Lucinda Garthwaite
She/Her
"There is just no more time for rigid thinking. We will only see the backside of this moment if we do things differently."
Resilience
I reset with a combination of connection and quiet – a meaningful conversation with a close colleague or friend, sitting quietly with only the sounds around me for company. If my overwhelm is long and deep, I know to stop for a day or two and focus on something hands-on or helping a neighbor or friend. I support others by earnestly seeking to understand how they recharge, and encouraging them to do so. When they require material support to recharge, I do all in my power to provide it, including sharing work, creating time off, collaborating with them (if they want me to!) to identify resources.
Purpose-Driven
Several years ago I left an institution after 17 years and wondered what to do next. I chose the financially risky, but deeply aligned path of founding the Institute for Liberatory Innovation. I decided to do that with others, and to stay open to its emerging purpose and future. That decision has changed the way I walk through the world as a writer, leader and activist. My colleagues and I at the ILI have aligned our personal practices, leadership, and even paradigms of social change with our emerging understanding of what drives liberation in organizations, schools and purposeful communities. Our impact partners report sustained, and durable change defined by more people thriving, and behaving in ways that make it possible for others to thrive.
Developmental Leadership
I have for a very long time begun with some version of the question, what do you hope to do with your life, and this work and how can I support you in that? Then I collaborate with people I lead to identify learning resources, opportunities and next steps to move them in their chosen direction. One of my favorite examples of this effort is inviting younger people to join me in building in building systems or new strategies for change, or to step into leadership themselves. I learn, the project benefits from their perspective, and they add experience and skills to move them in the direction they want to go.
Intersectionality
What comes to mind -(aside from social identities, and there's far too much to say about that here!) is the tension between being a manager and a worker advocate. Navigating that one has led me to understand managerialism as an ideological stance, not a necessary strategy for pursuing an organization mission, and to separate leadership from management. I've found that leadership –synthesizing perspectives to identify a way forward, encouraging others success, sharing knowledge and power, respecting complexity, practicing mutual accountability and building systems to support it often renders traditional management unnecessary.
Future Facing Legacy
I have, in recent years, intentionally focused on advancing the paradigm of liberatory systems change, and personal practices hat drive it. In as many ways as I can I have asked: how does my behavior promote change that’s defined by more people thriving in ever more peace? That’s a focus derived from years of mistakes and missteps, benefiting from mentorship and collaborations, and focused learning. I hope this focus will keep me moving forward with increasing integrity. I hope those around me experience my behavior as liberatory; I hope we learn together how to do social change differently.