Gamechangers: why we need them now more than ever
“At it’s fundamental core, societal progress is about “game change”; it’s when the background rules of life’s interactions — everyday, normal interactions — change and evolve. Progress is when the game of life becomes fairer, kinder, more transparent, more rational, more fulfilling.” Hanzi Freinacht, The Nordic Ideology, 2019
We work to change the game. One of our favourite tactics to change the game is to hunt down gamechangers wherever they are hiding. Be it working deep inside a global corporation to create new ways of doing business, driving a Non-Governmental Organisations to more effectively tackle urgent global issues, or supporting people to reconnect to their intuition and embodied intelligence to transform themselves and society: these gamechangers are everywhere. We bring them together, nurture them and support them in their brave efforts to create a fairer, kinder, more transparent, more rational and more fulfilling world. This blog post explains why and how we’re been doing this… and why it is crucial now, as the world goes through a global crisis the likes of which it has never experienced, also for you to come out as a gamechanger (or support others to do so)!
Going systemic
When Pablo and I, co-founders of the social consultancy Purpose+Motion, came together in November 2019 to review our achievements and failures towards our vision since starting to work together in 2016, we came to a number of conclusions which have shaped our strategy going forwards. Central among these was the realisation that our work at the level of the individual (coaching people, training them, advising or providing spaces for their personal growth and transformation) as well as the level of the organisation (coaching leadership teams to develop impactful strategies, become high performance teams, learn from everything they do, streamline processes, etc) were only going to achieve a limited amount, unless it was connected to efforts at changing the very systems within which these individuals and organisations work: Systemic work was needed.
Why? Because many of our clients always bumped up against the same issues, which they could not alone figure out a solution to. For example, NGOs struggling to get funding put more resources to ensuring their financial stability and end up being accountable to the donors more than to the populations they aim to serve; major corporations employing hundreds of thousands (and thus “too big to fail” for the risk of mass unemployment it would cause) being unable to adapt and innovate at anywhere close to the speed required to remain competitive in the current context; or embodied learning experts supporting innumerable individual transformations, but feeling they are not effectively contributing to the larger social transformation which is needed.
So we launched into 2020 with the firm intention of connecting the individual and organisational levels of our work to this systemic level. Since January 2020, we have been developing and leading 3 processes gathering and supporting gamechangers working in the International NGO sector, in the embodied learning field in Berlin and in Corporate Innovation teams based at Factory Berlin.
Why INGOs, Corporates and Embodied learning experts?
The answer is twofold: Firstly, because we already have great access and networks in these three fields. But more importantly, we have seen over the past years how these “silos” of “the non-profit sector” vs. the “private sector” or “conscious/ mindful communities” vs. “the real world” simply don’t make sense anymore… or shouldn’t.
So many in the private sector are deeply concerned about the issues which major NGOs work on, and even run fascinating, innovative efforts to address these. Many within the NGO sector see the need for more sustainable income generation or social business models for their organisations to enable them to really focus their resources on the goals they have, also enabling a much wider devolution of power and decision making from the headquarters based in European or US capitals, needed until now to raise funds, to the “ground” and into the hands of the very populations they work to help. Mindfulness and embodied learning practices are also becoming mainstream within the “corporate” and “non-profit” worlds faster than anyone imagined, as people realise their importance in creating resilient, healthy and fulfilled human beings, as well as enabling conscious social change.
We felt that by running the processes simultaneously in these three fields we could cross pollinate and possibly even bring these siloed worlds together. Therefore, we chose to start with these 3 fields, and see where it leads.
Why gamechangers?
We felt that the two of us alone would not have much impact on a systemic level, simply speaking on stages or making videos — as fascinating and inspiring as we surely are, these would only be momentary drops in the ocean. In our search to scale our reach, we got inspired by the crazy Hanzi Freinacht, by discussions with Muhammad Yunus and his friends at the Global Social Business Summit, and by the ongoing efforts of MIT’s Presencing Institute’s U.Lab processes: We would not do this alone. We would find those who also are itching to change the system, to consciously effect societal transformation, to change the game.
We would bring together these gamechangers, and create spaces for us all to explore deeper into these systems we work in, to sense what could be possible futures for each system and for us all globally, and to collectively prototype the highest, brightest, most fulfilling future possibilities, learning as we go.
How to best to change the game?
Fully aware that thousands of other initiatives around the world are carrying out similar discussions and efforts, we wanted to focus on what we, as Purpose+Motion, could offer as unique. We would combine Pablo’s expertise in embodied learning with Mike’s experience with Theory U methodologies. Pablo’s work as a Biodanza teacher has taught him to use conscious movement and somatics as practices to access our body intelligence, connect with our emotional states and learn to combine these with our intellectual capacities to consciously create healthy, balanced and flourishing lives for us, our communities and the world.
