Challenging today to create tomorrow!

The Coronavirus crisis has challenged all our assumptions about what is normal in today’s world, and what to expect in the future. Although it has disrupted the way we work and live, it has also provided an opportunity for us to reconsider the legacy we want to leave on this planet. And how we need to challenge our practices in order to create a more sustainable future.

In a recent article “Leading our way through change in the Coronavirus World” we wrote: ’our planet is now breathing again. Nature is showing signs of regenerating as a result of this pause in global travel and industrial production. How can we as leaders ensure that when we move into the post-pandemic world we do not destroy the fragile rejuvenation process that has begun?’

Our next webinar will explore the imperative we feel to act quickly and with conviction to safeguard the positive and unexpected progress that has been the by-product of so much loss and heartache during the pandemic. Whilst there has been much that has caused great concern, we have also seen some encouraging signs of a global sense of support, compassion and solidarity across humanity; businesses and not-for-profit organisations reconsidering their purpose and the values that they hold dear; and nature seizing a rare opportunity to regenerate.

Please join us at 11:30am UK BST time on Monday 27th July. The title of the webinar is: ‘Challenging today to create tomorrow: purpose, people, planet and prosperity in a covid-19 world – what difference will we make?’ To learn more, click here; and here to register.

Meanwhile, we appreciate our Advisors for the ongoing and very important contributions that they continue to make week to week with organisations that we work with. For instance, Lynne (Sedgmore), pictured here, is currently preparing for a team development session with everyone at Ella’s. Based in London, Ella’s provides independent, long-term care for women affected by trafficking and sexual exploitation. To watch a short film about Ella’s click here.

Native American Proverb: "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."

Have a great day!

Rosie, Lorna and Ian

A sustainable future requires greater collaboration – how can we all make this happen?

We live in extraordinary times. These call for extraordinary responses to major issues of injustice that might otherwise seem overwhelming, such as those connected with climate change, biodiversity loss, the coronavirus pandemic, racism, poverty and more. Collaborative responses can help us all to respond effectively.

There is a constant stream of learning about collaboration and the best ways to bring it about. For instance, in a London Business School webinar in June 2020, called ‘How to build Collaboration and Innovation’, Professor Lynda Gratton shared her latest research. She underscored the importance of nurturing a collaborative culture, energising networks, developing collaborative capacity and having a compelling strategy.

Professor Gratton described the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, including the difficulties of developing energised networks that might lead to innovation. At the same time, she set out the opportunities of thinking differently about spanning boundaries between people and creating novel collaborative relationships. Click here to hear her speak.    
 
What are the ‘Essentials of Collaboration’?! How can we initiate different ways to collaborate in order to bring about a transformation? Recently we have updated our Thought Leadership Paper on the subject. Click here to read an English version; here for Spanish; and here for French. Collaboration involves taking risks. The first step is often the hardest. Hopefully this paper will provide some useful insights and tools.

Save the date. Our next webinar is on Monday 27th July, 12 to 13:30pm UK/BST time. This will be about the vital challenges and opportunities of bringing about a sustainable future. You are very welcome. More details to follow in coming updates. Please register here if you would like to attend.

Have a great day!

Rosie, Lorna and Ian

Are you committed to voting for a healthy planet?

Global temperatures are rising faster than ever and species are going extinct at alarming rates. Reducing the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss requires immediate and ambitious action to prevent the worst effects it can have on people and wildlife all over the world. The scale of the challenges facing our planet can seem daunting, but we can all do something...

What can we do to take action on climate change and biodiversity loss? Through research, we know that UK citizens want the Government to do more about climate change and biodiversity loss, but that they don't necessarily trust them to take bold enough action. The Commitment, a project within Caplor Horizons, is focused solely on speeding up local and national government action in the UK for a healthy planet, where the climate is stable and nature recovers. 

Are you committed to voting for a healthy planet? The Commitment are looking for 500 people to make The Commitment, share it amongst their networks, and give them feedback on how to improve. If you are committed to vote with a healthy planet at the heart of your decision-making, make The Commitment here. All the Commitments will help demonstrate the strength of the mandate for change and encourage politicians to act. To find out more, visit our Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram pages.

Jane Goodall quote: “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

Have a great day!

Rosie, Lorna and Ian

The Essentials of Strategy?!

Strategy – the process is as important as the result! Most people know that strategy is important, but many find it daunting for various reasons. We encourage a dynamic, proactive and emergent approach where strategy is a regular and uplifting conversation across an organisation.
 
