The COVID-19 crisis is a global challenge for people from all over the world and all walks of life. Discover our interview with Andrew Stallybrass (UK/Switzerland) on how he experiences the current situation and which lessons he has been drawing from his time in lockdown. Andrew has been working for Initiatives of Change for many years. He currently lives in Caux, Switzerland, with his wife Eliane.

What is your current situation? How is the spread of COVID-19 impacting you?

Surprisingly little. My wife, Eliane, and I are both over 70, so ‘at risk’, but Caux is a lovely place to be ‘confined’.
 

Describe in 3 words how you are feeling right now?

Concerned. Worried. Hopeful.
 

What is your biggest challenge at the moment?

Priorities. What should I be doing now? I’m meant to be retired – but I have so many things to do, books to read, things to work on. My wife and I are both deeply involved in working on a new web platform, presenting the history of MRA/IofC, a kind of Wikipedia. A simply massive challenge.
 

What are the lessons you have already learned from this time?

A reminder of how privileged we are and have been. For 2-3 generations in our lucky part of the world, we’ve lived without major threats totally beyond our control. Now we’re back to normal: most of humanity, for most of history, has had to live with the fear of pestilence, war, natural disasters. All our wealth and our science cannot always protect us from every danger.
 

Do you practice quiet time? If yes: what is your practice and how does it help you?

Yes, pretty well every morning, for more than 50 years. A daily reading of some book or text that inspires, encourages, challenges me. Very rare moments of inspiration: the sense that something bigger than me, beyond me, is trying to give me new thoughts, ideas, inspiration. Much more often, a simple sense of the priorities for the day. A friend to be in touch with. A letter or an e-mail to write.
 

What are your best tips and tricks to fight anxiety/loneliness/uncertainty (whichever you struggle most with)?

Think of others, and get back to work.
 

How can we connect with others and support them when we have to barricade ourselves?

Simply connect. What amazing tools we now have, with Skype and Zoom and email and mobile phones.

What made you laugh today?

Not had a laugh yet, today. But there have been plenty of laughs and amusing moments. We’ve learnt that one of our two cats likes to go on walks with us (a 35-minute round in the forest near us). So yesterday, we met and crossed with a family who were absolutely amazed to meet a cat following his masters…
 

How would you (as a person) like to emerge from this crisis?

More at peace with myself and the world. More hopeful for the future of this precious, fragile planet.
 

What are you grateful for?

I am grateful for the IofC ‘slogan’: ‘Building trust across the world’s divides’. I was not a great fan of this phrase when it was introduced. It didn’t, for me, capture the essence of what we are meant to be about. Now I’m much more convinced! Trust is so needed for democracy and for human society to work. And trust is everywhere under attack. Fake news, rumors, lies… So often we hear, ‘They are not telling us the truth… They are hiding things from us… We don’t really know…’ I’m lucky to live in a democracy, with a free press, so yes, I trust our government. I trust Alain Berset, our Minister of Health. I trust the federal government. I trust what they tell me/us. I trust them all the more when they say they don’t know. That we’re all facing a disease and a situation that are new, unexpected. I trust that collectively they and we will learn how we could have done better, and how we can do better the next time – because there probably will be a next time. I trust that I as an individual, that our country, that our continent, that our world, can rely on a greater wisdom and love that can hold us all together, that can bring us into a wider community, where every single person matters, is cherished and respected, and can have a part in building a better future for us all.

Interview by Karina Cheah

The UN’s fourth Sustainable Development Goal is about access to quality education and life-long learning – both essential to bringing positive change into the world.

We are living in times of constant, rapid and profound change, triggered by climate change and digital transformation. To find the right answers to new questions we need to learn more, and maybe differently. Curiosity, creativity and critical thinking are as important as maths, IT, languages skills, etc... We need to be innovative and ingenious to build a just, peaceful and sustainable world for us and our children.

Learning needs well-run education systems, but it comes from inside the human being. It’s fun, but sometimes it’s painful. In preparation for the upcoming Ethical Leadership in Business event in June 2020, we have invited diverse people from around the world to share stories of their learning journeys. These stories offer inspiring insights and invite us to reflect on our education and life-long learning.

