How to generate collective power through the sheer act of listening

After attending the Global Presencing Forum (GPF) in 2014, Celine shares a number of lessons that we as Future Considerations practice in order to have greater impact in what we do at work and beyond work. Here is the fourth in our series of six.

During the GPF we heard many ‘stories from the field’ of real people achieving transformational change in their parts of the world. One of the stories was that of Kang Yoto the leader of Bojonegoro province in Indonesia. He was a teacher with political ambitions but no money to fund an electoral campaign in a political system where power equated to money, and where influence was bought with bribes. The only resource that he had was his ability to sit with the people in the villages and listen to them (as opposed to telling them his political manifesto). The villagers shared their own political agenda and he became their leader securing the popular vote and winning the election against all odds.

One of the key question we ask participants in our leadership programmes is: “Whom must you go and listen to in order to bring about the changes you want to see?”

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