International network, shared values, making global impact — Curators’ Summit
Every end of summer since 8 years so far there is a meeting of Global Shapers Curators from all around the world, which takes place in Geneva, Switzerland. The Global Shapers Annual Summit 2019 was the largest summit to date with over 400 participants who act to make an impact.
Each Summit is devoted to skills set practice, governance and management of the Hub and various workshops on impact areas. This is the meeting for Curators, people selected by their teams to lead them and the Hub to support them in making bigger, greater impact through projects and develop the Hub further taking into consideration the fact that you lead a group of amazing leaders who engage pro-bono into social projects, often after work.
If you are about to manage a Hub of around 30 amazing individual leaders and experts within their field (as it is in the case of the Polish Hub — Global Shapers Warsaw Hub), you definitely know that it is going to be a challenge. There are three aspects to think deeply about and develop them further (certain set of skills and knowledge). The most frequently discussed on our events are first leadership — what does it really mean? how to support Shapers so they could run projects and grow individually on the way, second impact — what projects to choose to make the biggest measurable impact on the world and third cooperation — especially within those amazing international relations thus this network of more than 400 Shapers present at the Summit representing around 7500 active Shapers all around the world.
LEADERSHIP
“Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting and, most importantly, a way of communicating.”
Simon Sinek
We often think about it and hear a lot what does it mean to be a leader? During the summit we discussed deeply Klaus Schwab’s approach that there are five key elements that should be taken into consideration while talking about a leader, namely heart, brain, muscle, nerve and soul. During the Summit Shapers agreed that a leader cannot achieve greatness without deep empathy towards others — this is the most important sentiment to fight against the injustices that persist in the world. What is more empathy was one of the most often mentioned value while talking about leadership.
During curatorship and while managing any team it is very important to look inward and assess your own leadership journey and goal. All leaders must practice empathy, honesty, courage, agility and accountability to move from intention to impact. Based on what was discussed among Shapers there is a graphics design on what does it mean to be the true leader according to those young leaders managing their Hubs locally, facing different challenges of their way (presented below).
It shows what kind of values ans skills a true leader within community of individual leaders and experts who devote their time to do social projects has. Starting from intention, taking action and finally to make an impact. What is very important to mention is the fact that these values with be presented at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020 in Davos, Switzerland!
IMPACT
“The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.”
Tony Robbins
Nowadays it is the time for young people to be the drivers of change. Youth-led collective movements and actions are very influential and decisive within variety of socially aware projects. Young people are at the forefront of change. It is up to them to move forward and thanks to shared vision, goals and projects to achieve system-wide impact.
This years summit was called “Leading for Impact” and lots of discussions were devoted to talk about how to measure the real impact, how to assess projects which will have the greatest impact based on local communities needs. Our perception toward how we see it and how we see ourselves within it is extremely important. We discussed VUCA foresight and insight that stands for Volatile, Untertain, Changeable and Ambigious as expressions for general conditions and situation together with the group behaviour within the whole organization.
Considering the impact that we as Global Shapers Community make there are three areas within which we operate and try to make significant impact. Those are the following:
Collectively, Shapers committed to the achievement of the following goals by 2021 (the Global Shapers Community’s ten-year anniversary):
“Mobilise 1 million people to influence policy on climate change and protect the environment”
“Equip 100,000 people with digital skills and knowledge to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution”
“Train 100,000 people with knowledge and skills to drive action on diversity, equity and inclusion locally and globally”
COOPERATION
“It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”
Charles Darwin
Beneficial exchange instead of competing, achieving established goals through interaction applies to both whole community together with Partners and every single hub by themselves. It is exactly thanks to our cooperation, creating or building something together with others moves projects to a different dimension, develop them further. Not to mention the fact that it is the community surrounding us that help us grow and develop further.
Community that you surround yourself with can shape your thoughts, behavior and ambitions. It is the first driver of the transformational change. We all should be aware of the fact that change is possible when we form coalitions, alliances and partnerships, and most importantly, bonds as Shapers. Time is our most important asset be aware where do you allocate it for.
Katarzyna Wszoła
Curator Global Shapers Warsaw Hub
Linkedin, Twitter
www.globalshapers.pl
www.linkedin.com/company/global-shapers-warsaw-hub
