questions such as: Who is your audience? What is your goal for communicating? How are you trying to make people feel? What do you want people to do as a result of the communication? 

Starting with the ‘why’? The concept of purposeful communication links with Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle model (explained in a TED talk here), that “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”, hence he advocates for starting all communication with explaining the why, before explaining the how and what. This helps to engage and inspire hearts and minds. We have recently been working on a leading change programme with Birds Bakery in the UK. To date this has involved an all-staff survey with over 800 employees, and in-depth focus groups with over 60 people face-to-face. Communicating the ‘why’ during change processes was a key learning for them. 

Connected communication. One of our communication models that particularly resonated with the team at Birds Bakery was our “Connected Communication” model (see below). This sets out seven sequential stages where communication can get “snagged”, preventing an action happening or an idea taking root. The best way to prevent any of these snags occurring is to develop a communication style that incorporates a “back brief”. This involves asking the person, or people, with whom you’re communicating to give you a quick synopsis of what you have just either told them, or asked them to do, at each of the different stages.

Authentic communication. Sarada Peri, also spoke in the podcast about the ‘style’ as well as ‘substance’ of communication. One widely cited study suggested that 55% of communication comes from body language, 38% is how we say it or our tone of voice, and only 7% is the actual verbal content. With so much of communication being about tone and body language, it is important that what we’re communicating is authentic. In the podcast, Sarada shares that there was a lot of pressure for Obama to sound angry or upset in public speeches to be persuasive but that is not who he is or how he wanted to lead. She instead encourages people to ask, “What is the one thing I can uniquely say?” We are more credible when we are ourselves and can share our unique perspectives and experiences.

Communicating from your lived experience. Part of our work has involved building the confidence of ‘experts by experience’ to ensure that their voices and experiences are influencing decision making in their sector. Rosie has been chairing the Ella’s Survivor Advisory Board. Ella’s is a London-based organisation working with women who have survived trafficking and sexual exploitation. The Survivor Advisory Board brings together survivors to shape the services Ella’s provides and its direction of growth and development. During their one year anniversary, the group reflected on their experience on the board so far. One of the women wrote, ‘I am so glad that we are able to turn our pain into power and use our experiences to help other women.’

The importance of two-way communication. Kemal and Rosie recently facilitated a session with the Irish League of Credit Unions Foundation (ILCUF), as part of our involvement with their strategy renewal process. They ran an interactive exercise called “Colourblind” to emphasise the importance of communication in teamwork and strategy implementation (see pictures below). Key learning coming out of this exercise was that communication is a two-way process requiring clarity of message, good questioning skills and, most importantly, active listening. 

Change Makers of the Week

Maya Angelou quote “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

Best wishes
Lorna, Kemal, Ian and Rosie

Who are our two new board members?!

Following a recruitment process, we’re delighted to announce that Clement Sindazi Mukuka and Sharan Kelly have just joined our board. We are very grateful to our board members. They continually challenge us and themselves to keep learning and improving. For instance, at an annual away day two weeks ago, Clement and Sharan joined everyone in activities to envision our long-term future, strengthen our shared leadership approach and continue our antiracism journey. The board underpins its approach to governance through our ‘5M’ model here. Demonstrating its commitment to continual improvement, our board has recently been carrying out an in-depth review using the UK’s ‘Charity Governance Code’ as a framework.

Clement has had many leadership roles with our partner Edmund Rice Development (ERD). Clement is based in Zambia. His link to us stretches back to 2015. This has involved engaging with him in multiple countries through a global capacity building programme with ERD, and in his own African province. Clement’s work has included many important and sustained activities focused on strengthening the impact of initiatives to reduce poverty and address environmental challenges.  

Sharan has also had many leadership roles, notably in the international NGO and Irish not-for-profit context. We first met Sharan when she was Chair of Dóchas. Since then, she has had various roles including as the CEO of Tear Fund Ireland. She is currently CEO of IASIO (Irish Association for Social Inclusion Opportunities) which we have featured previously, including its work in Ireland to support people before and after release from prison. 

