Commonwealth100 Offline (Version 1.

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Commonwealth100
The Open Source Leadership Course

Offline Version

British Council - Bangladesh Bank of Zambia The Scottish Government Year Of Young People

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Table of Contents

Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………………….. 3
Video: Welcome to Open Source Leaders
Article: About Commonwealth100

Module 1: Interconnected …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….… 5

Article: Creating and breaking out of boundaries
Exercise: The importance of being Interconnected
Video: Being outward-facing leaders
Exercise: How interconnected are you?

Module 2: Accessible …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………………… 9

Article: Respect, hierarchy, and authority
Exercise: Sources of authority

Module 3: Awake ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……….……..11

Article: Inclusive environments and difficult situations
Video: What can we do as young leaders?
Exercise: Position statements

Module 4: Trustworthy ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 14

Article: If you stand for nothing, what do you fall for?
Video: Building trust in working relationships
Exercise: Your leadership style in three words
Exercise: Storyboarding

Module 5: Quick …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….… 19

Article: Adapting to Artificial Intelligence
Video: Opportunity and change
Exercise: Big changes

Conclusion: Into the World and Next Steps ……………………………………………………………………………..….. 22

Activity: Open Source Leadership in the World
Video: Next steps

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Introduction: Welcome to Open Source Leaders

In this video, Megha Harish, Lead Facilitator of the Commonwealth100 programme, discusses the
creation process of the Open Source Leadership Model and the Commonwealth100 programme:.

“The world today has complex problems. We need new leadership-- and leadership skills-- to ad-
dress these complex problems. In 2017 we spoke to 1000 people from across the Commonwealth
and asked the question, “What leaders does the Commonwealth need in the 21st century?” We col-
lected the responses we got and co-created a new model for leadership: the Open Source Leader-
ship model. We hope that through this course you are able to build on the model, add to it, re-
flect on how it may be a useful framework for you, and take it with you at the end of this course.

There are five spokes to Open Source Leadership. The first is being Interconnected. We’re in such
an interconnected world; we’re able to communicate with each other so quickly but how do we
really utilize those connections? How do we solve common problems? As we become more inter-
connected how do we help each other?

The second is being Accessible. As I spoke to more young people across the Commonwealth, I felt
we had a common experience of not being able to address hierarchy, of struggling with authority,
and of not being listened to. This is why I think it’s important in the 21st century that we be acces-
sible leaders.

The third is being Trustworthy. We see that trust in institutions is falling. We don’t want to talk
abstractly about trust and say we’re going to rebuild trust; we really want to put the onus on our-
selves to be trustworthy and project that trustworthiness to others. That’s Trustworthy.

Then we have Awake. To be awake to intolerance as a leader you need to not only know what’s
going on, you need to listen to the experiences of other people and to build that into your ac-
tions.

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And finally Quick. We know how rapidly technology is moving. It’s changed completely since the
time we were born to now. It’s a completely different situation and I think we need to capitalize
on the environment that we’re in. We need to adapt to it quickly and be flexible. We need to be
able to lead change and not be afraid of it. Those are the facets of Open Source Leadership.

We hope that through this course you’ll get the opportunity to engage with each of these sec-
tions in greater detail through videos, articles, and exercises. You’ll have the opportunity to re-
flect on your own leadership and how your experience may have shaped your opinions on these
issues. But more importantly you will have the opportunity to engage with peers from across the
Commonwealth. We’re going to have young people from all 53 member states sharing. I hope
we’re able to listen to each other, share our experiences with each other, and build on this Open
Source Leadership model together. We hope that Commonwealth100 provides you the oppor-
tunity to do that.”

About Commonwealth100 and Open Source Leadership

Commonwealth100 is a free, online, crowd-sourced course about Open Source Leadership. We
started Commonwealth100 by bringing together over 1000 young people to co-create a new
Guiding Model for leadership. We shared stories, experiences and opinions on what had shaped
our lives so far and what we thought were the defining features shaping our world today. On the
basis of these, we developed the Open Source Leadership model. This is the offline version of the
course, but you can register for the online course at commonpurpose.org/commonwealth100. If
you complete the online course you will receive an Open Source Leadership badge for your CV
and online profiles as a record of your achievement.

How will this course work?

This course takes you through each of the five traits of Open Source Leadership, helping you re-
flect on their value and employ them in your own leadership style. There are guiding questions,
articles, video transcripts, exercises, and reflection questions that will help you along these
goals.

An essential part of learning from this course is dialogue with your peers. On the online version of
Commonwealth100, we encourage participants to exchange ideas and respond to each other on
the online platform. For this offline version, we encourage you to have these conversations in-
stead with your peers, family, colleagues, community members, and other people around you.

We’re keen to have Commonwealth100 be shaped not just by the voices of those young people
who were instrumental in designing the Guiding Model and testing the online programme, but
also by you. You have the opportunity to share what you think Open Source Leadership is and
can be. Your feedback helps us continue to develop the Open Source Leadership model and im-
prove the Commonwealth100 course!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the course facilitator, Megha Harish,
at megha.harish@commonpurpose.org.

