Why must we give younger generations space to dare to step out and step up?

“Courageous leadership” is emerging as a key theme in our strategy renewal process; also “Next Generations Leadership”. We’re very fortunate to have worked with many courageous leaders, including through a women’s led marketing initiative and NGOs in The Gambia. Currently, Isatou (Ceesay) and Baai (Jaabang), Directors of NGOs that we collaborate with, are undertaking research about the impact of what we have been involved with in recent years.

One courageous and remarkable leader, living in The Gambia, is Oley Dibba Wadda (pictured below). Click here to read a recent article in which she states: “The women leaders of today must arrive and deliver in full force: we must pave the way in challenging the status quo to give younger generations space to dare to step out and step up; it is impossible to have dialogue about the future without the participation of those who will live it.”

Coaching and mentoring can help accelerate the development of all of us as leaders. This often includes the development of confidence and self-esteem so that we can become more courageous in our approach and actions. Iain (Patton), hand in hand with others, such as Sharon (Turnbull), has been strengthening our approach to coaching and mentoring. Click here to find out more.

Thank you! We appreciate the various Advisors that provide excellent coaching and mentoring to the people we work with, such as Denise (Mulligan). Please get in touch with us if you would like to learn more.

Oley Dibba-Wadda quote: “my life is to give and share all that I am, and all that I have, to humankind: I get my inspiration from the longing for love; the search for knowledge; gratitude for all that I am and compassion for the living - this is my life.”

Have a great week!

Ellie, Rosie, Ian and Lorna

Why does the food we eat matter?!

Vandana Shiva is a famous advocate for ‘food sovereignty’ and shares the importance of adopting an organic approach to farming as well as the importance of ‘Eating Consciously’. To read this fascinating article and learn some tips, click here

Malawi Fruits is an organisation that’s focus is to establish and grow sustainable community businesses in the north of the country. Malawi Fruits more specifically provides training in modern farming technologies including compost manure making and growing of improved and certified seed varieties. We have facilitated a session with the leadership team focussing on the Caplor House and the Six Senses in recent days.

We’re hiring! We are advertising for a new role – ‘Development Coordinator’. If you are interested, please see here. Applications are open, and close on 1st March.

Vandana Shiva quote: "In nature's economy the currency is not money, it is life"

Have a great day!

Ellie, Lorna, Rosie and Ian

New Co-Directors, new ways of working and thinking?!

We have some big news - we have two new Co-Directors! As we have developed and embedded a “Co-Directorship” approach at Caplor Horizons over the last four years, and supported some of our clients and partners in exploring this in their own organisations, we are delighted to announce that Rosie (Bishop) is joining Lorna (Pearcey) and Ian (Williams) as a Co-Director of Caplor Horizons. A new trio! And William (Eccles) and Ian have become Co-Directors of The Commitment. A new duo! For those still not familiar with The Commitment, please click here; its purpose is “to put climate and the natural world higher up the political agenda”.

Here are some of the biggest benefits we’ve identified, from this collaborative approach to leadership:

• Better sensitivity, depth of relationships and collaboration

• Better quality of decision making

• Better prioritisation of health and well-being

• Better reflection and learning, including richer insights about opportunities and strengths, risks and areas to improve, plus a more soulful approach.

• Better pace of action.

Please get in touch if you would like to learn more about our journey, and to read our paper on Essentials of Collaboration, please click here.

We’re hiring! In light of our changes, we are now advertising for a new role – ‘Development Co-ordinator’. If you are interested, please see here. Applications open today, and close on 1st March.

Science and Spirituality. We recently had the pleasure of hosting an online workshop with two inspirational speakers: Clive (Hyland), an Advisor and specialist in neuroscience; and Kemal Shaheen, an Advisor and Director of Paper Boat. The session explored how Science and Spirituality are coming together and how can this inform our work.

To gain some insights, you can read our ‘Essentials of a Learning Organisation’here (pages 9, 10, 11), including how the emerging learning from neuroscience underpins our Caplor House model. To delve deeper and learn more, click here to find out about Clive’s most recent book called “The Neuro Edge: People Insights for Leaders and Practitioners”. Finally, for a thought-provoking video called ‘My Stroke of Insight’ click here.

Rumi quote:“You are not a drop in the ocean; you are the entire ocean in a drop.”

Have a great day!