We are continuing to prioritise work in the refugee and asylum-seeking sector through our work with Sisters Not Strangers and Refugee Action, two very impressive organisations. Sisters Not Strangers is a UK coalition of groups that support asylum seeking and refugee women. We have been facilitating a strategy renewal initiative with them. Refugee Action provides advice and support to refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and campaigns for a fairer asylum system. We have been working in partnership with them to support their ‘Shifting Power’ programme, by delivering a leadership programme with ‘Experts by Experience’. The contribution of these, and other organisations we work with, is remarkable on such acute societal issues.  

Together, we are stronger. Another illustration relates to our long-standing relationship with ActionAid Ireland. It uses its influence to carry out specific and very important campaigns.  Recently, ActionAid Ireland launched an uplifting new video called "Together, we are stronger". The video highlights stories of migrants in Ireland and their crucial role in making the country a better place for all. It is a heartwarming tribute to migrants who travelled to Ireland in search of safety, security, and a brighter future for themselves and their families. 

Our 10-Year Celebration! At the end of our Board Away Day, we invited a few of our local partners and supporters to join us for a small celebration. People shared their stories and experiences of being involved with Caplor Horizons across the past 10 years and the impact it has had on them, their communities and wider society. To find out more, read our 10 year impact report here.

Change maker of the week

Quote of the week: “Every day is a good day. There is something to learn, care and celebrate." – Amit Ray

Best wishes
Ian, Lorna, Rosie and Kemal

Our 10-Year Impact Report!

We’re excited to share our 10-Year Impact Report here. Hot off the press, this is a study of studies, based on an analysis of our previous annual impact assessments. It also takes into account activities over the previous year in the run up to our big birthday. We were intrigued to reflect. What would stand out? What had excited us? What had worried us? And so on. 

As you’ll discover, seven main themes, or ‘transformative journeys’, have been identified. Each chapter covers one of the journeys. We celebrate successes, highlight challenges, pinpoint learning and share stories. Most importantly, we express our deep appreciation to everyone that has made it possible. Here is an extract from the summary.

One thing that was very evident is that we have worked with a very diverse set of organisations. Many have engaged with us in different ways for several years, whilst we are fortunate to keep starting with new ones too. For instance, this month we have new opportunities to work with INTRAC and the Small Foundation. INTRAC is a not for profit that provides training, consultancy and research globally to help civil society organisations and networks be more effective. The Small Foundation’s mission is to ‘act with urgency and ambition to catalyse and scale income generating opportunities for people living in extreme poverty in rural sub-Saharan Africa’.   

The Commitment, an environmental advocacy initiative we incubated, has been transferred to VoteClimate. Just to update that this has gone very well. You can read more about the transition here. Various initiatives are happening. For instance, VoteClimate along with the National Trust, RSPB, Extinction Rebellion, Chris Packham and many others are supporting a march in London from 12.00 on Saturday 22 June to Restore Nature Now.

Change maker of the month

Maya Angelou Quote: ‘do the best you can until you know better; then, when you know better, do better.’ 

This is something that inspires us and is especially relevant to our 10 year Impact Report. We are determined to reflect and learn lessons; to strive to do better when we know better.   

Best wishes
Ian, Lorna, Rosie and Kemal

Building confidence and telling stories

Last week, Laura (Adams), Chair of Caplor Horizons, Ian and Lorna, had the privilege of meeting with Charles (Handy), renowned social philosopher, pictured below. As a prolific writer and social commentator, amongst the many conversations we had, we asked him about his reflections on our work over the last 10 years, as he has been an advisor of ours since the beginning of our journey.

Charles said that it was the stories that were the most important part. He asked us to share our favourite stories, and he in turn shared his. His was the story of working with us with Aids Alliance India in 2019. During the session, Charles was on the ‘hot seat’ and invited group members to sit on the seat in turn and ask him any questions they wanted. The energy in the room was electrifying, as you can see in the pictures, as one by one he answered their questions. There were around 20 participants in all!

Laura also told the story of working with The Jaipur Rugs Foundation, India, on a strategic impact report. This involved talking to a range of people across the organisation, including the women who wove the rugs, based in rural villages across Jaipur. Pictured below is Laura, talking with women weavers on the impact of their work on their family and their community.

What inspired Laura was not only the difference this made to the livelihoods of families, but the way that a more secure working life raised the confidence of the women in their own creative ideas. Laura said 'it was as though their natural talent was let loose as worries about the stability of their work reduced and they had greater opportunity to follow their creative imaginations. The resulting unique rug designs were truly inspiring'.