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Module 1: Interconnected
Guiding Question: How can we lead across boundaries?

Article: Creating and breaking out of boundaries

During the initial Commonwealth100 conversations, when thinking about how the 21st century is
different from the past, the one response that always came up was how our world is shrinking. We
are closer to each other than ever before, with the immense progress that has been made in com-
munication and transport. As the world shrinks and we become more and more connected with
each other, we also naturally become more aware of the similarities and differences of our experi-
ences. While neither migration nor international co-operation are new concepts, political, eco-
nomic, and ecological actions in one location now have a greater impact on people across the
world.

What does this mean for our leadership?

Many successful leaders learn to lead in roles or circumstances where they have clear authority:
they have a budget, accountability, and a team of people whose job it is to support them. The re-
sult of this leadership model, however, is that many organizations operate in silos: with each divi-
sion or department looking upwards and seldom sideways at issues that cross the verticals. You
may even find this at universities for example, where departments operate very independently
and seldom engage in horizontal exchange with each other, despite multiple possibilities of over-
lap. Interdisciplinary learning can often get forgotten or dismissed in this environment.

Organizations now need leaders to see across the whole organization and make the sum of the
parts greater than the whole. They need leaders who understand the value of networks which ex-
tend far beyond the traditional confines – and, more importantly, know how to lead them. Op-
portunities (and threats) will not come neatly packaged to fit the department, or division, or sec-
tor, or culture, or even country into which we have arranged ourselves. They will cross boundaries
and come through walls – and leaders need to be able to do this too.

It does not stop at organizations. Society needs leaders who can overcome the silo problem inside
their organization – and then move across different spheres of activity outside it and connect
them too. This requires leaders who are prepared to challenge the “leave it be” culture; leaders
who can take responsibility for problems other than their own, both within organizations and in
society at large; leaders who can still lead when their legitimacy is constantly challenged.

In order to do this well, leaders need to lead peers, partners and stakeholders - and in doing so
they may find that the skills that initially brought them success may not be enough. To operate
effectively, they need a different approach to leadership — they need to be Open Source Lead-
ers.

It’s not about having authority but choosing not to use it; it’s about having no authority at all (and
sometimes less than that). It’s about earning legitimacy with ideas that resonate – and an ap-
proach to leadership that means people end up willingly granting authority to you. This is a partic-

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ularly relevant trait for leaders who seek to be interconnected and forge networks and connec-
tions that will allow them to solve common problems.

Reflection Question: What opportunities do you see in the professional world or sector that you
want to enter that will require you to work across boundaries?

Exercise: The importance of being Interconnected

Leaders can operate in three different spaces or ‘circles’ – the inner circle - where they have per-
sonal authority, the first outer circle - their organization as a whole where they might have less
authority and the outermost circle - in society, where they may have no authority whatsoever.
Success in one circle is by no means an indicator of success in another. Those who are successful
in their inner circle, where their authority is clearly defined and rarely questioned, eventually may
need to venture into the outer circles. Here they will find that in order to make things happen
they will have to rely on their capacity to persuade and their ability to form networks and coali-
tions. They will also have to adjust to new ways of working. They may find they have to become
better and working with other people and may even have to adopt new approaches and methods
in the way they lead.

Reflection Question: What do these circles represent in your life? How could you lead outside
your inner circle?

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Video: Being outward-facing leaders

In this video, Michelle Ash, Chief Innovation Officer at the Barrick Gold Corporation shares her
thoughts on her different experiences working with senior and young leaders, and why it is im-
portant to be interconnected and outward-facing as leaders:

“I think if you want to be a leader of the Commonwealth in 20 years time, one of the things that I
would absolutely encourage you to do is resist the temptation to take leadership on as we’ve tak-
en it on before. Which is to think inward first, try to be the problem solvers ourselves, and feel as
though we have to make decisions by ourselves. Use that wonderful skill that you already have to
work collaboratively, to seek consensus, to get more people involved in that decision making. And
hence have a solution that not only is better, but also gets implemented faster and has significant-
ly more buy-in. I actually think the new generation will be fundamentally different from my gener-
ation in the way they work collaboratively.

The example I cite is that I have a number of people in my team between twenty and thirty years
old. Whenever I pose a problem to them, or even when I assign them a role or job, the very first
thing they do is think about who else they can access. They ask me, who is doing this, who else can
I access, who else can I work with, who can I call; they instantly go outward to help create a group
around them that can solve that problem. Whereas if I did that exact same thing to someone in my
generation they would go inwards first: how do I solve this problem, do this job. They might read
some books. But it would be much more singular in its nature. So that gives me absolute hope and
knowledge that the next generation will be much better at this than us.”

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Exercise: How Interconnected are you?

