“If you are leading… you have self-selected to take on the responsibility and the risk, and you’re giving yourself some capacity for good judgement. To take that on is by very definition to make yourself vulnerable.” Alison Tickell, CEO, Julie’s Bicycle
Introduction During my time at Julie’s Bicycle working with hundreds of organisations and individuals to transition to a more environmentally sustainable cultural sector, three themes that I experienced as constants were change, collaboration and uncertainty. Working with people to grapple with the implications of the most existential threat of our time – climate change – through a process of practical actions, community building and data gathering that allowed us to track progress and celebrate achievements along the way, I became increasingly aware that one of the biggest challenges of empowering people to step into the role of “change-maker” was their relationship to uncertainty. Because change, especially in the context of an issue as complex as climate and environmental damage, means frequently stepping into the unknown and acknowledging that the ways in which we have been living and leading are no longer fit for the future. It means accepting that there is no clearly marked destination towards which we’re travelling in our search for “better” and seeing that our individual experience and expertise isn’t enough to equip us with the answers – that we need to work with others, sometimes with vastly different expertise and belief systems to our own, to pave a new way forward. In other words, it is a vulnerable place, and to go there calls on our capacity for courage, creativity, connection and psychological resilience. I also saw these ideas reflected in the experience and insight of cultural leaders shared in many Chatham House conversations during my Clore Fellowship in relation to other change agendas too: digital innovation, diversity and equality, cultural education and institutional transformation. I became immersed in the question of what it is that builds our capacity for stepping into the uncertainty of leading transformative change. The search led me – amongst other things – to the vulnerability researcher, Brené Brown. Her work conclusively maps the ways in which vulnerability, typically defined as a weakness, is also the source of our most profound experiences and personal power. Love, connection, belonging, creativity, authenticity and courage – all of these are rooted in the uncomfortable exposure of vulnerability. And so it was that this research took shape. If we are seeking leadership that is resilient and collaborative in the face of change and uncertainty, what is our relationship to vulnerability, and does it have a place as a positive force in cultural leadership?
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