‘My Learning Story’ hopes to become a global learning experience, connecting people around the world as they share their stories of what we all do every day: learning to build a brighter future.

Interview with Nazrene Mannie, Executive Director of the Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN)

Nazrene, you are Executive Director of the Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN), a business-driven alliance with the overarching goal to enable work-based learning. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on education and learning... What is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the apprenticeship system?

There is a clear impact on managing and delivering apprenticeships during the current COVID-19 crisis, however GAN Global is encouraged to see the number of solutions and innovations emerging to support apprentices and to continue learning using different formats. We have seen an increase in digital learning, remote learning practices, group and rotational learning as well schemes to protect contracts and stipends. This commitment to continued learning and development is a sign of the value and importance of apprenticeship training.

Apprenticeship is a traditional form to transition from school to work. Is this still a strong learning model in the 21st century?

Apprenticeships have a strong place in societies and communities as a pathway for skills acquisition and career development. While the nature of work will change in the foreseeable future, I firmly believe that there is still a place for the learning and teaching approach that apprenticeships offer, in particular the focus on work based learning, which is a key focus of GAN Global, as a viable solution for creating an adaptable and sustainable workforce that can respond to the 21st century world of work.

How can mature employees be encouraged to engage into work-based learning?

It is essential that all of the workforce, including more mature workers, are given the opportunity to improve their skills based through upskilling, reskilling and new skilling opportunities. An enabling environment that offers such an approach should be centered around work based learning in order to ensure that people have the opportunity to demonstrate their existing skills, knowledge and experience and then build on this base. The key to such an approach is creating a safe and trusted environment, where learning is encouraged and people are recognized for the learning undertaken.

In your opinion, what are the key opportunities to strengthen life-long learning and risks when it comes to online education and training?

Key opportunities that lifelong offers include widening of our knowledge bases, introduction and exposure to new ways of working and thinking, new and innovative approaches to work and the opportunity to grow a career, whether in the same field or the chance to engage in something new. By acknowledging the opportunities, we are then able to ensure that we can build and strengthen access to learning material, open access to courses such as the many MOOCs offered online, recognizing the learning that has been completed, ensuring that proper guidance, including career guidance, is offered to individuals who are interested in taking on new learning opportunities and creating environments where organisations are able to offer access to such learning and where individuals are also motivated to drive their personal learning experience.

While opportunities exist, there are also risks involved and these include access to infrastructure and technology, access to a safe learning space, individuals feeling self-motivated to learn (and not having learning forced on them), It is also important to ensure that skills that are acquired through such learning are recognized during the recruitment and on boarding process and that the learning must have value and currency when applied in practice.

In Switzerland, around 30% of businesses, especially SMEs, cannot find the right talent. Which role can SMEs play in developing the talents they need?

An important factor for GAN Global is working with SMEs to ensure that these organisations have the knowledge, experience and ability to offer training and development opportunities themselves. We are acutely aware that training and development is resource intensive and can often be bureaucratic- it is for this reason that the larger companies are more adept at offering structured T&D. As the GAN, we are working with our partners to create a training methodology that SMEs can apply within their smaller organisations, based on the good practice gleaned from larger companies. This approach will help manage the jobs and skills mismatches that are prevalent in many industries.

GAN is a global network, is work-based learning a concept that is applicable in every societal context?

Through the 15 national networks that GAN Global has, along with the many multinationals and international policy development partners that we work with, it is clear that WBL is seen as a viable methodology and approach to address the skills deficit across different countries, economies and industry sectors. It is an approach that has universal applicability and can be tailored to different contexts and needs.

What do you learn to maintain your employability?

I am constantly reading and engaging with industry leaders, academics and social partners in this space. Lifelong learning is an approach that I firmly believe in and it is one that has helped me continue to maintain by knowledge and understanding in a space that is changing at a very regular pace.

What would you recommend to those struggling to restart learning?

I would suggest starting small by reading at least an article or 2 a day, connecting with individuals in the relevant sector that they are involved and engaging with colleagues on platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter in order to see what the latest developments and updates are in their respective areas of interest. 

