Let’s talk about connection

If you want real connection, if you struggle with the gap between ‘self’ and ‘other’, if you think empathy is the super power the world needs now – this is for you.

Connecting through empathetic conversations enables us to understand those who are struggling, find common ground with those we disagree with – and to listen to the impact of our actions.

Please join us for Connection – the last in our three-part Climate Dialogue series. Together with Reboot the Future, we using the feminine and indigenous lenses and deep dialogue to explore new perspectives around climate change, to inform profound action.

“Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference” – Jane Goodall

Over the last three months we have used the lens of Deep Time, Wild Nature and now Empathy to explore and delve into the power of dialogue to shift our perspectives, provoke thought and give rise to creative change.

All welcome.

Add your voice to the conversation: Monday 13th December 2021 from 4-6pm (GMT) – registration is essential as places are limited.  Sign up here

Wild love

We started the Climate Dialogues with Reboot the Future as an opportunity to explore how She Leads Change could support profound change using feminine lenses to view the climate crisis.

We have been completely awed by the positive response from participants in our two previous sessions. One of our favorite comments was from a long term employee in the climate sector who said “I’ve never thought about things in this way before – it all looks different, now” and of course the very enthusiastic “that was freaking awesome!”

On Monday 29th November, we hosted the second of our three-part Dialogue Series; entitled: “Wild Love” Sandy Glanfield shares her reflection on the conversation…

“What started as ‘Wild Nature’ came to be ‘Wild Love’. When we create time to consider what we really love in nature – visualise it, describe it to others and how it makes us feel – it sparks a connection.

Our lens is love and evokes warm memories. What if we shift that lens though to consider the impact of environmental degradation on that place? We see it at risk, our heart feels broken for its potential violation loss.

But, on most days, we move on and think about something else… our ‘to do’ list or another problem in the climate crisis that appears on our news feed. There’s so much in our media to take in and feel responsible for. We want to care but often find ourselves numbing in response to the magnitude of the problem. Numbing cuts us off from feeling all of our emotions, from being able to speak of how we truly feel, and from feeling care and compulsion to protect what we love. Nature and it’s plight becomes removed, inanimate.

When we refer to nature as ‘it’ we feel comfortable to consume and take. We don’t call anything we love and want to protect, ‘it’. If a Maple is an ‘it’, we can take up a chainsaw. If a Maple is a ‘her’ we think twice. What if we treated nature, as in the Golden Rule, as we wish to be treated? What would change?

Changes begin to break through as we apply this lens and amplify as we share and explore our thoughts, feelings and ideas with others.

As is often said “I didn’t realise I felt so strongly until I heard myself say it out loud” Seeds for action begin to rise as we share what we love, what we feel responsible for and for our unique gifts that we can use to protect…Please join us for the next one. 

13th December from 4-6pm (GMT) – Empathy: Curiosity & Connection

“Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, ‘You owe me.’ Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.” Hāfiz 

Registration is essential as places are limited – please join us here.
Although there is a suggested fee – everyone is welcome, regardless of contribution. this is the last of the series – please don’t miss out!

We need all voices around the table together creating new ways of seeing and being – towards a world where all can thrive. Please join this expertly facilitated, deeply transformational session to bring your voice to the conversation and seed positive change.

 

Image by Tobias Tullius (Unsplash)

An invitation to talk…

Our news reels have been filled this month with COP26 reports, leaving us overwhelmed with “will they, won’t they” questions. This can cause many to numb the overwhelm of emotions and respond to climate change and biodiversity loss with denial, apathy or silent acceptance.

The problem is that we can’t selectively numb. When we shut down to pain – in any aspect of our lives – we shut down to everything: the full spectrum of our emotions – including love and joy. We feel less of everything.

How do we move beyond this?

In part two of our Dialogue Series with Reboot the Future, we’re exploring our connection and love for nature – and how we can use conversation to build a more compassionate and sustainable world.

When we feel compelled to make changes about things that cause us distress and pain – like climate change – how do we share this with and inspire others?

Join us on Monday 29th November from 4-6pm (GMT) where we use the lens of Wild Nature to delve into questions like these – and more. We will offer strategies and examples of how to hold respectful dialogue – inspiring others to access what it is they love about our planet and what compels them to act and protect.

Curated conversations are rare moments where we’re invited to pause, reflect, listen and speak up – even when we aren’t sure of the answer. We invite you to add your voice to the conversation.

Register HERE

Places are limited, so booking is essential – please register* to book your place and receive your resource pack.

3.9 billion changemakers…

At She Leads Change we connect a global network of diverse women who support each other to step into their fullest potential and lead change.

Meet Htwe Htwe – a changemaker from Myanmar who wants to impact the world by empowering the marginalized youth in her generation with knowledge to reach their fullest potential and walk together, to make the world a better place.

