Ep 40 - The Southern Initiative and The Power of Community-Led, with Gael Surgenor

 

Introducing Gael Surgenor

How do we continue to take an experimental approach while working on opportunities that are looking 30 years into the future?

What if you find yourself in an existing program of work that has stalled?

Resetting existing work has been a bit of a theme for Gael Surgenor throughout her career. When things are a bit murky, nobody quite knows what to do. And those are ideal conditions for innovation.

The Southern Initiative has been Gael’s playground over the last seven years, and in this episode she delves into the mindsets that have helped her to shape and approach this long-term project.

She’s found it helpful to treat her work as a short-term gig so she feels free to experiment. Plus she has continued to think of her work in the public sector as “working for community” to remind herself of who she is truly serving.

If you’re feeling disheartened by your current work or questioning your long-term impact, this episode is for you.

In today’s episode you’ll learn:

  • That leaders need to be space-makers, not space-takers

  • The differences between the planning approach and the living systems approach (and why planning is not enough)

  • How social entrepreneurial skills can help to move a project forward and why it’s important to seek those skills out.

  • How using what you already have can be more effective than starting new.

Resources mentioned in this episode

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