What do you want to learn but you haven’t dared yet?

I would like to learn a new skill in the technology space, particularly understanding blockchain better. At the moment, it seems complicated to understand but I need to take my own advice and approach the learning in small chunks and build my knowledge base.

Where does your inner motivation for learning come from?

I have an intrinsic desire to constantly read and learn, since childhood. I am always fascinated by new developments and having worked in many different sectors from banking to manufacturing engineering and it has always been important to keep pace with new innovations and good practice. A key motivation is also wanting to be a good example to those around me- as GAN Global, we constantly encourage our partners to engage and drive work-based learning and it is as important that we must keep pace with the changes ourselves.

What changed for you thanks to what you learned?

I have been able to become a trusted partner to networks, companies and partners in my role as ED at GAN Global and in roles prior to this. I would not have been able to do this if I was not able to demonstrate my own knowledge and understanding of the subject matter that we promote.

Who is your best teacher?

My best teacher has been an approach in life where I have welcomed mentorship, guidance and advice from those around me. I have supplemented this with academic knowledge but some of the best lessons have come from peer to peer engagement, where I have been able to learn from my colleagues and peers.

What did life teach you?

I have learnt that nothing is permanent, life and the world is in a constant state of change and the key to coping and succeeding is being able to constantly learn and improve myself to ensure that I am adaptable and flexible to respond meaningfully to all of life’s experience. 

“Mandela Mile” is an annual observance and global leadership challenge founded in 2018 by Shanthi Annan (daughter in-law of Kofi Annan). It runs between 8 April (Kofi Annan’s birthdate) and 18 July (Nelson Mandela’s birthdate) not only for remembering and celebrating the two legendary leaders but also for globally amplifying the voices of today’s mindful leaders and inspiring each individual to go the extra mile to a freer, fairer and more peaceful world.

This year, the “Mandela Mile Leadership Challenge” and “Caux Peace and Leadership Programme” have collaborated to create a four-month online training initiative for young emerging leaders called the “Mandela Mile Leadership Programme”. The online training focuses on walking the Mandela Mile with the participants by facilitating the skills they need for their individual projects which directly impact their local communities. Most of the 40 inspiring young participants originating from 21 different countries have their roots in Caux. Many of them have either completed the “Caux Peace and Leadership Programme” or were registered for this year’s edition, which has been cancelled due to COVID-19. Despite the pandemic and isolation, they are still able to develop their projects to make a change in their communities and can find support in the online training programme.

During the online launch of the “Mandela Mile Leadership Programme” on 8 April 2020, the participant’s joy to reconnect, enthusiasm to meet new people, getting inspired and sharing stories were heartwarming and could be felt even through the computer screens. These young people are sincerely interested in adapting to the current situation and gaining new leadership skills in order to make a difference.

The projects the participants have chosen for this programme range from planting trees to artistic seminars as well as addressing current human right issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights and poverty through workshops, sessions, awareness raising campaigns and online programmes. Even if every participant’s project is unique, they all aim at working towards one or several Sustainable Development Goals adopted by all United Nations member states in 2015.

The participants will not only be accompanied by professional coaches during the “Mandela Mile Leadership Programme”, but also by “Buddies” (friends who walk alongside them and are readily available to listen to them and support them) as practiced during the “Caux Peace and Leadership Programme”.

We are looking forward to learning and hearing more from these young changemakers and to seeing how their projects grow and bear fruit.

“Action without vision is only passing time, vision without action is merely day dreaming, but vision with action can change the world.” ― Nelson Mandela

Photos 1 and 3: Paula Marianne

Photo 2: IofC Switzerland

Daniel Clements, the coordinator for this year’s Creative Leadership conference, would not have become involved with Initiatives of Change Switzerland without his father, who recommended that he attend last year’s Caux Peace and Leadership Programme (CPLP) in Caux. ‘He thought that I could really get something out of it,’ says Daniel, who comes from Wales and currently works there as a teaching assistant.

