My summer work at the Presencing Institute

Through all my social impact work over the past 5 years, whether in the education, food, health, or sustainability sector, the common thread I have seen is a need for (1) a more systemic, cross-institutional way of thinking in order to address the fundamental root problems in these systems and (2) local and decentralized leadership capacity that allows leaders to identify potential for innovation, and to act on it. There is a lack of leadership capacity on the ground to work across sectors. I have learned that we cannot address the challenges just by focusing on one sector.  What is required is the capacity to collaborate across sectors, and to create projects and innovations that focus on multi-sector innovation capacity.

Through a course called “Leading in a Profound Sustainable World” at MIT in fall 2010, I was introduced to the Presencing Institute and became immediately inspired and interested in their work on ecosystem change to address the world’s largest social problems.

The Presencing Institute (PI) is a global network of change makers that seek to initiate profound societal innovation and change. PI focuses on advancing social technologies and leadership skills, and making them available to change makers, innovators, and communities around the world to address the root causes of the current economic, ecological, social, and spiritual crisis. Over the past 5 years, PI has created a global network of advanced practitioners, and built cross-sector innovation processes that address social and environmental challenges in, among others, major global companies (Nissan, BASF, BP,Shell) NGOs (WWF, Oxfam, Red Cross) and multi-lateral organizations (GIZ, UN).   PI also aims at creating local platforms that connect change makers and leverage their work.

This year, the Presencing Institute launched a new project to create a shared cross-institutional learning and leadership platform—and a network of places—that allows for learning and capacity-building across institutional boundaries. This innovation and leadership platform called g.school aims at creating a globally networked and regionally grounded innovation ecology that consistently generates the following five types of outcomes:

1. Vibrant Living Prototypes
2. Leadership Capacity Building for local change makers
3. Cross-Institutional Platforms for Innovation
4. Knowledge Tools for Change Makers
5. Core Group of Reflective Practitioners and Thought Leaders

My summer internship working on the g.school project with PI is a perfect synergy of my intellectual interests and my passion to help addressing the social and environmental challenges especially in non-industrialized countries. I am already intrigued by the emergence of a powerful network of such leaders and their institutions. My goal is that my work for PI will also leverage the earlier work I have done especially in India. Looking forward to more updates here in the coming weeks!

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