Meeting a snapshot of the United Nations in a cab in Copenhagen

Last weekend, the new Cultivation Team of the international learning network Pioneers of Change (http://pioneersofchange.net/) met in Copenhagen to define their purpose for the upcoming year.

We kicked-off the weekend with a round of sharing our life stories and our connection to Pioneers of Change. I had been introduced to Pioneers of Change when I was on the Board of AIESEC in Germany (www.aiesec.de). I heard the name in the office and that the network had been set up by some AIESEC Alumni. It took me 3 years to engage with the network in Amsterdam. I was working with Greenpeace International then and a colleague from Kenya invited me to join the local “Personal Sustainability” conversations (http://pioneersofchange.net/communities/sustainability/scneth/).

We met every 6 weeks at people’s homes around the question: “What little changes can I make to live more sustainable?” What attracted me to that little group was that we managed to embrace the diversity of the participant (people from Africa, South America, and Europe working for ABN AMRO Bank, Shell, or Greenpeace International) and having action-oriented dialogues where we left each time with a little learning commitment until next time.

Back in Copenhagen, on Saturday, we had a deeper conversation on how we see and envision Pioneers of Change in the upcoming year.

We asked ourselves:

What animal/smell/fruit/colour does Pioneers of Change represent?
How would we characterize Pioneers of Change, if the network was a teenager or a young adult?

How does a network look like when itis cultivated by 2 eagles, one bird, an octopus, and loads of ants?

Moving the conversation to “What do we see as needs in the network at the moment?” some keywords crystallized to form the purpose for us as the Cultivation Team: SELF-AWARENESS, CONNECTEDNESS, STORYTELLING, COMMITMENT.

The evening was spent with one of the first members of Pioneers of Change with questions such as:

How do we balance storytelling with asking questions and taking action?
How do we measure the impact of Pioneers of Change after 10 years of existence of the network?
How can we use online platforms such as YouTube to tell our stories?

In the cab home that night the driver was curious where we were from: 4 pioneers in a car, we introduced us as representing a snapshot of the United Nations: being from Bulgaria, Brazil, South Africa, and Germany. Out of the blue, the cab driver asked us “What connects you?”, a question that new members often have towards the Pioneers of Change network. And what connects us is a set of simple principles and a strong vision “to create the change we want to see in the world”.

On Sunday, we worked on defining the name and purpose for our team: as Storyweavers we use “Storytelling to inspire commitment and connections to nourish the community”.

I catch the train back to Berlin, writing this article, and leaving Copenhagen with the questions:

How do I host storytelling within the network?
What tools on “Art of hosting Storytelling” do local network and community of practice hosts within the network need?
How to combine storytelling with Art of Hosting practices (www.artofhosting.org)?