"A platform for leaders and dreamers": reflections from the B For Good Leaders Summit 2023

It's now nearly a week since I got back from Amsterdam where the 2023 B For Good Leaders Summit was held. I've had some headspace to rest, meditate and digest in order to gain some perspective on what was, again, an incredibly powerful couple of days.

Several things struck me this year:

• the call from 2022 to include more diverse voices was answered; the global south was much better represented as was the wisdom of indigenous people (in the form of four 'Wisdom Keepers' who ran breakout sessions throughout the event). This brought a really welcome energy to proceedings as well as much needed global voices and thinking;
• nature was closer to the narrative, as indeed it should be. "We are nature" and "Nature has a seat at our table" were phrases repeated throughout the conference (though nature itself was nowhere in sight and I wonder what some of the leaders are doing to manifest this philosophy.) Satish Kumar once again brought an elegant simplicity to this discussion, reminding us of all the ways in which we need to "rethink the human-nature relationship".
• de-growth and even 'eco-socialism' put in the occasional appearance but weren't fully explored (perhaps so as not to detract from this week's Beyond Growth conference in the European Parliament);
• a sense of urgency came and went, with some very powerful words from Indy Johar :

"We are not being honest about the scale and radicality of the problems. We are about to experience forced de-growth; 70% of businesses will not survive this transition,"

a vibe that didn't quite thread through all the discussions I attended.

There were a lot of calls for this conference to move from 'blah blah' to action. I agree, but ultimately, this was a group of leaders gathering to talk about leadership. Action will come from a collective shift of consciousness and on the second day the plenary panel gave us some important insights. This from Anuradha Chugh of Pukka Herbs :

"Authentic leadership needs courage: to be humble, to let go, to act and not to know everything. A good leader is first and foremost a good human being."

"It takes courage to address your overall impact on the world," said Paul Polman . "But it takes more courage to do the wrong thing when you bloody well know it's the wrong thing. And sadly that's where most CEOs live."

Let's unite behind what makes us really angry, channeling our courageous and authentic selves to get the system changed.