A Fairytale Week in Windsor

"I am writing to you on the advice of a mutual friend (who will be able to vouch for my credentials such as they are!), who has suggested you would be an excellent participant in The Gordon Cook Conversations. The Conversations, begun by Professor Charles Handy when he was in charge of St George's House in Windsor Castle in the 1970s and taking place twice a year ever since, bring together leaders and future leaders from many walks of life to discuss the world and society they are inheriting. I am sure you will find taking part worthwhile, productive and enjoyable."

It's not every day you get an invite to stay in Windsor Castle for three days, then find out that only 20 people have been invited, and I had been nominated to do so by the legend that is Dame Julia Cleverdon. To say I was buzzing about this when I received it back in January would be an understatement, and I didn't even know what it was we would be doing yet, nor who else would be joining me!

If I'm honest, the best thing about this experience, at this point, was not needing to worry about preparing or reading up on people, or any of my normal pre-event habits that I usually prioritise.

The invite from Matthew specified that there would be no preparation, no reporting back, and to just turn up. This was music to my ears as I haven't felt like I've slept in 2024 yet, so at the very least, I would get three nights' sleep in a castle.

I unpacked and headed down to meet the nineteen other guests. To my delight, everyone was awesome, or at least their professional titles suggested so. Over the three days, I found out they were some of the most intelligent and promising leaders I've been in a room with before. They also happened to be nice people, with so much thought and intention to use their skills and networks to make this country and the globe a better place.

We had people from the Home Office, entrepreneurs, someone from the NFL, civil servants, economists, army officers, BP headteachers, and a diplomat, to name a few. So, the perspective of the room was incredible. Then, there were the hosts, the convener, and his facilitators, who had a ridiculous amount of experience, possibly even beyond that of the twenty guests combined. I would say that for the network they possess at least.

We were under the Chatham House Rules for the duration, but what I can say in terms of what I learned and the outcomes from my time there, is the reality of national and global issues that exist today, how decisions are made to effect change, and some really deep lessons from the guests, speakers, and insights sessions that some of the guests shared.

I have two quotes that I've saved from listening to the guests. The first one is "We need to have high-quality disagreement both locally and internationally." This came from someone very senior in national defence, and the real-life examples that he shared with us, showed that even when a war is in full flow, in most cases, a lot of the time just two people having a conversation can change the course of history. It made me think about the ridiculous nature of some of the challenges that exist around the area where I live. Most issues could be resolved with a few conversations in an environment that allows for high-quality disagreements.

This got me thinking, and I started to talk to some of the other people who worked in civil service or community development. When you ask why things aren't moving faster, and why progress feels so hard to find, the biggest issue is a lack of trust and no long-term strategy. And that isn't just a government issue. That is a community issue and an economic issue. Conversations about big issues went well into the night for many of us during the Gordon Cook Conversations and all sorts of things that everyone cared about, were being discovered through these questions the facilitators kept posing.

It's not for me to share here, but I definitely will be inviting a few of them to my podcast in the coming months. I can say that it was very useful and built connections to understand what is happening inside and outside the system regarding getting things done.

The second part of the experience was to another question, what can you, your organisation and society do to allay your hopes and fears?

This is where we saw the dynamics of the group flip, and the creatives got to layer on the deep understanding of the five key challenges that we had identified in our way of redesigning the social contract that everyone in the globe was happy with.

We started to challenge each other and think about not just the methods and models that we would use to implement the massive changes that we had hoped to see in the world, but how we would tell a story that would inspire those we had to report back to.

The fairytale was born, I will explain in depth another time once we publish it. The picture here says it all, when you've got Eaton Chapel in the background behind you from a corner of the castle, and you've got 20+ leaders sitting cross-legged on the floor listening intently to a child's fairytale about a strategic plan for allaying our hopes and fears. Safe to say we managed to get the right balance between creative and coherent.

My second favourite quote I noted during this time was, "When the time to act has come, the time to prepare is done." We nailed our pitch, and the report is awesome.

My number one lesson from this experience is that everyone is human, and if you just remain authentic and kind, giving people plenty of space to be heard with a healthy amount of high-quality disagreement, an environment like this is a recipe for some serious progress.

The depth of everything that we covered over these few days in Windsor was profound, with all of us present and highly engaged. The work that was produced, the stories that were told, the lessons that were learned, the friendships that were made. I'm going to look to incorporate some version of these deep conversations into the citizen hub moving forward.

I can see now, with the likes of Anthropy UK releasing their report, regional district strategies seem to be getting clearer. If you know what you are doing and you have an amazing network to support you and make it happen, it will only happen as a result of brilliant conversations. So, thanks for the memories, Gordon Cook crew. I'm looking forward to the inevitable collaborations!

I look forward to coming back as a guest to speak to future participants, and if you ever get an email in your inbox that says someone has nominated you to go to Windsor Castle for three days, just say yes.