Mike, has taken part in and led groups going through various iterations of the Presencing Institute’s Ulab processes which are 4 month long multi-local innovation journeys for co-shaping more sustainable and equitable social systems worldwide with a community of over 100,000 participants through the different MOOCs offered. Theory U is a methodology which excels at bringing together people to share and challenge their perspectives of the system being worked on, and to co-create new possibilities using the new collective awareness created by this. Theory U also aims to combine “head, heart and hands”, the mental, emotional and physical intelligences we all have — similarly to Pablo’s embodied learning work.
We believe that, in times of immense uncertainty, disruption and constant change, the more we can, as individuals, organisations and a society, draw on all the forms of intelligences we have, the more likely we are to develop new, healthier and more sustainable futures for us all. We often hear of “intuition” as a key to adaption, or “resilience” as necessary to thrive in disruption, or “adaptability” as the most valuable skill of the 21st century. These are all capacities which require not only intellectual or mental training, but a complete integration of our emotional (for resilience and the ability to adapt) and body (intuition) into the way we live and work.
We therefore decided to utilize the Theory U methodology to support our gamechangers in individually and collectively connecting head, heart, and hands, and designed these processes loosely following the U.Lab2x framework. This also means our three teams of gamechangers are connected to the community of over 300 other teams taking part in this journey from January to June 2020 who are working on systemic change around the globe.
We began planning these in late 2019 and early 2020, bringing together our core teams to lead these processes, selecting the participants, setting out the dates for workshops over the next 6 months, booking rooms and getting catering.
How did we get this far without speaking about COVID-19?
And, as we gathered our teams of gamechangers together for initial conversations and meetings in late February and early March 2020, the COVID-19 virus exploded onto the scene. Berlin and the world went into lockdown. We all began working remotely, transferring our world online, whilst also taking care of our kids, checking in on family and friends, helping neighbors and local businesses, and dealing with the emotional and physical impact of this huge disruption.
Unlike 9/11 or a Tsunami, this crisis is neither a single occurrence which now has to be dealt with, nor is it limited in its geographical impact. As of our current understanding, it seems it is going to be a long-term (2–3 year) and global crisis with ramifications the likes of which the world has possibly never seen. Every country, every institution, and nearly every person is likely to feel its impact.
This long-term and global nature of the crisis means there is time to reflect, to come together, to reprioritize, and to create something new from this. It is also pretty clear that much of the “old” world we knew before this will likely not make it through this crisis: There will be the hundreds of thousands of people who died due to the virus or due to the measures to stem its spread; the millions who lost their jobs; the businesses which were forced to shut; or the relationships which broke under the pressure of confinement. One can hope there will also be new relationships forged by this crisis, with neighbors, the local communities and colleagues invited into our living rooms for a Zoom call; new social businesses set up to help the vulnerable groups; new pride and respect for the key workers in our economies: the health workers, emergency services, law enforcement, garbage collectors, teachers, and those working in infrastructure and transport.
But there are likely to also be deeper systemic and societal changes. Will governments, after this crisis, continue to invest taxpayers’ money in strengthening major unsustainable corporations, building big militaries and unrenewable energy sources, or will there be a shift towards investing massively in health systems, in renewable and clean energy sources, in key infrastructure, in small and medium sized businesses and in building resilience (psychological, social and financial) throughout our communities as well as communities globally, who we now know we are intimately connected to? Will people want to go back to the same ways of working as before, or will they want more freedom to work from home, spend time with their children, connect with their local community? Will people travel as much, or will our current experience of (relatively) successful online meetings and conferences mean the end of many of the millions of global meetings and conferences that flew billions around the world every day?
This crisis also shows us how quickly, radically and intentionally we humans can change if we chose to. We believe our opportunity and our duty now is to create space to step back and reflect on the current situation and the bigger picture, to hear the perspectives of other actors in the system, to project different scenarios of where these systems could go in the next months and years, and take individual, organisational and systemic level decisions on where we consciously want to go.
This is why the Gamechangers are so key at this very moment: they are the catalysts, the levers of change plugged deep into the systems they work in, the ones who can navigate complexity effectively. We believe that when all these levers start working in tandem, in the same direction, coordinated in co-creation of a world which is “fairer, kinder, more transparent, more rational, more fulfilling”… then we start changing the game.
We feel that this is essential work. It is work that brings us energy, that brings us closer to our vision, and we believe, if you are still reading, that it also connects to your vision. You may even be a gamechanger yourself. Or you know some of these itchy footed colleagues, friends or partners of yours. If this is the case, now is your chance to get those feet moving. Get in touch with us, or join any of the following incredible initiatives under way to lean into this moment, to create out of this crisis a world that works better for us all.
We wish you courage, luck and health.
MIT’s Presencing Institute’s Global Activation of Intention and Action (GAIA) or Ulab2x
Muhammad Yunus’s SuperHappYYFestival or Yunus Social Business
Conscious Capitalism Expanded Virtual Conference
Global Collective Trauma Prevention project
Mouvement Colibri (French) Fraternité COVID-19
