Reflections from Net2 Global Leadership Working Sessions

As part of the Global Leadership Council of NetSquared, I participated in the working sessions which were hosted by TechSoup Global at San Francisco from March 28 to April 2.

The objectives of the working sessions were to: 

• Set a global vision for NetSquared meetups
• Share best practices on how to hold successful NetSquared meetups
• Think of ways to better link the online and the offline activities of NetSquared meetups

The sessions were attended by some remarkable people from around the world who are connected with the NetSquared community in one way or the other. Here are some of the folks who attended:

• Rebecca Masisak,  Daniel Ben-Horin and Marnie Webb who are all Co-CEOs of TechSoup Global
• Billy Bicket, Marc Ross Manashil, Claire Sale, Anna Kuliberda and Alicja Peszkowska who are all from the NetSquared Team and you can read more about them here
• Ivan Boothe, Eduardo Bejar, Aysegul Guezel and others who represented their NetSquared local meetup groups from Philadelphia, Ecuador, Instanbul and other cities around the world

As we had discussions about the vision of NetSquared meetups, I felt the need to raise some important discussion points for the members of the Global Leadership Council to consider.

Here are some of those questions:

• Is NetSquared a party, a protest or a parade? (Earth Hour is a party in which everyone who cares about climate change can participate by switching lights off. Greenpeace is more of a protest where activists unfurl signs in front of evil corporations and demand immediate action. Dosometing.org seems to be like a parade where it is up to the teens to decide how they want to take part in social change, both protesters and green party goers can join the parade)
• In order to take NetSquared to the next level of prominence, we need to find what lies at it’s ISO intersection
• Finally, how do we measure success at NetSquared? Let’s remind ourselves of the two timeless adages “What gets measured, gets done” and “What you do not measure, you cannot control”

We made good progress on meeting the objectives of the working sessions however, we will only know if we have done a good job once we start measuring results of the strategy at ground zero.

At the end of the sessions, Ivan sent an email with the subject – “We plant seeds”. In his email he shared a quote that is attributed to Archbishop Óscar Romero, although there's some debate about whether he actually ever spoke it, and there are multiple versions with similar words.

“This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capability. 

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.”

After reading the email from Ivan, I was reminded of a chat I had with Felix Finkbeiner (Founder of Plant for the Planet) who I met in Singapore a month back (yes, Felix is the 13-year-old boy who has the world planting trees). And his message for changemakers like us around the world is very clear... STOP TALKING. START PLANTING.