NO TIME TO WASTE... Female Social Innovators Connect!

In these difficult times, individuals, businesses and communities are in need of practical solutions to make ends meet and live in harmony with their environment.

We have come across fabulous work achieved by women in social entreprises, campaigns or networks. They run small and medium businesses, work independantly or for existing larger organisations and they provide sustainable, replicable, exciting and inclusive solutions, contribute to making a society that is socially, environmentally and economically more balanced.

We call them Female Social Innovators.

Through this manifesto we propose to bring these women together to help hold their heads high, to shout out what they have achieved. They have made incredible impact through innovative ideas, courage and sheer hard work. They have stepped out of the tramlines of convention and been brave enough to try something new. We see many pre-set, top-down, poorly designed ‘initiatives’ to which people adhere to the letter. These women offer something different.

Collectively, we MUST acknowledge the values, the connections, the achievements of these women. Listen to what they have to say and giving them the chance and the space to develop their ideas into practice. Through their activities, they have the potential to be influential social leaders and change people’s lives for the better.

If we don’t stop and take stock of the opportunities that are there and the talent available, they may fall by the wayside leaving women still feeling trapped and blaming the glass-ceiling for their woes.

Let's connect!

Thanks to the men and women who joined the group on 3^rd March 2009 in London, to connect, listen to, adopt and champion these female social innovators.

Read further to see how Sofia Bustamante, speaker and CEO of Turn up the Courage, interpreted the Manifesto:

See article in its original context here: http://blog.turnupthecourage.com/principles-of-confluence.html

Example of Decisioning

An example of where I have recently experienced this again was when I attended the Manifesto for Female Social Innovators, organised by Servane Mouazan of Ogunte. During the event I was expecting Servane to have set up a process by which we would arrive at a manifesto in the more traditional sense of a ‘Manifesto’. What actually happened was that people expressed the things that were committed to doing. This is what Servane had meant by a manifesto.

It clicked — it was another example of decisioning. Rather than the group explicitly agreeing on something consensus-based, many different action impluses were expressed in an open manner to all. If each action impulse is a vector (an arrow indicating movement and direction) then you have a situation where the group has self-organised the direction of the flow of energy into specific channels.

The manifesto is a decision — by means of the granular intention to act. The shape of the manifesto is the shape of the collective action that ensues from this intention.

The beauty of this is that the decision is then absolutely the same as what we say it is. Description stays close to reality. Very important!

Traditionally when the group ‘decides’ to do something in the normal sense, it can be the case that the decision is not made democratically and therefore the channels of flow that are set up are imaginary. Some individuals may have no real intention of complying. In that case there is no real decision. What will happen is very distant from what is claimed will happen. If however, the action is defined at this granular level, then the collective action that ensues will itself define the decision that is being made. The collective does not stay in a state of blindness. The collective is not guided by a false decision.

How decisioning happened

• Servane set a tone: "Let us not be deterred by the notion of a glass ceiling. Let us just take the next step forward". This served as a call to action and was encouraging. She also had put her ‘projection’ of the Manifesto up for all to see.

• We had a decisioning cycle — for the duration of the event. People expressed their positive intentions in regard to this manifesto.

Thus the shape of the decision was revealed

What Servane demonstrated was facilitatory leadership. She expressed the siren call — “Contribute to the manifesto for female social entrepreneurs!” And then she facilitated the natural impulses that arose out of that siren call, encouraging them to be expressed; capturing them and displaying them for all to see. Thus she was maximising openness, accountability — to self and others.

Witnessing and allowing

Another way to look at it is as though the group stands back and notices where its action impulses lie as one collective — the shape and pattern of action right before its eyes, and exclaims “oh THAT is what we are going to do”. It witnesses and encourages life within it rather than artificially states what will happen.

It is effortless and does not fight reality. It works with it.

©Sofia Bustamante - Turn Up The Courage.