We define strategy as: 'where an organisation is going to and how it is going to get there.' In our newly updated ‘The Essentials of Strategy’ paper, we concentrate on three practical tools: ‘The Voyage’, the ‘Caplor Islands’ and the ‘Culture Tree’. Click on the links to read this paper in English, French or Spanish.

One of the most important parts of strategy is that it is communicated. As a result, the organisations we’ve worked with have, of course, written it down; however, they’ve also sung, danced, roleplayed, drawn and made videos in order to communicate it effectively. Here you can see the Sosolaso Marketing Federation in The Gambia dancing and singing their strategy.

We facilitate strategy development virtually. Since the coronavirus outbreak we’ve been doing more and more of this. For example, we’ve recently started a process to develop a new 3-year strategy with the Africa Province of Edmund Rice. Last week we held our first forum. This involved bringing people from Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Australia and Ireland to participate online.
 
Chinese Proverb: “When the winds of change blow, some people build walls whilst others build windmills.”

Have a great day!

Rosie, Lorna and Ian

Valuing our partners!

Valuing our partners. In updates in coming months, we will highlight the work of our partners. Here are some insights about Paper Boat.   

What is ‘Paper Boat’? Based in the UK, Paper Boat is an excellent NGO that primarily draws its inspiration from the work of its partners and communities in Tamil Nadu, India. The focus is on ‘unlocking the infinite potential of children’. Click here to visit the Paper Boat Facebook page where you can learn more and subscribe to a newsletter.

Enabling and inspiring children: in our recent update we highlighted our new ‘Caplor Boat of Learning’; in relation to this paper, we would also like to add our huge thanks to Deborah Wetherall for her inspiration. Deborah is a Paper Boat trustee and a member of Paper Boat’s new Strategic Education Community. Her unique and valuable contribution has been to adapt the language of the ‘5 C's of Learning’ into a more accessible format for use by children and young people, with the aim of enabling even the very youngest of learners to embark on a journey of effective lifelong learning.

How is Paper Boat sailing to a new future? Over the past two years, all the key stakeholders involved have undergone a major and highly successful period of change and transition. The trustees and staff have worked very effectively and tirelessly. They have kept a relentless focus on the children that they ultimately serve, mainly from marginalised communities in India. These include people from the Kuruvar and Irula communities.  Click here to see a short film.

How is Caplor Horizons involved? We’re delighted to have a long-standing collaborative relationship with Paper Boat. It is an illustration of how collaboration between two partners can develop in deep, mutually positive ways to enable both to be more effective in the work that they do with communities and other organisations. This has manifested itself in various ways: click here to read an extract from our recent impact report.

Sailing together. Another example of our partnership relates to work that Deborah has been making tremendous progress on – Paper Boat is currently developing a toolkit to deliver innovative learning approaches for use in their children’s hubs in India. Two of our Advisors Vicki (Howe) and Ann (Alder) are working closely with Deborah to build on the 5 C's of Learning and other ideas as part of this work. We will keep you posted about how the Paper Boat learning toolkit develops through this collaboration. Watch this space!

Did you miss a webinar? Last week we held a webinar. Its title was ‘are we in danger of losing our female talent’. We had over 40 people from a range of countries engaged with some important discussions. To learn more, click here to watch the recording; and here to see the presentation (which summarised various learnings from recent research).

Have a great day!

Rosie, Lorna and Ian

Opportunity for change!?

Opportunity for change?! In the context of huge anger, frustration and turbulence arising from the death of George Floyd, Barack Obama gave a message about ‘the opportunity of the current situation to awaken us all - to help us all live up to higher ideals’. As the inspirational Wangari Maathai encouraged us, we can all challenge ourselves to make a difference, to take whatever steps we can in relation to this acute situation; and indeed to all the major global challenges that are holding us back from achieving a world where justice, dignity and respect prevail for all.
 
Perhaps ‘Humanocracy’ is relevant to this? Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini want to propel a movement. One in which ‘organisations are as amazing as the people within them’. They have a new book called ‘Humanocracy’. They reason for a change to traditional power structures that maintain hierarchies that stem opportunities for wider voices to influence and be heard. They argue that in organisations of the future, everyone should ‘be like an activist’ where change emerges from community level; where ‘strategy is an organisational wide conversation’.
 
Similar to what we believe at Caplor Horizons, they reason that it is about people ‘learning, thinking and acting differently’. They argue that it is time to have a better management model: one in which everyone has the opportunity ‘to be their best and do their best at work’; one in which the core values are about ‘courage, compassion and community’; and with principles that enable ‘experimentation, meritocracy, openness, community building and shared sense of ownership’. Click here to watch a webinar and learn more.  
 