The special energy at Caux had a big impact on Daniel and on his ‘self-perception’. He was amazed at how open people could be with each other and wanted the same for himself. A year later, he is still processing the changes he can make to his life, but he says the experience has already helped him to communicate more, to try trusting people and to be more open. ‘It is a journey that I am still exploring,’ he says. ‘But it has freed me to move forward in a way I previously could not.’ 

Before coming to Caux, Daniel had spent seven years volunteering with the air cadets, but recently this had lost its magic for him. ‘It was no longer the place I wanted to be or found a sense of purpose at,’ he explains. He was still struggling to come to terms with this when he came to Caux and saw how much else there was that he could give himself to. After this experience, he recognized that it was time for a change and decided to explore self-expression by becoming more involved with a drama group. ‘It was one of the best decisions I ever made,’ he says. 

Such changes may seem purely personal, but, as Daniel says, ‘the only thing you can truly make a change to is yourself’. Rather than directing you towards the ‘right’ way to do something, he says, the CPLP’s approach to open dialogue and self-reflection allows you to be more honest with yourself and with others. ‘You change how you feel about things and the approach you take to them, which has a more fundamental impact,’ he says. ‘Because you change who you are, you’ll see things in a different way and be able to keep making changes.’ This mindset not only inspired Daniel to make these changes to his personal life, but to become more involved with IofC Switzerland by taking the leadership role in this year’s Creative Leadership conference.

Last year’s CPLP participants launched Creative Leadership (CL), a conference for CPLP alumni with an aim of providing a template for them to develop projects to address local, national, and/or global issues in their communities. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CL has started rethinking how to go online by crafting a more accessible and flexible conference that will include dialogue groups, quiet times, webinars and human libraries. Guided by IofC values, these will lean on sharing experiences as a learning method to maintain as much interaction as possible.

Daniel was excited by the idea of working with other CPLP alumni to create a framework within which they could more easily support one another to create change and has taken a leading role in the new programme. ‘I find so much meaning in working together with incredible people from around the world,’ he says.

By Karina Cheah

The UN’s fourth Sustainable Development Goal is about access to quality education and life-long learning – both essential to bringing positive change into the world.

We are living in times of constant, rapid and profound change, triggered by climate change and digital transformation. To find the right answers to new questions we need to learn more, and maybe differently. Curiosity, creativity and critical thinking are as important as maths, IT, languages skills, etc... We need to be innovative and ingenious to build a just, peaceful and sustainable world for us and our children.

Learning needs well-run education systems, but it comes from inside the human being. It’s fun, but sometimes it’s painful. In preparation for the upcoming Ethical Leadership in Business event in June 2020, we have invited diverse people from around the world to share stories of their learning journeys. These stories offer inspiring insights and invite us to reflect on our education and life-long learning.

‘My Learning Story’ hopes to become a global learning experience, connecting people around the world as they share their stories of what we all do every day: learning to build a brighter future.

Interview with Danièle Castle, Senior Director for Education&Talent at digitalswitzerland

What does lifelong learning look like in practice? How do you organize your #LifelongLearning journey? 

Lifelong learning is about formal and informal learning at whatever age. It is about knowledge and skills and the acquisition of both throughout one’s lifetime. I organize my journey according to intrinsic motivation (what I love to learn and do) and extrinsic (what I need for my work or for future projects).

Our current world is being profoundly affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic. What has the pandemic taught you about yourself so far?

I have learned that I have been well-trained in distance working and in being able to move across tools with more or less ease. I have also learned that is it important to have inner resources to cope with social distancing and self-starting work. These are things that I have learned over the years…

What did you have to learn “over-night” to adapt to the situation created by the pandemic?

To use new digital tools that are relevant to the situation today. I am impressed by the range of creativity deployed by individuals and companies to deal with the situation.

The digitalization of workplaces and homes has been rolled out within 24 hours. What did Swiss businesses need to learn urgently?

