4 Secrets to Close 2024
From the 5th till the 15th of December, I went on one of my longest work trip covering Taipei, Delhi, Zagreb and Bratislava. It was a roller coaster experience for me as I met changemaker friends both current and new. This being the end of the year and now that we are with family, I want to focus on going deep into my soul so that it is only the essential things you will read, nothing more. So here are my 4 secrets to close 2024:
1. Cause: It is one thing to be inspired but it takes a whole lot more to spark action
2. Creative Vision: It is one thing to see but it takes perseverance to stay focused
3. Culture of Trust: It is one thing to wish for but trust is a priceless gift
4. Competent Pivot: It requires vulnerability to admit you need to pivot
Hi Changemaker family! Merry Christmas and a joyous new year! Welcome to the 12th edition of Creative Change, which now has 41,000 subscribers from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe! Because of you, we have grown by leaps and bounds! Join the conversations about views, ideas and balm for changemakers to remake our world for good here.
Now back to my 4 Secrets to Close 2024:
1. Cause: It is one thing to be inspired but it takes a whole lot more to spark action
It was a real honour for me to be invited by Dr. Rey, Rey-Sheng Her to deliver the opening Keynote to open the 9th Tzu Chi Foundation Forum. I knew that Dr Rey who is the founder of Economy of Goodness wanted me to share my experience of the Economy of Communion - Asia Pacific . But I wondered if it is any use to simply share about our good work and then pat ourselves on the back when in reality, we are very far from achieving our goals. So until the 6th of December, even though I had my slides ready, I was not sure if my presentation will be useful.
What helped me to sharpen my points was the meeting with my changemaker friends in 文藻外语学院 . The encounter with them again after not meeting them since our project ended just before the pandemic, reminded me on what matters in any changemaking movement. That a movement cannot be governed simply by logic but by sparking a fire that will keep burning even in the long nights of loneliness and darkness. We went through a lot together overcoming misunderstandings, challenges to arrive at eventually crafting an imperfect torch, but one that kept going.
So with that, I decided to change my entire presentation and share with my friends in Tzu Chi the mistakes and struggles in trying to spark a global movement for the Economy of Communion. I went in depth to distill these 5 hard truths:
?????? ??????????: ?????????????? ?????? ???? ?? ?????????????? ?????????????? ???? ???? ????????
?????? ??????????: ?????????????????? ??????????????: ???????????? ?????? ?????????? ???????????????????? ???? ???????? ?????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????
?????? ??????????: ?????????????? ?????????? ???? ???????? ???? ???? ?????????????????????? ???????? ?????????? ?????? ???????????? ????????????
?????? ??????????: ???? ???????? ????????????, ?????? ?????????????????? ?????????? ?????? ???????????? ???? ?????????????? ?????? ??????????????
?????? ??????????: ?????????? ???????????????? ?????????????????? ???? ???????????????? ?????? ????????????
I am glad my friends found my presentation direct and useful for their cause. It is indeed one thing to see but it takes a whole lot more to spark action.
You can watch the talk in English or Mandarin here:
Read more about Consulus partnership with the Economy of Goodness
2. Creative Vision: It is one thing to see but it takes perseverance to stay focused
I then took the next flight towards Delhi to be with our Global Head for DialogueCORE, Dr. Farha Iman who has been doing amazing work to bring the importance of dialogue into the corporate world. I am here in beautiful and historic Delhi due to the invitation of Dr Brian J. Grim who wanted to affirm Consulus impact and work of promoting the Economy of Communion.
Farha took me around to see the ancient Mughal site of Humayun’s Tomb, a UNESCO world heritage site, in which one can see how the passage of time and trade shaped the identity and development of India. It is filled with nuances, nothing as simple as black and white, and certainly a reflection of India’s complex web of identities.
Also because of this, it has not been easy for Farha to navigate the ongoing complexity in India. We took time to reevaluate our strategy to push forward towards a new direction in faith-based finance and impact, which will soon kick off in Dubai.
During the tour of Humayun, as I looked at its intricate architecture shaped by brilliant minds but also painstakingly built by craftsmen, I thought about the faces in Consulus 20-year journey; how the past and present Consulites from all over the world who came and went shaped us.
领英推荐
The next day, just before I would receive the award on behalf of Consulites past and present, there was an opportunity to recollect myself. It was providential that my friend Archbishop Machado was also invited as a fellow speaker and he proposed we have a private Catholic Mass together celebrated by him. At the moment of the homily, in which he proposed a dialogue instead, I was overcome by emotion. Feeling the weight of the responsibility of the bringing ahead this work, and just feeling tired, really tired. There and then I asked Archbishop Marchado to pray over me knowing that this work to impact an economy of communion, we may not see its success but that we are worthy of being a solid stepping stone for others to continue.