What are we learning from lockdown? Many thanks to everyone that took part in our very constructive and positive get together on Friday to discuss this topic. If you’d like to see a very creative summary that Ben (Oldroyd) kindly drew, click on the image below.

A watershed moment? Click here to read a INSEAD blog by Zoe Kinias and Vinika Rao: they talk about ‘a watershed moment’ and state: ‘the pandemic may disproportionately affect women around the world, but it need not imperil the hard-earned progress toward gender balance’. Click here to read about a webinar that we are holding tomorrow to explore this; and here to register.  
 
Wangari Maathai quote: "if we all do what little we can, collectively we can make a big difference. There are very many little things that we can all do. And even though we think that a particular action at an individual level may be very small, just imagine if it is repeated several million times."

Have a great day!

Rosie, Lorna and Ian

What are we learning from lockdown?

Fanfare! Hot off the press, click here to see the ‘Caplor Boat of Learning’. It provides a new way of considering the ‘5Cs’ of learning: critical curiosity, creativity, consciousness, commitment, collaboration. These five elements are derived from international research originally carried out by Bristol University. Huge thanks to Simon and Ben (Oldroyd) for their inspiration. And we very much appreciate other Advisors who have broken ground on this previously, notably Ann (Alder), Geoff (Cox) and Vicki (Howe).  
 
What are we learning from lockdown? Some of our Advisors are meeting online to discuss this on Friday. Against the backdrop of the acute issues surrounding the ‘digital divide’, a practical focus point is about the power of Zoom and other such tools. Technology can enable us to maintain long-distance relationships, connect remotely, and foster some sense of togetherness during a pandemic. We have thankfully been able to take advantage of the possibilities (click here to read about ‘Caplor Horizons online’).
 
However, we all need to be wary of escalating usage of video communications! As Julia Skylar reasons in a National Geographic article, ‘virtual working can be extremely hard on the brain’. Steps can be taken to maximise the benefits whilst taking care of the downsides. Click here to read more.   
 
Would you like to join a webinar? This will be on Tues 9th June (12pm-1.30pm UK time). It’s called: ‘Are we in danger of alienating our female talent?’. Click here to see the agenda. And here to register. There is growing cause for concern that the Covid-19 emergency has had negative implications. We all need to see what we can do to contribute positively to addressing the situation. For instance, click here to read UN Policy Brief. This describes some of the implications, including increasing gender-based violence across the world.  
 
Advocacy and the UN. We’re very pleased to be working with the International Presentation Association (IPA). This has involved capacity development, including strategy renewal. Click here to read the strategy that has emerged. In recent days we’ve facilitated discussions with IPA ‘Justice Contacts’ from multiple countries about a specific advocacy focus – within the wider theme of women and children – for their work at the UN. This covered issues around human trafficking, gender based violence, access to formal and informal education and so on. It included the context of the digital divide. One significant point that arose was the commitment to provide compelling evidence. Notably positive stories from the ‘bottom up’, in a variety of mediums, that would enable even greater effectiveness at the UN
 
More news! We’re delighted to announce that Faaria (Hussain) has become our Deputy Chair. Faaria has focused her career on international development. She has already contributed to Caplor Horizons in many ways. We are excited about this next step. Here is a picture of Faaria 

What can raise our spirits in lockdown? With thanks to Georgina (Treasure-Evans) who has run some early morning online yoga sessions for us during lockdown. If you visit her website here then you can access a range of exercises.
 
Chimamanda Adiche quote: "many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and malign. But stories can also be used to empower and to humanise. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity."

Have a great day!

Rosie, Lorna and Ia

Honk!? What can we learn from Geese?!

What can we learn from Geese? Recently we shared a short film about leadership lessons from wolves. Also we shared the one page summary about the culture of An Cosán, a Dublin based community organisation that we’re delighted to be working with, that is inspired by the way a wolf pack lives together. Lots of people seemed to enjoy that. So here is a video about geese!
 
Honk?! As many of you know, one of our favourite, most fun packed exercises, is about geese. It centres on the example that geese demonstrate about ‘distributed leadership’. In the absence of being able to do this exercise with you all, the key point is that geese show distributed leadership in various ways, including taking turns to be the leader - to fly at the front of the ‘v’ formation. In the same way, in different facets of our lives, we can all demonstrate leadership and take turns to lead.  Here is a picture of a ‘v formation’

Would you like to join our webinar on Tuesday 9th May (12-1.30pm UK time) about the implications for women, including on leadership, of the Covid-19 pandemic? Click here to see the agenda; here to read an article about how the crisis is threatening to ‘undo a century’s worth of progress that women have made’ ; and here to read about a recent poll indicating how women appear to be bearing the ‘emotional brunt’; about how they are being ‘disproportionately affected’, including ‘greater anxiety’.  If this interests you, sign up to the webinar here!
 