Another significant insight Charles said about our work was: ‘Our work gives other people confidence, as we believe in them’. We hope we can continue to give confidence as we move into our second decade of work at Caplor Horizons. For links for previous conversations we have had with Charles, please click here, here and here.

‘Making sense of confidence’. Clive (Hyland) and Victoria (Hall) recently produced a podcast, as part of a series, on Neuroscience and Humans at work. Please click here to listen. In this episode, they explore the elusive nature of confidence, dissecting its roots in memory and the impact of past experiences on present-day confidence levels. They discuss strategies for overcoming under confidence, emphasising the importance of understanding and challenging negative self-talk. They also examine the role of emotions in performance, offering insights into building genuine confidence through deliberate practice and self-awareness. 

Coming soon… we are currently finalising our impact report over the last 10 years called A Decade of Transformative Journeys. We have identified and documented seven journeys of transformation, and we are excited to share it with you in the coming weeks.

Changemaker of the month

Quote from Tahir Shah: ‘Stories are the communal currency of humanity’.

Best wishes
Lorna, Rosie, Kemal and Ian

From strangers to sisters – the power of humanity!

We recently had the pleasure to attend an event in Liverpool, led by Sisters Not Strangers. Sisters Not Strangers (SNS) are an inspirational UK-based coalition of 7 organisations that support asylum-seeking and refugee women. They have come together to campaign against the harmful and damaging consequences of asylum policies and how they impact women in particular.

‘See us first as human beings and women, not as refugees and asylum seekers’. The aim of the event was to raise awareness of the movement that is gaining momentum in numerous cities across the UK, and to broaden the support base. There is a powerful and profound message at the heart of everything that Sisters Not Strangers does – that is to ‘see us first as human beings and women, not as refugees and asylum seekers’. Many individuals, and groups from across different sectors attended, in what is hoped to be the first of many such events. 

Following this, we delivered a training programme for SNS focussed on building effective campaign strategies, leadership and teamworking. This is part of a wider programme which includes sessions on feminist leadership and fundraising, with other topics coming down the line. We were greatly uplifted by the passion, conviction, resilience, optimism and enthusiasm for learning expressed during the training, all the more remarkable because of the challenges and hardships that they had personally overcome in their own journeys. Their manifesto, which you can read here, states: “we dream of a world where all women who seek asylum are seen was women, as neighbours, as mothers, as colleagues, as activists – as sisters not strangers”.

The important work of SNS reminds us of our shared humanity and why we must look beyond the labels and experiences that can separate, exclude or divide us as human beings. We might say that this is a very ‘human’ intelligence, underpinned by compassionate, creative and courageous leadership. 

Reminder of our upcoming webinar on Artificial Intelligence (AI). We would be delighted if you could join us for our next webinar which will explore a new and radically different type of intelligence that is shaping, and will continue to shape, our world in ways that will not necessarily be easy to predict, control or contain – Artificial Intelligence. Click here for the webinar flyer and here for our last newsletter on AI. 

Webinar: Artificial Intelligence: what is it, and how can we harness its potential for good?
Date: 13th March 2024
Time: 12:00 to 13:30 GMT
Where: Zoom

To register for the event click here.

We hope this will be an opportunity to discuss with others, from a range of organisations, questions such as :

• What will the opportunities and challenges, potentials and pitfalls, of AI mean for organisations like Sisters Not Strangers in the years to come? 

• How can the women of Sisters Not Strangers ensure that their message ‘see us first as human beings’ is heard loud and clear?

• How can we best address the many concerns about biased algorithms which can result in AI amplifying the worst of human prejudice and systemic discrimination? (Click here to read an article about this)

Please share this invite with anyone you think would be interested to attend.

Change Maker of the Week

Quote of the Week: ‘Imagine humans and AI not as rivals in a race, but as partners in a symphony. Each with unique strengths, together composing a future richer than either could achieve alone’.

This was generated by Google’s AI function, Gemini, in response to the prompt – ‘craft an inspiring quote about human and artificial intelligence’. 

Best wishes

Rosie, Kemal, Lorna and Ian