Large businesses have been digitalized for a while. The SMEs in Switzerland, which form the backbone of the economy, were by far not digitalized enough. So for example, small shops that did not have a website to order goods from, or did not have a central email for orders, found themselves scrambling to develop a website or fid systems to provide order fulfilment. In the training field, the umbrella federation of adult trainers organized a few seminars online to help adult trainers switch to online training and these were simply oversubscribed and had to be run many more times than anticipated. Swiss businesses now understand that the world has changed and with the challenges ahead will have to adapt to digitalization much faster than anticipated.

What does the digital divide in Switzerland look like? Have you heard of spontaneous initiatives to bridge this divide?

According to Swiss sociologist Luc Vodoz, there are three levels of digital divide. To simplify, the first is access, being able to switch on and off a machine. The second is carrying out simple tasks such as writing an email, surfing the web. The last is advanced use, i.e. the ability to find and interpret information correctly, to work across apps and programmes by applying principles etc. The digital divide affects people all over the world, including Switzerland. Take for example the elderly, who grew up without all this technology. Can they e-bank? Can they e-vote? Many cannot. Swisscom and Pro Senectute are running courses for these populations. Google runs courses for all ages, on privacy, security and such thematics. In schools there is a lot of work being done on fake news and identifying reliable sources of information.

Working effectively from home not only demands digital skills but also the capacity to regulate one’s emotions, to set priorities and to self-motivate. Have you come across any best practices of businesses supporting their employees in becoming better remote workers?

digitalswitzerland’s CEO is currently compiling a series on best practices, which should begin soon. Within our group we have used the time to organize cross-sectional brainstorming sessions, have online coffees, rethink some activities and many companies are doing the same.

What do you think are the major barriers to lifelong learning here in Switzerland?

That is a big question! For some it is time, for some money, for some it is not knowing what to focus on in the light of a career path, for some it is the need for certification…. The barriers are many and varied. However, digitalswitzerland has set up a Boost programme, supported by the Hirschmann Foundation,  to help people access online education and encourage them to use this strange time to perhaps think of following some courses.

In your opinion, how will the concept of lifelong learning evolve due to the COVID-19 pandemic experience?

I truly hope it will, as the economic prognosis looks grim. People will need to upskill, reskill and perhaps requalify and for that lifelong learning is essential.

How does digitalswitzerland support businesses to improve lifelong learning?

digitalswitzerland is an association and has as members large corporations, SMEs, NGOs, academia and cantons. We have launched a national campaign to raise awareness and with the SAV/UPS asked our and their members to sign a pledge committing to devote resources to lifelong learning. We also have a Boost programme currently running to help companies upskill employees. We continue to work on awareness and will also be carrying out a study later this year with several partners to identify what the barriers to lifelong learning are for SMEs in Switzerland.

How do you learn all life long?

The basis is to learn how to learn. This must be practiced in early years, at school and university.

What do you want to learn but haven’t yet dared to?

Medicine – my science and maths were never good enough!

What has life taught you so far?

That is a vast question that may take many hours to answer!  I guess that the most important is to value family and friends, be resilient, keep learning….

Who is your best teacher

My best teachers are my children, sisters, friends and colleagues.

Is there anything you’ve had to unlearn?

Yes lots. Business has changed and therefore so has management. The upcoming generations seek more value-based work, more equal treatment and more work/life balance as a vast generalization.

What lessons have you learnt from failure?

Not to repeat the same mistakes.

What will you do first when confinement is over?

Go for a long mountain hike!

The UN’s fourth Sustainable Development Goal is about access to quality education and life-long learning – both essential to bringing positive change into the world.

We are living in times of constant, rapid and profound change, triggered by climate change and digital transformation. To find the right answers to new questions we need to learn more, and maybe differently. Curiosity, creativity and critical thinking are as important as maths, IT, languages skills, etc... We need to be innovative and ingenious to build a just, peaceful and sustainable world for us and our children.

Learning needs well-run education systems, but it comes from inside the human being. It’s fun, but sometimes it’s painful. In preparation for the upcoming Ethical Leadership in Business event in June 2020, we have invited diverse people from around the world to share stories of their learning journeys. These stories offer inspiring insights and invite us to reflect on our education and life-long learning.

‘My Learning Story’ hopes to become a global learning experience, connecting people around the world as they share their stories of what we all do every day: learning to build a brighter future.