Rumi quote: ‘you were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life’
 
Very best wishes to you all

Rosie, Lorna and Ian

Are we in danger of alienating our female talent?!

Are we in danger of alienating our female talent? Is the current crisis impacting women more than men in our organisations? Click here to read a recent Harvard Business Review article by Colleen Ammerman. She reasons that it is women who are most adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. She makes some recommendations for how to avoid this: they are linked to what she describes as (1) the ‘motherhood penalty’; (2) the importance of ‘paring down the pressure’; (3) the need to ‘run virtual meetings equitably’; (4) the challenge of ‘keeping digital spaces inclusive’.

Would you like to join a webinar on Tues 9th June? It is at 12pm-1.30pm (UK time). This will debate what is happening to people in organisations, and how gender, family and wider community roles might be affecting this. Click here to read more. And here to register. We will explore whether you agree with Colleen Ammerman’s arguments.

Also we will explore how these arguments fit with wider concerns and opportunities about achieving greater gender balance in society. In this respect, click here to read an earlier paper written by Usha (Ladwa-Thomas) and Sharon (Turnbull). Or here to listen to a very recent podcast with Lynne (Sedgmore); in this - as part of a broader, and excellent, raft of insights about ‘conscious leadership’ - Lynne touches on patriarchal society and the implications of the coronavirus emergency.

What have been up to? Click here to read our latest ‘hot off the press’ impact report. We would like to express great gratitude to Advisors who very generously contributed their time to carry out the background research; this included Sue (Eames), Sandy (Hanson), Matthew (Lake), Sharon (Turnbull) and Dan (Bishop); also we’d like to particularly thank James (Treasure-Evans) who analysed all the findings. Here are some photos of our partners and clients included in the report. 

Margaret Wheatley Quote: "I know it is possible for leaders to use their power and influence, their insight and compassion, to lead people back to an understanding of who we are as human beings, to create conditions for our basic human qualities of generosity, contribution, community, and love.…And I have studied enough history to know that such leaders always arise when they are most needed"

Have a great week!

Rosie, Lorna and Ian

What can we learn from wolves?!

Wolves can be surprising! Watch this 1.5 minute film about leadership and team-working to learn how wolves promote diversity, value community and have an intense focus on what they are doing.
 
Why wolves? During a gathering we facilitated earlier this year, the team at An Cosán identified with these very awe-inspiring animals to represent their organisational culture. Heydi Foster-Breslin, the CEO, reminded her colleagues in a follow up session a few days ago that: “it was all of you who conjured the wolf pack as a symbol of our community organisation. A shared vision which unites us during these challenging Covid-19 times. We continue to rise to the challenges every day and together we will have the resilience to see this through.”

What does a wolf pack culture looks like? Click here to see the 1 page summary about the culture of An Cosán; here if you’d like to learn more about organisational culture; and here if you’d like a tool to assess your organisational culture. Below is a picture of the team at An Cosán.

An Cosán? Based in Dublin, and working with some of the most vulnerable communities there, An Cosán is a not for profit that offers a range of courses to support people to develop their capacities and experience a sense of empowerment in their lives and community. They give a voice to many people who would otherwise struggle to be heard. We’re delighted to be running a series of online sessions with the team. Click here to read about how we work online.
 
Could the crisis lead to a ‘loss of female talent’. In a very recent article in Harvard Business Review, Colleen Ammerman explains about the risks of the covid-19 crisis in terms of organisations ‘losing female talent’. To avoid ‘losing hard-won ground on gender inclusion’ she reasons that organisations need to: (a) pay extra attention to the ‘motherhood penalty’; (b) ‘pare down pressure’; (c) ‘run virtual meetings equitably’; (d) ‘keep digital spaces inclusive’. To join a webinar on June 9th at 12pm (UK time) about this, sign up here.
 
Hot off the press! The newest member of our team, Nicola (Baker), Director of Partnerships, has just written a guide to researching grant giving trusts and foundations. Click here to read this. And here to read a paper by Rupert Cadbury, one of our Advisors, about challenges facing family Trusts and Foundations.  
 
Malala Yousafzai quote: ‘we realise the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.’

Have a great week!

Rosie, Lorna and Ian