"'Complexity science is a revolution in worldviews and practices. For those of us involved in social change it presents some radical new thinking and ways of working for how we work in our organisations, how we build our movements and how we might shift deep seated patterns of injustice. Combining over a decade of experience working in non-profits and communities with an ongoing inquiry as to how lasting change really happens, I believe complexity science offers us one piece of the puzzle. It is offering us 21st-century thinking to match our 21st century problems, and I want to ensure social change workers can use and apply what it is teaching us." Bronagh Gallagher

Art of Hosting/Leadership Skills for Transformational Change ~ Join me Tuesday Ryan-Hart and Allen Frimpong at the Impact HUB in Baltimore, MD [March 2-4, 2016] to build skills for hosting challenging conversations around social justice and equity.
The training is organized by leadership from Impact Hub Baltimore, Art in Praxis, Equity Matters, and the Neighborhood Design Center who “agree that Baltimore is at a critical inflection point and [we] want to see the city move forward. To address the complex challenges ahead of us, we need to cultivate a community of people skilled in new and transformative ways of leading change.”

One of the highlights from being part of the conference team at the YSEALI Summit was the Civic Engagement track’s winning information campaign, the video #BeingDifferentisOK. It was imagined, designed and implemented by a team of seven from seven different ASEAN countries during two 2-hour sessions with assistance from the fabulous INFORMation CAMPaign MAP designed with Marguerite Drescher.

Case Western Reserve University Professor Michael Goldberg posted a Huffington Post blog today reflecting on his teaching time with the Social Entrepreneur Bootcamp in South Africa that was founded by YALI fellow Irene Chikumbo.
Michael generously gives a call out to me and our faculty peers Gretchen Zucker from Ashoka and Fahad Hassan from Alma, but the focus is on the entrepreneurs and their learning.
The blog describes the impact on three young entrepreneurs who completed his class assignment ask potential customers if they would purchase their product. This simple exercise created a shift of focus and/or strategy in each of the three students.

Last night’s presentation by Frederic Laloux, author of the wildly popular Reinventing Organizations, got me rethinking the way that my colleagues and I have been undoing the dominant strategic planning paradigm ~ leadership retreat dedicated to some iteration of S.W.O.T., values and mission setting followed by action planning.

The Herald Zimbabwe features a story about a Social Entrepreneur Bootcamp Zimbabwe graduate’s use of World Cafe and Circle practice tools to harvest input from youth leaders.

Facebook caption: “A beautiful Great mini-training session with #Team263AfricaTV discussing PURPOSE among other things. Awesome feedback that just woke my dull Monday to life!!”
Nico Abote, Executive Producer of 263 Africa TV, posted enthusiasm and a montage of photos of his first day back with his team using practices learned during Social Entrepreneur Bootcamp – Zimbabwe with me and YALI fellow Irene Chikumba.