Common Purpose - Leadership News

The second Dishaa Venture took place at the beginning of December 2011, bringing together emerging leaders from the UK and India who gathered in London to tackle the challenge:

"Unique carbon cutting measures are happening locally in India and the UK. How do we accelerate and multiply our actions to reduce carbon emissions by 50% in the next five years".

Initially daunted by the prospect of building low carbon futures, they finished with six highly innovative, exciting and usable models. The participants are continuing to develop and refine these models, and hope to be able to prototype some of their ideas in 2012. The feedback has been glowing, replicating the success of the first Dishaa Venture.

"Dishaa was a truly life changing experience, one that I suspect I will look back on as being defining" said Maghin Tamilarasan, Director of Strategic Development, Rolls-Royce plc, India.

The third Dishaa Venture will take place in Bangalore, India in November 2012.

Six new Ventures are planned for 2012. They include:

Dao Xiang (London-Shanghai) May 2012, London
Itijah (European Cities-Arab Cities) 23 - 26 April 2012, Abu Dhabi
Yon (UK-Turkey) Summer 2012, tbc
Dou Heung (Scotland-Hong Kong) Summer 2012, tbc
Phambili (UK-South Africa) Summer 2012, tbc
Kompas (Hungary-Czech Republic-Slovakia-Poland-Romania) Summer 2012, tbc

For more information about Dishaa or any of our other Ventures, contact Senior Course Director Amy Ritman.

The final report from the first Common Purpose Dishaa Venture, "Heart Surgery for $1,000", has been published.

In it the participants, 20 from the UK and 20 from India, set out their findings, models and recommendations for tackling the challenge of lowering the costs of heart surgery to just $1,000. The group gathered in Pune, India in February 2011 and have been working on their models since.

Read the final report from the first Dishaa Venture, "Heart Surgery at $1,000":

Visit the Dishaa web pages for further information.

The challenge for the next group of Dishaa Venture participants has been announced:

"Unique carbon cutting measures are happening locally in India and the UK. How do we accelerate and multiply our actions to reduce carbon emissions by 50% in the next five years?"

On each Common Purpose Venture participants will be presented with a challenge to explore. They will investigate the challenge locally, and work together to come up with ideas and recommendations. Each year a different challenge will be selected for that year's participants to investigate.

The Challenge will be set by the Advisory Group in advance of the event and must be:

• A compelling issue for leaders that is common to both locations.
• Significant and wide-reaching in its impact but contained in its focus to ensure the participant group can explore and present feasible and meaningful solutions.

During the four day event, participants will investigate the challenge locally, and work together to come up with ideas and recommendations. Each year another challenge will be selected for that year's participants to investigate.

Read more...

Our Young Million campaign, to provide leadership development opportunities to young unemployed people in the UK, was featured on the BBC News on 12 October in relation to the latest UK unemployment figures which were released that morning.

A participant on our workshop in Teesside was interviewed, and this was broadcast on BBC Breakfast - you can watch the video on the BBC website. Our campaign also features on the news at 1pm, 6pm and 10pm.

BBC Chief Economics Correspondent Hugh Pym also visited our workshop in Teesside - you can read his subsequent article on the BBC website.

There are many initiatives that exist to help young unemployed people find work, but few that offer them the develepment opportunities they would have received were they in work. We are delighted that this important issue, and our campaign to help it, has received the coverage it deserves.

What do you see?

We all have a unique way we look at the world, but does our viewpoint restrict our belief in our ability to make a difference?

Common Purpose encourages people to take responsibility for leading change in their organisation or in the wider society, but the first step is to make a personal change by challenging the way you look at the world.

The 360 Day is an invitation on 10 October each year to anyone, anywhere, to do just that - an action, big or small, that challenges the way they see the world. We encourage people to visit our website www.commonpurpose360.org to find inspiration and inspire others by recording the action they plan to take on 10 October.

Get involved today!

Dr. Konstantin Mettenheimer elected as Chair of Common Purpose Germany

Partner and former Global Chair of international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is new Chair of the Board.

Read more...

Following the success of Dishaa, our initiative which brought together leaders from the UK and India, Common Purpose has launched Ventures.  

Ventures connect future leaders, across the world, to tackle challenges which are common and compelling, and big (enough to be worth the effort) and small (enough to be grasped).

Ventures encourage participants to work in new directions to develop innovative approaches to new (and old) problems, which is why the names of all our Ventures mean "direction" in different languages. Participants will present their findings to many different audiences over the year following the Venture.

Find out more and get involved at www.commonpurpose.org/ventures.

A great post which provides a fascinating insight into the innovation process the participants went through on our recent Dishaa course has been posted by Yann Cramer on the InnovToday blog.

His blog features "weekly stories and insights from planet innovation".

Take a look at http://innovtoday.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/to-forge-the-uncreated-in-the-smithy-of-my-soul/

The first Common Purpose Dishaa event has been taking place in Pune, India this week with 40 participants from the UK and India. This year, the group has been set the challenge of figuring out what healthcare reforms would make heart surgery possible for only $1,000 USD. Over the course of the last few days participants have been sharing their thoughts, insights and experiences as they tackle the challenge in a variety of ways.

