A Call for GRLI Guardian nominations
By Vanessa Duckenfield, GRLI Guardian Chair
I’m writing this during lockdown in the UK, where in one moment I’m home schooling my 5-year-old son, whilst my two-year-old daughter ties herself around my ankles shouting she wants to play “jigsaws”. The next moment, I’m supporting how we develop our people and culture in the family business in which I work. Then later that day, I’m watching the impact of the global pandemic unfold, wondering what part I can play in shaping a better future.
Nevermore so, have the words “Me, We and All of us” had so much meaning for me, and felt more important to the world.
For more than 10 years, this ethos has been the beating heart of the GRLI. Inclusive relationships, multi-stakeholder collaboration, learning and unlearning and a strong sense of shared purpose and values that are the foundations for positive action. These are at the core of what globally responsible leadership is about.
Looking to 2030, for the GRLI this means asking questions:
- What’s important now? What’s emerging and is aligned to our values and vision for the future? What’s at risk of distracting us?
- What is our story? How might we best establish the pathways, in dialogue, to bring us to 2030 with Global Responsibility being fully alive in how we live, learn, and lead? What might this look like for our Governance, Storytelling, Learning & Development, and Alliance Building?
- How can help shape our milestones to 2030, engaging with our partners to co-create these and shape pathways and actions together?
- How do we create both virtual and physical opportunities to facilitate connections, transformative learning and collaborative action across our partners?
- What’s the role we can play in enabling our partners to further their own projects and connectivity to others, sharing best practice, learning and inspiring each other along the way?
- How can we offer new learning and insight from our community to make a positive difference to other communities of practice globally? (switching on the globally responsibility gene in others?)
These are the questions I hope that the GRLI Guardians will explore going forward, and it is with pleasure that I issue a call for new GRLI Guardian nominations from individuals associated with full GRLI partner institutions that are willing to help steward the GRLI’s work and direction of travel.
Reflecting on their role and experience as guardians of the GRLI during recent years my fellow Guardians had the following to say…
“Being part of the GRLI community, and especially as a guardian, helps me to breathe! In a constantly changing world, where everything is linked, interconnected, interdependent, we must take decisions and prioritize actions which impact, sometimes in a contradictory manners, on different stakeholders, at different moment. What we do at GRLI, is this perpetual movement between the short term and the long term, between a few stakeholders (academic organization) and the whole system. We learn every day to breathe between different spaces, temporal and physical.”
— Jean-Christophe Carteron, Kedge Business School
“The GRLI Guardians group is one of the most collaborative communities I have had the privilege of joining. The responsibility to self, the other and the whole is in the GRLI DNA and is exemplified by the Guardians. The work of the Guardians is undertaken through participative, supportive and non-judgmental dialogue, which I find uplifting and empowering.”
— Rumina Dhalla, Gordon S. Lang School of Business, University of Guelph
“Being a Guardian of the GRLI, unlike any other network or community i am part of, directly connect to my personal and ideal compass of values. When I don’t know how to act I often ask myself, ‘What would you do acting as a GRLI Guardian’? The GRLI is an incredible network of role models i admire and I often find my reference points in the network. Being a Guardian means to me treasuring the values of this community, values such as trust, collaboration, whole listening, feeling and acting, spirituality, drive, vision and passion. In the next 12 months, I want to continue inspiring myself and others in acting according to those values.”
— Carlo Giardinetti, Independent Associate
“In this period of instability, GRLI remains an oasis of collaborative inquiry. The Guardians are one of the most welcoming groups I’ve experienced. Internally supportive and externally collaborative, we contribute to “Global Responsibility, Now” initiatives through partnerships in an amazing global network of companies and learning institutions. I’ve loved working through GRLI to help enable the transition from “I” to “We” to “All of Us.” The transformation in consciousness from separateness to connectedness has been my special area of interest, which my GRLI colleagues and partners have helped amplify and complement with their many groundbreaking projects.”
— Chris Laszlo, Weatherhead School of Management
In accordance with the GRLI Governance Framework, the GRLI Guardian Group works on behalf of the Council of Partners (full institutional partners are at the heart of the GRLI) alongside the Centre and Board to uphold the vision,mission and operating ethos of the GRLI.
And finally, what is it that you can bring to our Guardian group, as your whole self? What inspires you? Do you see yourself or a colleague serving in this role? Is there a student or a next-generation voice who might add new dimensions to this group’s work?
If you are interested in serving as a GRLI Guardian on behalf of the Partner organisation that you are associated with, or would like to nominate someone then please read the Guardian Group Terms of Reference before completing the online application.
The timeline for Guardian appointments is as follows:
- End August: Online applications close — online application
- September: Announcement of Guardians elect to Council of Partners followed by induction period
- November: Start of the 2 year mandate
If you have any further questions please contact John North at john.north@grli.org or feel free to get in touch with one of the current Guardian group members.
