‘Be The Change’: The Acumen Fellowship Experience
Written by Marie Yates
Discover more of Acumen Academy’s blogs here
Marie Yates, the founder of Canine Perspective CIC & 2020 UK Acumen Fellow, shares her transformational journey to “Be the Change” and her experience with the UK Fellowship.
Something had to change.
I would love to tell you that I had no idea what needed to change but, deep down I knew, it was me. I had to change.
Since its establishment in 2014, Canine Perspective CIC grew from a small social enterprise, working with survivors of sexual violence and rescue dogs, to an evolving, multi-faceted social enterprise focused on building resilience. I have preserved the same mission since day one: changing the narrative around surviving sexual violence.
Canine Perspective CIC is one of the thousands of ventures that were hit hard by Covid. Working predominantly in-person, in Spring 2020, we were indefinitely pawsed. Pun intended.
Leadership can be a lonely place at the best of times.
But sitting alone in my office receiving email after email of cancelled planned work for the following months was horrendous. I’m no stranger to discussing resilience or taking action in the face of adversity but, this was different. I had absolutely no idea what to do.
Serendipitously, I received an email from Dirk Rohwedder, Director of the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Dartington, introducing me to Acumen. I am an SSE Fellow and have been lucky enough to stay in touch and work with SSE over the years. I am acutely aware of the power of learning with and from a group of people determined to change the world for the better. SSE helped me immensely in the early days of Canine Perspective CIC.
Acumen was launching their immersive fellowship programme in the UK for the first time and applications were open.
I read everything I could find about Acumen and devoured their manifesto.
Those two lines exposed the embers in my soul.
Bringing Canine Perspective CIC back was not going to be easy. I needed to be around change makers in order to not just return to what was, but emerge with an improved social enterprise. I needed to learn to do better and to be a better leader.
The application process isn’t for the faint-hearted. Expect to be put through your paces and prepare to be more than a little overwhelmed by the company you suddenly find yourself in. Of course, that could have just been me! I wish I could share some tips and tricks on how to emerge victorious from the process, but I genuinely have no idea how I made it into the final twenty-two. Be yourself, as clichéd as that sounds because authenticity is the beating heart of Acumen.
The application process was a gentle warm-up in comparison with what was to come. I am familiar with the rhetoric around stepping out of my comfort zone to learn, develop and grow.
I didn’t think I was a stranger to embracing discomfort and challenging myself. I thought I understood what was meant by ‘an immersive process’. Acumen is about so much more than rhetoric and my old comfort zone is now a blip on the horizon.
I have been challenged… and then some!
The re-emergence of Canine Perspective CIC is now only one part of stepping into a new phase of moral leadership for me. My understanding of what true leadership means has been transformed and will, no doubt, continue to be transformed through the Acumen journey.
There are two key aspects to how I am applying the learning. Firstly, I have a new bank of practical tools that have enabled me to overcome challenges, engage in conversations differently and adapt the processes within my social enterprise. That’s what I signed up for and that’s what I hoped I would gain from being part of Acumen. Secondly, to be completely honest, I have been challenged in more ways than I thought possible. I had a choice; run from the discomfort or lean in and learn. I chose the latter. In doing so, I have been supported to transcend theoretical learning and take tangible action. It’s the most transformative learning process I have ever experienced.
Organisations don’t change, people do.
As the human behind Canine Perspective CIC, change has to start with me. It’s a myth that change is hard to manage. While I’ve been saying that for a long time, I don’t think I really believed it until recently.
Learning quickly from both successes and failures and having the tools to adapt accordingly makes navigating change an exciting prospect.
Acumen offers so much more than traditional leadership training. If you’re serious about disrupting the status quo, about changing the world, and changing yourself for the better and you’re not afraid to embrace the inevitable challenges in doing so, consider applying for the Acumen Fellowship.
Join us with ‘the humility to see the world as it is, and the audacity to imagine the world as it could be.’
UK Acumen Academy is on a quest to build a community creating a more just, inclusive and sustainable world. Learn more and apply