Interview with Mulham Soufi, developper and student at Ecole 42 in Lyon

Mulham, you are a student of computer programming at Ecole 42 in Lyon. This university works differently because you all learn from each other. What is its strength?

Studying at Ecole 42 is very rewarding, because you are not only in the role of recipient but also of giver. So we are not empty vessels to be filled, but can share our experience from the first day. It makes you feel competent, positive and useful. Once you are able to explain something, this shows that you have understood the material.

In addition, the people at this university are very passionate and open. There are only a few individualists. We know each other well, and this creates a good group and work cohesion.

What intrigues me is that you learn like in a video game, except that you yourself are the avatar?

Yes, the structure looks like a video game. You start at level zero and the goal is to reach level 21 (half of 42). Each level is more and more difficult to attain. Your level is visible to all the students enrolled in Ecole 42, whether here in France or around the world. This is motivating.

Where does your inner motivation to learn come from?

When something makes sense to me, then I want to learn it. I want to know how to develop computer tools that can improve the conditions of human life. For example, developing a website for an association makes sense to me.

What are the key competencies for the 21st century?

• Listening to oneself and others
• Encouraging others to do what they love
• Being aware of one's actions

What have you learned from the COVID 19 pandemic experience?

It has given me a lot of perspective. It's an opportunity to understand the economic mechanisms in our societies and what depends on them, to identify weaknesses in our response and potentially offer solutions. This helps me to occupy my mind in these uncertain times.

Who has taught you the most ?

My former employer, who I also consider to be my mentor, because she gave me a lot of self-confidence. Thanks to her, I decided to learn. She explained to me why it's important to learn and to have technical expertise.

What have you learnt from the times you have failed ?

The best lesson I've learned from failure is that it's just one step. It’s not one of two end products: fail or succeed. For example, as a developer, 90 per cent of my time I'm failing. The other 10 per cent I'm just happy to be able to try my programme.

What has life taught you?

Whatever the project, you have to go for it and the safety net will come. You have to trust each other. For example, I didn't know how to skate. One day I was alone in front of an ice rink in a public square. So I tried it. For the past year I've been skating three times a week and I've become pretty good.

You have twice taken part in the Caux Peace and Leadership (CPLP) programme. What did you learn?

I learned to take an interest in others. You meet people with very different challenges. Through their stories, you want to get involved in global issues: peace, the fourth industrial revolution, the environment, and so on.

Our team together with the international IofC Network is working hard to give you an online 2020 Caux Forum, trying to get you as close as possible to the “Caux experience”.

Although we will not be able to meet in Caux on top of a Swiss mountain this summer, we look forward to meeting online and continuing to provide a platform to inspire, equip and connect innovators, changemakers and peacebuilders from across the globe. We hope that this transformation will provide an opportunity to connect people on a wider scale and therefore make it even more inclusive.

“Shaping the future together”

The overall theme of the 2020 Caux Forum stays more relevant than ever in these times where the #newnormal is being redefined. Now is the time to join our heads, hands and hearts, to truly build the future we want together. Just as in 1946, when 99 families and individuals decided to buy the extraordinary Caux Palace to provide it as a platform to change the world, we have the opportunity this year not to be attached to a single place, but to build, strengthen and develop a global community of changemakers with a continuous online platform. Conversations will be able to keep going, initiatives accompanied while actions are being concretized and followed up on.  

Get engaged

Help us make the digital Caux Forum a success by sharing information to your network, sending us ideas or issues you think we should address and lastly but also importantly by making a donation. By supporting the Caux Forum as a platform, you are supporting changemakers worldwide.

Stay tuned!

We look forward to rich conversations, out of the box ideas, concrete proposals and outcomes that will make this world a more just, peaceful and sustainable place to live in.

We are still working on the exact dates and details, but the events will likely take place this summer. More information coming soon- stay tuned! 