After this mass, we went back to join the Dare to Overcome conference and met many more amazing changemakers. I thank Brian for acknowledging the good work of the “Crazy Ones” also known as Consulites as we seek to update Capitalism to make it work again for everyone, by providing equitable access to all by systemic redesign.
It was a day filled with providential encounters and it encouraged me and my team to continue to go ahead and stay focused on our Cause and realise our Creative Vision.
Learn more about the ???????? ???????????? ???????????? ???????????????? & ?????????????????????????? ?????????? ?????????? ?????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????? award and the event.
3. Culture of Trust: It is one thing to wish for but trust is a priceless gift
The next leg of this trip is towards Zagreb where I was welcomed by my Brothers Hrvoje Lovric and Kresimir Ruzdak, CFA in Consulus Croatia entering into the beautiful Advent time.
In my book, I mentioned that the sign that your cause is true is you will attract a circle of trust. So what happened was in 2018, I gave a talk in Rome about shaping a new humanity for an economy of communion. I did not know then that it planted a seed in Hrvoje who then 2 years later went to search for me online with only a thread of information: Singapore consulting firm and economy of communion, then he found Consulus and found me again. That began our adventure, he invited me to the University of Zagreb to speak in 2020, just before the world shut down. There I met 150 Croatian friends who wanted to know if an Economy of Communion is possible. Through Hrvoje we kept in touch and our circles of trust grew in Croatia over the last 4 years.
That gift of friendship that Hrvoje extended to me then led to a wider group of friends to know the changemaking work and mission of Consulus. I am here this time because of the invitation of Prof Kosjenka Duman?i? , a great organiser of international events in the University of Zagreb. She is also someone who is very astute as an observer of educational trends and situations.
Thanks to her introduction, I delivered the Keynote on Creative Change for Education Resilience in Complex Futures at the EUsolis Jean Monnet Conference.
Prior to this event, we had a Consulus event in the same House of Europe where we updated our friends on our new strategy to impact an Economy of Communion. During the event, Mladen Perkov played a game to get everyone thinking about a circle of trust. We had to hold on to our chairs which were leaning on one leg and then move on to the next chair without letting the other leg touch the ground. It was a meaningful game that taught shared vulnerability and why we need an interconnected human chain to shape an Economy of Communion.
Ultimately, spending these 5 days in Croatia with my changemaker family helped me understand what a gift it is to be invited into a circle of trust. How truly priceless it is, that in the midst of uncertainty, there are still people looking forward with hope and wanting to act on it.
4. Competent Pivot: It requires vulnerability to admit you need to pivot
Then it was off on a lighting drive to Bratislava to meet another possible Consulus partner Martin Sepp. I am grateful that Hrvoje could drive me across 5 countries so that I could meet Martin and his amazing company of Plaut Slovensko, s.r.o.
After the long drive, we arrived in Bratislava for dinner with Martin and his partner. I had known Martin for some years as a friend and he has been to Consulus Global School, our annual meeting of global partners. Still he has always been helpful as a dear friend to Consulus but we do not have a formal partnership with his company.
Anyway after a long drive of about 5 hours, both of us were hungry and waiting to eat. After a brief nice chat, Martin went straight to the point and questioned the current state of Consulus and what is the intent of this possible partnership with his company. I was taken aback that he would want to step on the gas for our discussion.
So I shared about our vulnerability, as in how we have to scale faster as we are taking on larger projects to realise change at a bigger scale and why Europe with all the unknowns is now very important to Consulus with a growing number of activities in various cities.
Soon I realised why Martin wanted to trigger a more direct conversation at the start. That is because his company Plaut is also facing new challenges as it is growing very fast. With growth comes challenges in communication and culture.
This is something that we can help one another. We are experts in change management and culture while his company is an expert in large tech systems and now increasingly AI where we are keen to pivot towards.
Both our companies needed to pivot fast and we had to come clean at the start about our vulnerabilities to walk together to meet the future.
Confirmed NEW Dates for Shape the World Summit in Rome, 12 and 13th June, 2025 - See Video
If you are a changemaker leader and would like to meet other changemakers who lead enterprises, non-profit, and public institutions, join us next June in Rome. There are limited seats, and participation is by invitation only.
If you are interested to come with us to Rome, you can indicate your interest here: https://consulus.com/event/shape-the-world-summit-2025-creative-leadership/
Merry Christmas! May you shape Creative Change wherever you serve in 2025!