Collective leadership amid shifting sands

A thank you letter to the Year Here community

With millions across the globe now self-isolating at home as social distancing and lockdown measures come into force, media usage across all platforms (from social to government sites) is increasing rapidly. One marketing agency reported 76% more likes across its Instagram posts, and mobile web visits to government websites (e.g. WHO) is up by 671% from the same week last year.

Social and digital media will be vital now, more than ever, for building connection and community, but as we ask questions of governments, society and each other, the proliferation of new content is proving hard to keep up with: live news feed open in one tab; endless blogs and articles on virtual collaboration tools and digital whiteboards; witty quarantine memes as our British humour goes into overdrive; hard-hitting opinion pieces about how coronavirus will redefine everything from workplaces to capitalism.

It feels simultaneously paralysing and dizzying. The world has stopped and there’s a strange stillness in our streets, whilst at the same time circumstances and reactions are moving rapidly. Most people are in adjust and respond mode — stabilising their businesses, families and communities. It might feel cathartic to stream, tweet, snap, like and post into the void.

But when our food banks are empty because of hoarding and panic buying, when our paramedics are working double shifts and sharing one face mask between them, when our gig-economy workers delivering food to the self-isolating are not getting paid fairly, prophesying about the how the future of work will change can be left to someone else. For the Year Here community this week it’s about action, not armchair theorising.

At Year Here, a social innovation course and start-up incubator, I have been humbled, but not surprised, by the extraordinary collective leadership shown across our small movement of social leaders. Acknowledging the fear of uncertainty but refusing to be halted by it.

From my inspiring team to the social business founders in our venture network, from the Fellows (early-stage entrepreneurs on the course) to members of our wider partner community, your capacity to adapt, innovate and move forward is incredibly powerful.

In these few days you’ve led with an incisive spirit and resilience:

• creatively pivoting your business model to ensure that the women you work with will continue to have secure employment;
• listening without judgement as friends and colleagues share their worries and concerns;
• showing up with humility and readiness to support our important frontline services and partners — from schools to health centres and hostels;
• bringing much needed humour and lightness through distributed sport, online charades and virtual yoga;
• connecting people, organisations and ideas to deliver online education for children and young people no longer in school;
• designing storytelling projects to ensure our elderly and isolated are listened to;
• delivering training on virtual collaboration tools to up-skill our people and enable them to continue supporting frontline communities and organisations;
• building useful resources in response to the emerging needs of local communities and small businesses — from a consolidated list of discounts available for NHS workers, to an open-source self-care guide for managing mental health during the crisis.

Science fiction writer William Gibson said, “the future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” In this new normal it feels like we’re living through one of his novels. The impact of coronavirus will be unequal — endured by the most vulnerable in our society. There is work to be done.

Thank you Year Here community. You are irrepressible organisers and that is an encouraging certainty amidst such shifting sands. I hope we continue to see more examples of your collective leadership — focusing on what needs doing now, for who and how.

We can get to redesigning capitalism later (and we already are, by the way.)