Three critical elements to lead social change

For Michael Silberman, Executive Director of Mobilisation Lab, “the social sector requires a collaborative form of leadership. One person’s fight for justice is inextricably linked to another person’s fight for justice. There’s no such thing as social justice for one group but not for others. That requires leaders who are able to collaborate well, look outside of their own walls and organizations, and be highly creative and collaborative with other social sector leaders.”

In other words, social change is not about sectors; it’s a human issue.

Unfortunately, though, social change is crippled by competition.

We often don’t think of the social sector as a competitive marketplace. But just like the private sector, social change organizations have a limited resource pool. “You’ve got these great leaders who are competing for the same resources,” says Ami Becker Aronson, Executive Director of the Bernstein Family Foundation. “The question is: How do you change mindsets of the leaders and organizations to work in concert with each other rather than being in competition? That’s where systems change is needed.”

We must recognize we are in this together and part of a broader ecosystem. This is a great reason for leaders to be more willing to collaborate and share knowledge and insights. Michael has found an effective solution in Mobilisation Lab, which supports advocacy campaigners and their organizations to break through with a systems-based approach.

According to Ami, there are two pieces to creating systems change: responsible disruption and inviting risk as an entrepreneurial opportunity.

Risk-taking is especially essential in social impact efforts. “There’s often complacency when you try to effectuate change. The beauty of inviting risk is to responsibly disrupt the way we traditionally do things,” Ami explains. “I want to incubate this idea at THNK. It will be great to see how this develops.

“Authentic leadership is crucial to social impact,” says Indrani Goradia, Founder of Indrani’s Light Foundation, which helps caregivers at women’s shelters combat compassion fatigue and burnout. “We must not pretend to be supportive of a cause only to forget about it because it’s the easier path.”

This is where authentic leadership comes in. Rooted in purpose, authentic leadership reduces the likelihood of abandoning a cause, especially when dealing with today’s complex issues. It also enables the leader to maintain the same purpose as a driving force for the stakeholders they work with.

Being an authentic leader requires a level of self-awareness. For Peter Mortifee, Co-Founder and Chair of the Somerset Foundation, being authentic is about deeply connecting with our values, ourselves, and our own personal truth. “I admire leaders who are connected to themselves in an authentic, honest, and truthful way, and are able to be non-judgmental and compassionate with themselves, which in turn allows them to show up in more generative ways with others,” he explains.

After 25 years of training, practicing, and teaching as a medical doctor, Peter founded the Somerset Foundation to support initiatives that bring him a sense of purpose, possibility, and fulfillment. When it comes to his own leadership, Peter says, “I think that THNK is going to help me grow. It’s going to help me evolve and who knows what might come out of it.”

Michael emphasizes how important diversity is in achieving innovation, something he is looking forward to experiencing at THNK: “I really believe innovation happens through collisions with people with different contexts and experiences. So, I’m very eager to be in touch with and learn from people with different experiences and backgrounds.”

In any sector, diversity is important. It has been widely proven that diverse companies are more innovative because teams that are made up of people with a wider range of interests, experiences, and backgrounds understand their audience better than less diverse teams.

The social sector has a unique need for diversity – and it shouldn’t come at the expense of a social cause. Take the example of gender equality and women’s rights. If women of color and the LGBTQ community were equally represented in the organizations working towards gender equality, you probably wouldn’t see women’s’ marches being canceled because it was only representative of one segment of women.

In short, these organizations would be more innovative if they incorporated these different perspectives before designing their plan of action.