Moving From Collaborative Leadership to Collaborative Action
2015 Aspen Action Forum
It’s fitting that the theme of this year’s Action Forum is collaborative leadership. Recent events have shown that now, more than ever, we must find ways to channel our talents, resources, and passions towards working collectively on the challenges we see around us. When we do, we act as catalysts for change and the result is real life alchemy. Just look at these examples from around the Aspen Global Leadership Network:
- When Henry Crown Fellow Jay Coen Gilbert wanted to amplify the voice of the socially and environmentally-responsible business sector, he teamed up with longtime friends and Henry Crown Fellows Andrew Kassoy and Bart Houlahan to start B Lab. Now nine years later, B Lab is changing the way businesses see themselves and their responsibilities to the world, and benefitting from the involvement of nearly thirty Aspen Global Leadership Network Fellows along the way.
- When Central America Leadership Initiative Fellow Juan Carlos Paiz met India Leadership Initiative Fellow Manoj Kumar during their Leading in the Age of Globalization seminar in India, it was their connection that spurred Juan Carlos to find new ways to tackle malnutrition in Guatemala. Learning from Manoj’s success in achieving similar goals in India, Juan Carlos raised more than $8.4 billion (yes, that’s right, billion) that’s towards eradicating malnutrition and improving infrastructure in his country.
- And last month, when the world’s attention turned to the tragic shooting at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, it was members of the Liberty Fellowship who led the charge to unify the state.
As you make connections with each other this week, I encourage you to help one another think through what it means to be collaborative. How can we begin to think of ourselves and our actions as interconnected and interdependent? Whose shoulders do you stand on and who will stand on yours? How can we come together as leaders to help build the Good Society?
Many thanks to this year’s Aspen Action Forum sponsors, especially Lynda and Stewart Resnick, whose continued generosity make this convening possible. If leadership is a team sport, then the Action Forum is our training camp. Have a great week here in Aspen. I’ll see you on the mountain top.
Peter Reiling
Executive Vice President, Leadership and Seminar Programs
The Aspen Institute
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