We Are All Future Leaders ??
Tilmann Stolte
CEO @ Future Leaders Global I Leadership development I Regenerative innovation
Since I started working as CEO of Future Leaders Global , I have repeatedly received three questions:
Before I share the answers to these questions, I want to say that being part of this organization is very meaningful to me. Over the last four years, I have changed a lot as a person. I understand myself better. I understand people around me better. I understand my role in society and as a person in business better. And I know where I want to go with my life.
Others seem to have a similar experience. To this date, more than 2.500 people have joined a Future Leaders program. We have touched people around the world, both as individuals in our community programs, and in leadership programs with our commercial partners.
“This has been so meaningful to me!” is what I am hearing over and over again. And people show it. Here some quick facts:
1) Our global community is run by volunteers
Our community programs are up to eight months long, sub-divided into six gatherings with two days each. On weekends. Plus preparation work for the teams. We have run these in different cities across Europe and Africa, and in online programs reaching other parts of the world. And our teams organize these as volunteers because they joined the program before and want to give back. And because they want to work on something meaningful.
2) We have multiple people on 30u30 lists
These individuals are recognized as leaders and changemakers, being proactive about issues such as sustainability ( Cecilie Kjeldsberg ), innovation ( Danat Tekie ), education ( Isabell Fries ), or human rights ( Elin N?rve ). And in addition to them, we have hundreds of people that are now, nine years after the first Future Leaders program, in all kinds of positions: as founders of their own organizations ( Maxime Leroux ), or across companies in several countries and numerous industries.
3) Speaking of industry
Since 2018, we work with organizations such as DNB , Storebrand , 凯捷咨询 , and Norfund . They trust us to develop their people and to strategically transform organizational culture. To come up with new ideas. To be ready for the future of business. And to put their people first.
What all of these people and organizations have in common is that they care. And that Future Leaders has been meaningful for them. As it has been for me.
Content Overview
1) What is Future Leaders doing?
2) Why is it relevant?
3) Do I need to be a leader to join?
1) What is Future Leaders doing?
Why do we exist?
We exist because we believe in a better future for ourselves and the world around us. And we believe it is on us to take action and responsibility for it.
Future Leaders was founded in 2014 in Oslo, Norway by a group of young people who wanted to explore how to take meaningful action and live a meaningful life. Inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals they looked into what capabilities are needed in order to create a better future. They then got to work and developed a self-reflection and leadership program that explores how to drive positive change.
From that point, the Future Leaders community grew organically to different cities and countries. From Oslo, Bergen, Kristiansand, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, to Barcelona, Berlin, Harare, and Masvingo. In 2018, we started to collaborate with companies, helping them strategically develop talents, create leaders, and explore future business opportunities.
The common denominator: Passionate people driving positive change. Or, as our vision says: Building a thriving world based on responsible action!
With this history in mind, we see the following as the fundamentals of our mission:
1) We want to support people to live a meaningful life
2) We want to contribute to a positive future for all of us
Let’s call these the Micro and the Macro level.
On the Micro level, we as humans live our lives embedded into our families, our groups of friends, and our broader social surroundings. We may have different genders or different national backgrounds but one thing we have in common is that we are mostly focused on our direct social environment.
In short: We don’t zoom out often enough.
The last decades have highlighted an enormous increase in pressure from not only the global education system, but also our work environments. People try to finish school and university as quickly as possible, in order to then follow a pre-defined career path. There is little time to stop, take a breath, and reflect on what we actually want.
And there is the problem. After years of climbing whatever ladder we are on, we might realize that it’s the wrong ladder. And that we would have loved to do something entirely different instead. The amount of people that change their path in the middle of their careers, once they gain the financial security that allows taking a birds-eye-perspective, speaks to this.
Now, this is a huge loss, both for individuals wasting their time on something they don’t really like, and for society and business because these people might end up in burn-out, develop other health-related issues, or just simply not contribute in a way that matches their skills or makes them happy.
Which leads to the question: How can we make sure people understand what makes their life meaningful?
On the other side, we see the The Macro level.
Recent years have dramatically shown that we are facing significant challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic, rising effects of the climate crisis, and increasing political instability across the world. The Sustainable Development Goals created by the United Nations are just one of many frameworks to describe our global problem spaces. Another one is the Planetary Boundaries, describing how we are dependent on our natural ecosystems. We have to be very careful about how we use our resources moving forward in order to preserve these vital ecosystems for future generations. Some people might argue that technology will solve all of this, but I wouldn’t be so sure. We have to understand and adapt to the social context as well, with concepts such as Doughnut Economics, which is a fantastic starting point to rethink how we could combine economic thinking with the limitations of our ecosystems. Yet, while there are some potential solutions out there, there is still so much to do. We need to rethink big parts of our daily life and adapt our organizations in order to navigate the instabilities we see. We need new ideas, and we need visions for ourselves of what a worthwhile future might look like.
Which leads to the question: How can we understand the challenges we are facing, and how would we be able to solve them?
If we reframe now and combine both the Micro and the Macro perspective, we see people who want to live a meaningful life, and challenges that need to be solved. And that is where we place our sweet spot as Future Leaders.
We perceive these challenges as an amazing opportunity to rethink the systems around us. What would a fantastic future look like? How could we solve the big challenges in this world? How can we build thriving businesses that solve pressing issues? How can we as people find out what gives us meaning - a joyful life - and then work towards it, together?
So, who are we?
