7 things to know before you become a Global Shapers curator
It’s a fresh mid-November night in Warsaw and I’m about to board to London, where I am planning to meet inspiring people from different communities, including Aspen Institute, Silicon Valley startups and obviously… the shapers.
The 2018 / 2019 has been a challenging shapers year to cope with, especially when your team convinced you last second to apply for Curatorship, you are not convinced that you have what it takes to take the hub to The next level so you present your personal leadership program as ”under my curatorship, It will not be a revolutionary year”. Then you get 80% of votes, and you are stuck with the task.
When I look back and start connecting the dots of my experience as a Curator, one phrase from my Tuscan childhood experience comes to my mind:
“Start doing what is necessary, then what is possible. And suddenly you will be surprised to do the impossible” — San Francesco d’Assisi
Revolution it was though: tripled hub members, an increased ecosystem of 10 new associations joining our community, including 2 new sponsors contributing 20k PLN to our new flagship project “Poland, the homeland of Tolerance”, two strong leaders joining the Board and of course, a lot of failures on the way. Five project failed, 4 shapers leaving The team, some unfinished business and the feeling that.. You could have always done more.
During this intense experience I noted down many thoughts and I came up with some advices & things to acknowledge before you apply to curatorship and when you win the hub elections:
- FIND TIME: As a leader, you can Never say “I don’t have time „: always be at the kick off of shapers projects and meetings, when members seem occupied share best practices of dealing with hub topics on a daily basis, if a project gets stuck for any adversity be sure to be at the frontline of the rescue mission, when abroad for pleasure or work invest your time in shapers meeting to promote your hub & learn from others. In my case, finding extra time for talks allowed me to support some crucial areas of the hub, which at some moments needed the engagement of the curator: fundraising, project CFO (as nobody else could do it) and stakeholders management.
- GROW THROUGH FEEDBACK: At least once per year, go through a feedback session with the team. Monkeysurvey.com is a good start, then follow up face to face with each member (especially the new ones!). In my case Two sessions helped the most: the first one allowed me to understand better the behavior of one member which made minimum effort and clarify some cooperation episodes, the second one made me understand that I count to manage the shapers as a Corporate team, I had to take a step back and rethink the team strategy. Feedback had a tremendous impact on my personal development and on the way I coordinated the team as a curator, and I truly thank those whose stood up for me to realize it.
- PRO BONO MEANS AFTER HOURS: in the first months of my curatorship, the other 2 spheres of my life got complicated: I got a new corporate position with a team to manage and… my daughter Sofia was born. Hungry for success, and scared of all my new obligations, as a curator I required to much engagement from some team members, which had a negative impact on their behavior and made me fell in the trap of micromanagement, until a wise shaper rang a bell. A hub is not a startup or a corporation, members don’t get paid and so don’t try to run it like one!
- FORGET FIRST IMPRESSIONS : they are not the best ones. As a curator You will have to deal with new members, and not all of them will fit perfectly to the team, both in terms of cooperation and commitment. I suggest you to take some time before judging, not to listen to first impressions from the rest of the team, to respect outsiders with a solid track record. If such a case happens, Give yourself at least 6 months, get the support of an experienced shaper “buddy” to follow up regularly , and maybe it will happen that at the right time the outsider will become your key success factor on one of your projects, as happened in the Warsaw Hub.
- LESS IS MORE: Impact is not about how much you do: it’s about how good you do few things. During my curatorship we started by launching 6 projects at the same time with 20 team members, and after 6 months 1 flagship project was left engaging 80% of the whole hub (“Poland , homeland of tolerance” exhibition @ the Polish Parliament). Focus on a cause which is important to most of the team, and stick to that one. Bu to get there, the more combinations you try , the more chances you get to be ready for the right occasion. And when the best opportunity presents itself (and the hub has the capacity for it), take it.
- LEAD BY EXAMPLE: if you want others to follow your cause, then get Your hands dirty and engage in as many activities as you can (you will buy their trust, you will build legacy). Example: one of our (failed) projects was linked to the reduction of plastic waste in our community, and to motivate others to act I started to be the change I wanted to achieve, cutting from one day to the other 90% of plastic waste consumption for me and my family, and updating the team on my progress. Be the best you can be: you will never regret anything anymore.
- FIND A WARRIOR (or more than one) to co-lead your most important project! Someone who has a clear vision of how the project could look like, is respected by the team and is willing to dedicate extra time to the cause. Of all the unexpected situations we had during the development of our flagship project, at least three times our “warriors” saved the project: when 1 months before the exhibition we had all set up except we didn’t manage to convince any major investor to join the fundraising process because of the sensitive topic and location of the project, when the Polish parliament moved the location of the exhibition to the main hall of the building 3 days before the event and when we had to convince our suppliers not to sue us after their 5K € payment was delayed by 2 months due to IT problems of the grant platform.
PS: While you accomplish the curatorship task, try to follow the PERMA concept of happiness: find positive emotions in the small things of everyday curatorship, show engagement to the team (visible leadership!), build relationship bonds which will help you during crisis moments, find meaning by constantly asking yourself why, celebrate achievement with your close ones and the shapers to reach full sense of accomplishment. I believe that this is one of the main reasons why I left a legacy after my curatorship (our current curators dream team + The “Poland , homeland of tolerance” family ).
Feel free to contact me for any face to face advice!
In shapers we trust!
Alessandro Tofani
Linkedin
www.globalshapers.pl
www.linkedin.com/company/global-shapers-warsaw-hub
