In November 2014, Melanie Miller Garrett and Lars Dietzel represented the Melton Foundation at the International Civic Society Week in Johannesburg, South Africa.
They were earlier selected to be a part of DEEEP Concorde’s leadership development course called “Explorers’ Journey for Systemic Change: Tackling Root Causes”. In that capacity, they participated in the summit ”Towards a world citizens movement: Learning from the grassroots.” The summit brought together grassroots activists/campaigners to exchange ideas and contacts in order to challenge worldviews and share insights from the ground.
A world citizens’ movement, activated by a ‘compass’ of shared reflection and mutual inquiry seems more in tune with my feelings about what needs to happen. By a compass, I mean a technique that facilitates local practices of inquiry, an unfurling of questions, a reluctance to govern or impose standards, a willingness to observe and listen to circles of renewal and their explorations of how to live life more fascinatingly, a scaled down trans-local sharing of plural wisdoms. (…) A compass reinforces the wisdom of localization, and restores the confidence that people themselves –not their representatives, not lobbyists, not agencies, not policies, and certainly not corporations – can be social actors, not merely social outcomes.
– Dr. Bayo Akomolafe, Covenant University, Nigeria & keynote speaker at Global Summit
DEEEP’s portrait of process and outcomes of the summit.
The second part of the “Explorer’s Journey” comprised of an experience-based two-day program to tackle important questions around value-based leadership and to apply change-thinking systemically. The turbulent history of South Africa and the many artifacts speaking of exemplary leadership provided an experience-frame that allowed the participants to go beyond the surface and to tackle root causes.
Following the conference, Melanie and Lars had the opportunity to visit like-minded organizations, partners, and friends of the Melton Foundation – like the African Leadership Academy and the Bertha Center for Social Innovation in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Find out about the conference in more details here, and take a look at the picture-diary of Mel and Lars on Facebook.