Lorna, Ian, Rosie and Ellie

Encouraging brave and courageous leadership

Words from Amanda Gorman’s poem at the inauguration in the US, reminds us how important it is to be brave in taking a stand about injustices facing the planet and humanity. To watch her speak click here

Hope for the Future is a climate charity working to encourage communities and their elected representatives across the UK to take decisive action on climate change. We have been facilitating a process with the team in recent days on their strategy.

Ella’s is an organisation of women who coordinate ‘safe houses’ for vulnerable women and children in and around the surrounding areas of London. Sharon (Turnbull) has been working with the team on their culture and has been using our Six Senses of Teamwork tool. Click here to use it with your own team. 

Appreciation - it is a pleasure to work with Hope for the Future, Ella's and other partners and clients that are carrying out such brave and important work to bring about positive change in our world.

We recently held our second ‘Strategy Session’ for Caplor Horizons exploring our ‘new horizons’. Interesting discussions were had around topics such as: our envisaged future; climate change and biodiversity loss; brave and courageous leadership; organisational resilience; our culture; and what we can be for next generation leaders. Thank you to all 59 participants and for the facilitators who joined us for the journey!

Mary Anne Radmacher Quote: “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow”

Have a great day!

Rosie, Ellie, Lorna and Ian

New year, new resolutions? Why are goals so important?

Thinking of the new year, and new resolutions, a recent article, Kim Starkey states that the leaders who excel most often have the same qualities as top athletes. And she has observed they typically ensure that goals are: “specific and measurable; feedback-driven; realistic; self-referential; controllable; chunkable”. To learn more, click here

The article also talks about the founder of BRAC, a large NGO that was established in Bangladesh: Fazle Hasan Abed set up the organisation after seeing the devastating effects of a cyclone. He stated: “everything we did in Bangladesh we did with one focus: getting poor people out of poverty because we feel that poverty is dehumanizing”.

Put into practice…We have recently been working on a strategy and team development process in the past few days with Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI); this has included facilitating a process to develop clear and compelling goals. PDI take an integrated and sustainable approach to the provision of water and sanitation with communities in Malawi. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to work with PDI.

Dalai Lama quote: “the seed of goodness is found in the soil of appreciation”

Have a great day!

Ian, Lorna, Rosie and Ellie

How can we give and receive great feedback?

How can we give and receive great feedback? We advocate a strengths-based approach. We have previously shared about the significance of ensuring a balance of authentic, appreciative comments compared to constructive improvement points: e.g., some believe that a 3 to 1 ratio is appropriate; others even more such as a 5 to 1 ratio. However, beyond this what else is important?

Lee-Ann Renniger reasons that people tend to fall into one of two camps. Either they tend to provide too indirect and soft feedback, to the extent that the receiver may not even recognise what is being said. Or they can be too direct and tough; this can lead the receiver to be unduly defensive. To watch a 4 min video - including about a four-step process that she recommends - click here

Furthermore, at this general level, Carol Dweck’s model encourages us to have a “growth mindset” when giving or receiving feedback.

More specifically, we believe understanding preferences can be very helpful when giving or receiving feedback. Our “Differences and Diagonals” paper, by Ann (Adler), discusses how to navigate around the “Caplor House” to address issues that can frequently occur between people. To take the Caplor House online test, and learn about your preferences, click here. To read the paper, click here.

We greatly appreciated the opportunity to facilitate a strategy renewal process with Dementia Matters in Powys in recent days. Dementia causes create suffering and is frequently misunderstood. It is a debilitating disease and Dementia an umbrella term used to describe a range of progressive neurological disorders.

Laloux quote: “Feedback and respectful confrontation are gifts we share to help one another grow.”

Have a great day!

Ellie, Rosie, Lorna and Ian

What is a post-pandemic NGO?

In 'What might 2021 hold', Stephanie Draper talks about the 'post-pandemic NGO'. She considers how organisations might need to move ahead even more creatively and collaboratively. This is given the acute financial realities that many are facing in wake of Covid-19. To read the article click here. To read our “Essentials of Collaboration” which includes recently added annex about mergers, click here.

Hot off the Press - Essentials of Governance. We are delighted to share this paper. It includes an updated “5M” model (below) that we use in our work on Governance - e.g., recently with Dóchas and Refugee Action. It was devised by Peter (Moore), a Board Advisor and specialist in Governance. To read in English, click here; here for French; here for Spanish.