In addition to Htwe Htwe, we have a number of women in our current cohort Leading From Within, doing remarkable things around the world: from Istanbul supporting refugees, to the UK working in publishing, to India working on sustainable materials, New York working in finance and Ethiopia, working on substance abuse…and more…

One of the ways we maintain diversity is through offering sponsorship to at least one third of all participants on our leadership training programmes.

Not because it’s a nice thing to do – but because it’s an essential part of our strategy to create positive change at scale.

+ It supports women leading change who would not otherwise be able to afford it develop competence and connection to scale their impact.

+ These women model courage and purpose and bring many aspects of diversity to the group. It re-calibrates perspective as it allows participants to be exposed to people in less wealthy regions – not as victims but as ‘people like me’ and exemplars of possibility.

+ It channels resources from more wealthy to less wealthy places – not from guilt or charity – but as a genuine desire to be part of something extraordinary alongside excellent women.

+ It shifts organisational understanding about selling products, setting up supply chains and other commercial interaction with other countries.

We are so grateful to each of you for your support of She Leads Change – for every woman, and every organisation who sponsors one of these places.  There is so much more we can do together.

Can you help?

We’d love support in any of these three areas:

  1. Insight and help with grant funding (as an expert or enthusiast)
  2. Growing a small team of creative thinkers who will meet regularly to grow, align and launch this initiative
  3. Introductions to organisations who you think would love to connect and partner alongside us

If you can offer your help in any of these areas – or all three (!) – please drop us a line – we’d love to see an increase in more women like Htwe Htwe stepping into their fullest potential and leading change in their communities around the world.

 

A curated conversation…

“…it is proposed that a form of free dialogue may well be one of the most effective ways of investigating the crisis which faces society, and indeed the whole of human nature and consciousness today” David Bohm

Next week, we launch the first of our Climate Dialogues.  A series of three curated conversations.  We asked Anna Swaithes – one of our She Leads Change community – why she is joining these conversations.

“Like many other people I feel very emotional about the size and urgency of the challenges facing our planet and us. It’s something we all have to tackle as individuals as well as professionals.  There are so many fora focused on climate change – the science, the politics, the technology and so on – but I feel like we also need space for open dialogue to help understand other people’s perspectives, including their emotions, and process our own.”

As leaders, climate is one of the most important issues facing humanity.  Given that we have to make a dramatic – and urgent – transformation to  carbon neutral and then to carbon positive, then every organisation has to change in a ways we have never seen before in our lifetime.

“If we think about leadership at She Leads Change – at its core is interconnected thinking and linking ways of coming up with fresh ideas and new approaches.”

We have to join forces – we can’t stand alone as leaders, and dialogue is one way to underpin all we do. I love the idea of dialogue: how brilliant that so many different viewpoints can come together. It’s a great opportunity to think and see other perspectives.

“It’s not just about adding your voice to the conversation but hearing the voices of others.”

I think about this topic a lot – as an individual and professional – wanting to have a broader understanding of where others are coming from.  Facilitated conversation is a rarity these days and l love the idea of bringing together a wider diversity of voices – where we are all exposed to different ways of thinking and can move forward together.

Please join Anna – and the rest of our She Leads Change Community – as we use the lenses of deep time, wild nature and empathy to the climate challenge to stimulate connection and shift perspective. You can sign up here.  The first of our series starts on Monday 9th November from 4-6pm GMT – the following two on 29th November and 13th December, also at the same time.

 

A view of under-representation at COP26: When you’re not invited to the party – hold your own?

A view of under-representation at COP26: When you’re not invited to the party – hold your own?

As the UK Climate Conference COP26 starts, our hope for progress against the climate challenge is dented by the lack of participant diversity. The campaign organisation She Changes Climate, says that only 2 in 12 senior participants at COP are women. As an innovation-driven organisation, we know that it is so much more difficult to come up with fresh solutions using homogenous ways of doing and being. We are asking “What could be possible if we took alternate approaches to exploring climate possibilities?”

“…it is proposed that a form of free dialogue may well be one of the most effective ways of investigating the crisis which faces society, and indeed the whole of human nature and consciousness today” David Bohm

In a new dialogue series She Leads Change will offer an opportunity for a more diverse approach. Together, we will view the climate challenge through different lenses. These are lenses that are often associated with the feminine and many indigenous cultures. In this beautifully curated 3-part series, you will be able to step-away from the figures, the apocalyptic perspective and bring in empathy, deep time and love of nature.

Everyone is welcome. Come, speak, listen and lets find a that beautiful world we know is possible. Together.

This is an opportunity to calibrate our understanding of leadership against one of the most important issues facing humanity, at a time when it is high on the global and organisational agenda. A bonus is the session structure – curated dialogue is a great technique to explore difficult topics – and this will have professional application.

The first conversation is on Monday 8th November 2021 from 4-6pm (GMT). Follow-up conversations are 29th November and 13th December.

We look forward to hearing your voice!

Registration is essential, contribution is optional: RSVP here

We thank Reboot the Future, and She Changes Climate and 6heads for their support in this initiative.

More on the issue – see Bonnie Chui’s great article here.