To hear from the participants themselves, have a look at the links below:

• Rosie Walford has been sharing her experience on the Common Purpose Blog.
• Participants have been recording their experiences via flipcam throughout the course. Have a look on Common Purpose Vimeo.
• Seema Malhotra has been sharing her experiences of each day via Seema's Webspace
• Photographs capturing their experience have been (and will continue to be) added to Flickr.

Participants and many others have been sharing discussion around #dishaa or you can read the tweets from individual participants:

• @3become1 (William Wong): The #NHS may not be perfect, but when compared with India, we should drive process innovation and cultural (R)evolution. #dishaa
• @Alison Dixey: Is it okay that a cardiac unit is empty apart from doctors and nurses because the indian population cannot afford to pay for it? #dishaa
• @RichardAlderson: "I believe we can change the world if we start listening to one another again." - Margaret Wheatley #dishaa "Fail often to succeed sooner." - IDEO #dishaa
• @dave__spencer: Perfect your technique and put yourself in the place of most potential. Take yourself beyond just getting it right. #dishaa
• @andre_campbell: Exciting to know @Number10gov is discussing NHS PPP's simultaneously as #dishaa. Execution is always critical - http://bbc.in/hagKVW

The forty successful applicants for the Dishaa leadership initiative - first launched by British Prime Minister, David Cameron - were announced today.

From 30 January to 3 February 2011, the 40 talents from the private, public and not-for-profit sector in the UK and India will participate in the UK-India leadership development initiative, which will enhance bilateral relations between the two countries. Participants in the first Dishaa initiative will develop models for innovation under the guidance of Martin Kalungu-Banda in Pune, India. The individuals in question have been set the challenge by Dr. Devi Shetty to determine what systemic change would be required to make heart surgery at $1,000 USD a possibility.

The 40 leaders who will take part in the first Dishaa initiative are:

From India:

• Richard Alderson, Co-Founder, UnLtd India
• Ramnath Ballala, Senior Partnerships Manager, Karuna Trust
• Pekham Basu, Senior Social Worker, Resource Centre on Interventions on Violence Against Women, Tata Institute Of Social Sciences
• Rakesh Bhutoria, Managing Director & Head - Local Corporates, India, Standard Chartered Bank
• Raj Gilda, Co-Founder, Lend-A-Hand India
• Meera G. Harish, Head, Retail L&D, Innovation Council Steering Committee, Titan Industries Ltd
• Rupa Jha, Desk Editor, BBC World Service
• Sanjeev Khaira, Managing Director, UBM India Pvt. Ltd
• Ruchi Khemka, Vice-President, SevaYatra Edutrips India Pvt. Ltd.
• Amit Kothari, Head Treasury Mid Office, Barclays Bank Plc
• Rishi Pathania, Manager - Community Development, Tata Chemicals Ltd.
• Manivannan Ponniah, Managing Director, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM)
• Vandana Saxena Poria, CEO, Get Through Guides Pvt. Ltd
• Tripti Singh, Senior Practice Consultant, Tata Management Training Centre
• Harit Soni, Founder/Director, Ecolibrium Energy
• Vishal Talreja, Co-founder and Executive Director, Dream-A-Dream
• Sreeja V N, Lead Entrepreneur, Mayflower Media House
• Prem Yadav, Founding Director, Sanchar InfoTech Pvt. Ltd

From the United Kingdom:

• Heather Barrett, Senior Partnerships Manager, The Open University
• Soma Bhowmick, Development Consultant, Freelance
• Katherine Bryant, Support Manager (Governance), Groundwork UK
• Andre Campbell, Director, Enfuse Youth Ltd
• Alison Dixey, Operations Director, British Red Cross
• Susie Hargreaves, Chief Executive, Society of Dyers & Colourists (SDC)
• Lynn Henni, Head of International Strategy, Senior Principal, The Scottish Government
• Parmod Kumar Garg, Director, Trade Sales Origination, Cash and Trade, Barclays Corporate, Barclays Bank Plc
• Vanessa Jardine, Superintendent, Greater Manchester Police
• Daniel Knight, Managing Director, International Treasury, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Seema Malhotra, Management Consultant, Self Employed
• Harry Miskin, Consultant, Bell Pottinger Sans Frontieres
• Nitin Premchandani, Assistant Director, PwC
• Louise Quy, Senior Manager Assurance, PwC
• Ganesh Ram, Manager, PwC
• Balraj Singh Rai, Chair, Institute of Healthcare Management, W.Mids Regional Council
• David Spencer, Staff Officer to the President, Association of Chief Police Officers
• Claire Tulloch, Managing Director, UBM Conferences Europe
• Rosie Walford, Owner and Director, Big Stretch Ltd
• Louise Warde Hunter, Strategic Director Children's Services, Scotland and Northern Ireland, Action for Children
• Oli Wilkinson, Strategy Consultant, PwC
• William Wong, Chief Executive, 3become1

Find out more about Dishaa