What is ‘Intersectionality’? This has been described as an “analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person’s social and political identities combine to create different modes of oppression and privilege”. Examples are shown in the diagram below. We explored it as part of a wider and excellent workshop with Lynne (Sedgmore), one of our Advisors; this was called “A Journey Through Feminism”.

Florence Given quote: “Privilege is usually invisible to the person who has it until it is pointed out to them or after they have lost that privilege”.

Rosie, Ellie, Lorna and Ian

How can we all move forward with hope, optimism and confidence?

Happy New Year! It’s a very challenging time. People within the Caplor Community that receive this are based in different countries and face different circumstances. However, what unites people is the remarkable and important work being done. We wish you all every possible success in 2021.

Our purpose is “to inspire and enable leaders to deliver a sustainable future”. Our resolution is to continue to find ways to do this as effectively as possible. We thank all those that have recently been contributing to the renewal of our strategy. More on that to follow in coming months.

How to move forward with hope, optimism and confidence? We recommend an article called “How to reenergize organizations for the long run”. It explores ideas on working life in a Covid-19 world. Click here to read.

The article highlights five areas to consider: encourage “bounded optimism”; listen deeply for responses to stress; develop adaptability and resilience; focus on care, connection and wellbeing; develop energy by evolving the organization’s approach.

Ella’s is recruiting! Ella’s is a longstanding partner of ours. They are a London-based organisation working with women who have survived trafficking and sexual exploitation. Ella’s is looking for two new board members. Click here to find more information about the roles and how to apply.

We continue to incubate an organisation to speed up government action towards a healthy planet. This is called The Commitment. A very big welcome to three new team members who started this week: Ruth Marshall, Daniel Greenwood and Sophie O’Connell.

Helen Keller Quote: “optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence”.

Rosie, Ellie, Lorna and Ian

Why does unconscious bias matter so much?

Unconscious bias. Our work with Irish based An Cosàn has been wide ranging. This has included recently assisting the CEO, Heydi Foster-Breslin, and her team facilitate an unconscious bias initiative. To watch a short animation about unconscious bias, click here.

Wolf-pack?! Last week we gathered online for our sixth and final session with An Cosán this year. Each time around 100 people are involved. An Cosán has epitomized the resilience and commitment of many organisations that we work with - e.g., because of the pandemic, moving various very important services to communities online. Click here for insights about An Cosán’s Wolf-pack culture and values.

We appreciate that 2020 has been a very difficult year because of the covid-19 pandemic and other important issues. For instance, in recent weeks, we have supported the work of Children Watch in Tamil Nadu. The Children Watch team initiated an emergency response programme because of dreadful cyclonic activity that is causing immense suffering in the area.

Reflecting on the remarkable commitment and resilience of so many of the organisations we work with, we will do our utmost to keep delivering and improving what we do in 2021.

Thank you! We would like to say a very big thank you to everyone that is involved in Caplor Horizons in one way or another. We could not do what we do without the very generous and proactive engagement of many people.

We wish you all very best seasonal wishes. Here is a picture from our board meeting a couple of weeks ago. The geese theme is to do with our values and culture. Click here to learn more about this.

Dalai Lama quote: “There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called ‘Yesterday’ the other is called ‘Tomorrow’. Today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.”

With great appreciation and warm wishes,

Rosie, Ellie, Lorna and Ian

Being leaderful?!

What is “Leaderful” all about? It is about effective leadership in turbulent times and includes three integrated elements as illustrated below…

We very greatly appreciate Lynne (Sedgmore), one of our Advisors, who created a ‘Leaderful Way’ paper. Click here to read her paper; or here to read “The Soulful Organisation” in our new book.

We are recruiting: The Commitment (UK based) is being incubated within Caplor Horizons. It is dedicated to addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. Our team is expanding. To learn more, click here.

Are you free? Excitingly, The Commitment has secured an opportunity to pitch at a live crowdfunding event hosted by the “Environmental Funders Network”, on Wednesday evening UK time. If you would like to join the party, click here. You are most welcome!

Dementia Matters! We are delighted to be working again with Dementia Matters in Powys (DMiP). This organisation, based in Wales, gives a voice to those living with dementia and supports them in their everyday lives.

Henna Inam quote: “Authentic leadership is the full expression of “me” for the benefit of “we”

Have a great day!

Lorna, Ian, Rosie and Ellie