By John North
In 2024 we are evolving and renaming our Crucial Conversations (previously Courageous Conversations) to reflect the ongoing distillation of GRLI’s action-oriented inquiry to its essence. The GRLI Crucial Conversations hosts an intersection of views and convenes those points of leverage that can help make Global Responsibility a reality in how we learn, live and lead.
Starting in 2021 and building on two decades of GRLI’s shared learning, the series explores and advances the edge of a growing inquiry into the nature and development of global responsibility. Recent conversations asked questions such as: “Is sustainability a sham?”, “How might business schools play a role in decolonisation?”, “Degrowth – panacea or pipe-dream?” and more (see the playlist on Youtube and the miro board).
Register here: https://airtable.com/appNhSCejIc49wRT2/shrUUpYJaXFWhRQpT
The format
These 90 minute conversations take place online and the opening and closing of each event is recorded for continuity and reference. The opening 30 minutes takes the form of an informal discussion amongst a small group of “conversation starters”. We always strive to ensure a diversity of perspectives from the starting group. Following their interactive discussion with reflection on the topic, the remaining participants to the event are invited to equally contribute to small group break-outs (also 30 minutes) and this is followed by an open space closing plenary of 30 minutes.
By exploring the crux – the essence – of global responsibility development and by inviting a diversity of perspective the GRLI Crucial Conversations promote the action-oriented co-inquiry that helps prepare the ground for initiating collective action.
Topics for exploration
Upcoming Conversations centers around the compound question: “What is global responsibility and how can it be developed?”
Conversations will deal with fostering deeper collaboration in order to address systemic failures across environmental, economic, and cultural dimensions through collective action. The directions and pathways for deeper exploration that are coming to the fore in GRLI’s recent work suggests a few topics, in no particular order, such as:
- Crises and Global Responsibility asking e.g. What strategies can build resilience and adaptive capacity in leaders and leadership to navigate and lead through persistent crises?
- Power and Global Responsibility asking e.g.What is the relationship between responsible leadership and power, and how can we acknowledge the power we have while embracing a ‘power with’ perspective rather than ‘power over’? How can power dynamics be shifted to promote equitable global responsibility in leadership and decision-making?
- Progress and Global Responsibility asking e.g. In what ways can we redefine and rebalance the progress and innovation equation to ensure it not only relies on technology but also on relational innovations?
- Profound Collaboration and Global Responsibility asking e.g. What are the skills needed and emergent approaches for fostering deeper collaboration and coalescence?
- Systemic Transformations and Global Responsibility asking e.g. How can we restart existing systems, empower self-organizing at the local level, and work within current structures while seeking to transform them, even if abandoning outdated systems doesn’t mean they immediately disappear? How can we connect small-scale solutions to large-scale frameworks?
- Sunsetting and Global Responsibility asking e.g. How can we respectfully transition from and hospice outdated systems and practices to create space for innovative and responsible solutions?
Contributing to the crucial conversations
The GRLI Foundations hosts the conversations and GRLI Partners & Associates shape the direction of inquiry, however participation in the conversations are open to anyone that has a constructive contribution to bring.
If you are interested in co-inquiring with us you may start by helping prioritise the topics we proposed. This is done using the poll on the GRLI WhatsApp group or on our LinkedIn poll.
If you know of someone who would be a valuable “conversation starter” or contributor to any of these topics please let us know and be sure to invite them as well.
We have earmarked the following slots so please save the dates:
- Wed, 18th of September
- Tue, 8th of October
- Thu, 31st of October