We are a community of more than 2.500 individuals that want to drive positive change and build a thriving future: For ourselves, the people around us, and the societies we are part of. Among us are all kinds of nationalities, genders, and occupations. We are managers, students, CEOs, artists, entrepreneurs, mothers, fathers, designers, and scientists. What unites us is the wish to understand ourselves better, what kind of life we want to live, and how to create a better future.
As an organization, we consist of two parts:
What do we offer?
We offer transformational self-reflection and leadership programs. These programs have been continuously refined and adapted over the last nine years. We have worked in different countries, with different organizations, and with input from psychologists, anthropologists, coaches, students, managers, or whoever had a great idea that improved our learning experience.
As a result, we have two main program tracks now:
The Future Leaders Program
An in-depth twelve-day program, divided into six gatherings, that is complemented by an innovation project for companies. The program can be run in three to eight months and is for people and organizations that really want to deep-dive into self-reflection, leadership, and systematic change.
Future Leaders Workshops
Three-hour to two-day sessions that offer the essentials of self-development and practical skills to work together and/or lead positive change. These workshops are great for developing specific skills or for team-building.
领英推荐
At the core of our programs, we explore three layers where we focus first on ourselves as people and then systematically broaden our horizon towards bigger systems. Concretely, we dive into:
1 - Ourself
Who am I? How do I take decisions? What are my values? How do I manage my energy?
2 - People around us
How am I influenced by others? How do I communicate and collaborate? How do I lead?
3 - Systems we are part of
How am I embedded into society and/or my workplace? How do I navigate complexity? How do I drive systems change?
While working through these layers, we use two very important mechanisms:
a) Group-based learning
We explore together with others. Listening to other people opens up new perspectives, lets us have new ideas, encourages healthy discussions, and develops trust and empathy. All of these are core components of leadership.
b) We practice
Experiencing and testing ideas - in short, taking action - are core to effective learning. We set up commitments between our gatherings to see what works for us and what doesn’t. Because we are part of a group we have natural accountability. Which in turn supports us to form healthy habits and routines.
The combination of the above provides a great learning experience and a strong connection between our participants. What is astonishing to me, even to this day, is the shared language that people develop. There is a continuous drive of our alumni to explore more together. We see bookclubs, afterwork meet-ups, and friendships form. People even go on trips and vacations together, to places such as Portugal or into the Norwegian wilderness.
2) Why is Future Leaders relevant?
Future Leaders is relevant if you believe that we can build a better future. It is relevant if you want to know more about yourself and how to live a meaningful life. It is relevant if you want to be part of a community that thinks positive change is not only possible but desirable - both for ourselves, for the societies we are part of, and for the organizations we work for.
To be more specific, let’s look at different levels of what we want to achieve:
For individuals
We want to support people:
For societies
We want to support systems change, especially to tackle challenges such as:
For organizations and businesses
We want to support businesses in preparing themselves and their people for the future. That includes topics such as:
No matter what level we look at (individual, societal, or organizational) a lot of it requires rethinking the status quo and to be comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity.
Is this going to be uncomfortable and potentially annoying? Hell yes. Is there an alternative for this? Definitely not.
So we better get started on it.
3. Do I need to be a leader to join?
No.
We define a leader as someone who is proactive. We are not talking about a manager with people responsibility (even though we might be both at the same time). A leader has a vision for a better future and goes into the unknown. A leader follows that urge of exploring something that will improve the status quo. In fact, we are all leaders in our very own ways.
What we do in the programs is to unlock our potential, no matter what our starting point is. And in our work with organizations we customize and tailor the program to make sure that we bring in the right learnings for the right context, industry, and people at the right time.
The future for Future Leaders
Before wrapping up, I want to shine light on what’s to come for Future Leaders as an organization.
We see ourselves as a living organism that is constantly learning, adapting, and changing - always based on how the people that are part of it nudge this organization forward.
Having said that, there are a few things that we would like to achieve in the future:
Who would we love to work with?
Everyone who believes in change
Everyone who wants to live a meaningful life
Every organization that wants to solve problems for a better future
Every leader who wants to make a difference for their people & their organization
Every CEO who wants to prepare their business for the future
Every founder who wants to build a company, product, or service that is future proof
Every investor who wants to support a sustainable future
Every politician and public servant who wants to see meaningful social change
Please spread the word!
In the end, we are all people. We all want to live a meaningful life. A life that gives ourselves, our families, communities, businesses, and societies around us joy and a positive outlook onto our future.
Senior Consultant | Digital Platform Services - Sopra Steria // CO-founder of Check-in podcast
1 年This is great! ?? Hands down the best leadership program I have participated in ??
Next Gen Familienunternehmen | Sports, Finance & Career | Expert Future of Work & Future Skills | #30u30 PRReport | University of Cambridge | TEDxSpeaker | Moderator | think digital, act human | Politics
1 年best leadership program, I had the chance to participate in!!!
Cloud dancer making a more playful and conscious tomorrow | Future Leaders | Head of The Playground | Co-Founder Bobla | Climate Physics | Regeneration | Stubborn Optimist
1 年This is just amazing! ??
Facilitation | Emotional Intelligence | Conscious Leadership | Change Management
1 年Very well written, love to continue following what you are doing! ????
Leadership and Culture Lead | Leadership | Chair | Boardmember | Speaker | On a mission to create a more regenerative world at Regenerative Monks, HR Norge, Future Leaders Global, Hagegata 31 and A regenerative Future.
1 年Love this ????