Thinking Globally: Reflecting on One Young World, Colombia, 2017.
London, UK, 23rd October 2017.
I was recently lucky enough to spend some time in Bogota, Colombia for my third One Young World conference. As it always is - this was a deeply humbling and inspiring (as well as exhausting!) experience and, the few weeks I took off to travel around Colombia afterwards gave me time to reflect on a few things...
For me one of the most moving moments of OYW 2017 was hearing from Hippolyte, a young Rwandan man, whose whole family had been killed in the Rwandan Genocide... and yet he had forgiven the killers of his family to the extent that he now shakes their hands when he meets them. They often say the price of peace is forgiveness but... I've never really appreciated the weight of those words until that moment. Colombia is a living example of this with the on-going peace process and this was something I reflected on time and time again travelling around what is an astoundingly beautiful country.
The point is this, we need to learn to think more globally; thinking as one community vs. as individuals or smaller groupings. My travels around the word support this too...and in fact the conferences I have been privileged to attend have allowed me to meet people from all over the world...and realise that ultimately, despite our differences, we are all human together.
A further point of thought here came from the astronaut Ron Garrett who said in his OYW closing speech that the 2D world is broken into countries which compete with each other but the 3D word viewed from space is all one and we should think in a similar manner i.e. a global manner.
Decision making at work should be no different - it should be made globally, not locally, thinking about the bigger picture not just about next quarter's returns. Sitting in an office building in London, New York or Sydney it is easy to become disconnected from the problems the world is facing and concentrate on that next promotion, that next weekly report - don't get me wrong these are important but we must always maintain a dual focus on “doing well” and “doing good”.
Social intrapreneurship, by its very essence, combines doing well and doing good and allows business to deliver on both shareholder value and to create positive social impact, in fact it allows both to be achieved simultaneously and therefore allows us to bring global decision making into our daily thinking at work. It also allows us to all express our values at work and, to not only connect with world problems everyday, but help solve them. Social intrapreneurship is about ordinary people doing ordinary things which leads to something extraordinary.
The Circle of Young Intrapreneurs defines social intrapreneurship as follows:
I am not talking about philanthropy here... companies should still be profitable but it is eminently possible to be sustainable and positively impactful and profitable. Fostering your social intrapreneurs will help your company get to this state purpose-led decision making faster and towards a world where companies exist for both shareholder profit and positive social impact. The trends in consumer spending, employment choices and investing are all moving toward sustainability - so why not get ahead of the game?
I have returned from Colombia not only with some new ideas, new friends and new connections but also re-purposed and re-energised to not only continue the work I do with The Circle of YI, but to increase our momentum, scale and impact so that we can actively assist companies in their transitions to more sustainable, more global, business models.
The Circle of Young Intrapreneurs is a movement designed to inspire, guide, develop & deliver purpose-driven business ideas from social intrapreneurs inside
corporate organisations globally. We drive positive social change through business by creating a community of changemakers, supporting them with mentoring and advice from leading intrapreneurs, encouraging pan-industry collaboration to solve shared societal challenges, and promote advocacy of social intrapreneurship. COYI grew from 2 to 4000 members inside 18 months & is now the world's largest network of social intrapreneurs; spreading the #dowelldogood mentality to over 70 countries around the world.
Join us (it's free and always will be!) and help us to make business a force for good.
Web: www.circleofyi.com
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