The Caux Forum Team

On 1 April 2020, Rainer Gude and Stephanie Buri became co-Directors General of Initiatives of Change (IofC) Switzerland, after a two-month handover process with the outgoing Secretary General, Barbara Hintermann. Rainer has been Strategic Partnerships Manager of IofC Switzerland since 2018, having started work with IofC international in 2012. Stephanie has been Director of Communications and Knowledge Management with IofC Switzerland since 2014.

Like so many institutions launched after World War II, IofC Switzerland is at a turning point, looking for new ways of operating in order to continue our mission of addressing the world’s needs whilst maintaining financial sustainability. For the sake of continuity in a time of change, our Council has decided to opt for an internal collaborative appointment to succeed Barbara Hintermann.

‘In midst of all the troubles of this spring some very positive things have happened around us,’ says the President of IofC Switzerland, Christine Beerli. ‘Barbara Hintermann, who for five years showed us what strong ethical leadership means in practice, was elected Director General of Terre des Hommes Switzerland. We are sad to lose her but also happy to see her move on in such an ideal direction. Thank you, Barbara, for everything you did for us – we will miss you!

‘It’s also very positive that we were able to find her replacement amongst our colleagues internally. Stephanie Buri and Rainer Gude are young, polyglot and motivated professionals who know the IofC movement well. I am looking forward to our collaboration, as they and the Council lead IofC Switzerland into the future.’

The co-leadership model is new for IofC Switzerland, although we have been promoting the concept that ‘we are all leaders’ for years. Co-directorship is a growing trend amongst non-profits, businesses and political parties and has been shown to increase productivity, team collaboration, coordination and innovation.

Stephanie and Rainer say that they knew there would be challenges when they accepted this new task together, but they did not expect a world-wide health crisis to be one of them.

‘With COVID-19, this is a pretty peculiar time to take on the lead of an organization,’ says Stephanie. ‘Amongst all the uncertainty, the co-leadership model has already been a real strength and support. The collaborative approach – not just between the two of us, but also with our team, Council and network – brings out the best in us and leaves space for creativity, honest feedback and adaptability. “Be the change you want to see in the world” has never been more relevant. We are looking forward to what lies before us.’

Rainer adds, ‘Our first major action, besides trying to care for our team, has been to adapt to COVID-19. This has meant getting our whole team safe in their homes and able to work remotely, and, of course, drastically transforming our summer programme, the Caux Forum. This was not a small to-do list for our first few weeks! We can only give a huge thank you to our team, our Council and Barbara who have supported us tremendously in this transition.’

Rainer and Stephanie bring a variety of experience to their new shared role.

Rainer has worked for IofC since 2012, first as Chargé de Mission for IofC International and then, since 2018, as Strategic Partnerships Manager for IofC Switzerland. He grew up in New York, with a Spanish father and a German mother, and is a talented public speaker, moderator and facilitator. With a Masters in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute in Geneva, he speaks five languages and has built up an extensive international network.

Stephanie has led IofC Switzerland’s Communications Department since 2014. She had her first experience of co-leadership when she co-led the international brand refresh of Initiatives of Change in 2018. She grew up in France, with a Swiss mother and American father. She has a Masters in Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies from KU Leuven in Belgium and has studied, lived and worked in nine countries. She is fluent in four languages.

If open communication is the secret of successful co-leadership, they joke, their backgrounds give them a head start: ‘We have four different languages to speak to one another in, so no excuse for not understanding each other.’

What is their vision for the future of IofC Switzerland?

‘As we develop IofC Switzerland’s strategy for 2021-2024, we really want to focus on the collective wisdom of the team and our network,’ they say. ‘With all the uncertainty around the world and at home, we feel that IofC’s message is more relevant than ever. Inspiring, equipping and connecting changemakers to be the change they want to see in the world will continue to drive us. Together with our network, partners and all others working for change, we feel that we can seize the hidden opportunities that COVID-19 is giving us to make important changes that our world desperately needs.  We may not know the exact way to get there yet, but we know the starting point is within each one of us. We are excited to take this next step together with our great team.’

Photo top: Group picture in Caux of some members of the group developing the new 2021-2024 strategic framework for IofC Switzerland. Picture taken February 2020. 

Photo in text: Rainer and Stephanie before social distancing had been the new norm.