The people we surround ourselves with have a very large influence on how we think and operate.
Our personal identities – our beliefs, values, practices – are in part shaped by our communities. In
this exercise you will make a map of these people, organizations, institutions and other groups
who influence you. It will challenge you to examine the size and scope of your networks, illustrate
that humans tend to congregate in groups of like-minded individuals, and help you think about the
value of having a wide and diverse network for your role as a leader.

Guiding Question: Who do you rely on?

To begin this exercise, start by writing down a quick list of the people you know. It may help to
group them from where you know them, according to which type of network they're from (see list
below). If you have a lot of people on your list, start by listing those that you interact with the
most on a day-to-day basis. On this same list, note down if there are any individuals in any of the
networks you identified that you disagree with, or who think differently from you.

Types of networks you might have (there may be others):

Family Work colleagues Sports

Friendships Online connections Religious communities
Professional connections School/college friends Political groups

Next, you'll be making a visual map of your current networks. Start by writing your own name in
the centre of your paper – you are the centre of your networks. Then, for each type of network,
draw a line coming out from your name – the networks you spend the most time with on a day-to
-day basis should be closer to your name, while the networks you spend the least amount of time
with should be further away. Mark next to each name whether this person thinks similarly to you
or not., and in which ways

You now have a map of your networks. If you'd like to, you can add to this network map by draw-
ing groups or individuals that you would like to expand to.

Reflection Questions: What do you notice about your networks, in terms of how diverse they
each are or how many people you disagree/agree with are in each? What is the value of having
diverse networks as a leader?

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Module 2: Accessible
Guiding Question: How can we communicate better across boundaries of hierarchy?

Article: Respect, hierarchy, and authority

As young people across the Commonwealth, many of us have grown up with an unquestioning
deference to authority. In my case at least, “respect your elders” is something that has been re-
peated throughout my schooling and has come to be a marker of being a “good” and “cultured”
young person. In my mind, there is no argument that can be made in favour of not showing re-
spect to other people. However, when respect means “silence” and takes away our ability to com-
municate honestly and openly for fear of being insolent, and when this authority is given solely on
the basis of age - repressive hierarchies are created.

In high-school, a group of students from my school were selected to be part of a series of work-
shops as research for a book for teenagers on business being written by a senior IT professional in
India, Subroto Bagchi. Naturally, on the first session, we all entered calling him “Sir”. As soon as
this happened, he said to us that we shouldn’t just call him “Sir” because he was older than us, or
senior in his job, and we should all feel free to call him by his first name. For many of us, we had
never called someone even a few years older than us by their first name, let alone Mr. Bagchi. He
said it was important that authority and respect be earned, not demanded. This created a positive,
equal atmosphere where we were less afraid to ask questions and share opinions, and it is very
likely that this made us a much more useful sample group.

As the world changes and organizations grow, young people are increasingly valuable in the work-
space, across sectors, and it is important that the opportunity and responsibility they are given is
commensurate with their potential, rather than correlated to their age, or how long they have
been in an organization. Similarly, senior leaders who demand, rather than earn respect and who
are “unwilling to serve the coffee” might increasingly find that they are unable to motivate teams
of young employees.

However, as important as it is to rid ourselves of the negative effects of unnecessary hierarchy,

organizations cannot be without any structure of line of management. A lack of hierarchy does
not always mean an equal and positive working environment. Working in close proximity, or in a
small team, or with friends, does not imply good communication or clarity of work.

Reflection Question: How can you successfully navigate respect and authority while still retaining
a hierarchical organization structure?

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Exercise: Sources of authority

Let us say that, as a leader, you can call on a variety of powers in any situation. Let’s look at eight
of them and see how you can apply them differently, and to different degrees, whether you are
leading in or beyond authority.

 The power of position. This comes with the position you hold, that you were appointed or
elected to, or that you have created for yourself.
 The power of personality. This comes from your strength of character, your “pizzazz”, the en-
ergy you generate around you because of who you are as a person.
 The power of ideas. This is acquired through the quality of your ideas, your creativity.
 The power of intellect. This is your brainpower, analytical ability, capacity to grasp facts and
put them into order.
 The power to communicate. This is your ability to get across an idea or message in a way
which resonates for people, both individually and in groups.
 The power to connect. This is the power you gain if you are able to see connections and over-
laps and use your networks to bring all the pieces together.
 The power to invest. Money talks. This power comes if you can invest resources or cash.
 The power to reward. This comes from your ability to reward people financially or through
recognition. Part of this power is also the freedom to remove people from situations where
they are not succeeding.

Position Personality Ideas Intellect

Communicate Connect Invest Reward

So, you have these powers. But their effectiveness (and, frankly, usefulness) in influencing and in-
spiring those you seek to lead changes quite dramatically depending on which circle you are oper-
ating in.

For this exercise, you have 20 currency points available to distribute on this grid as you see fit;
place them where you think the powers are the most relevant to authority. You can place no
more than 4 points on any individual square.

Reflection Questions: Where have you placed more than 3 points, and why? Are there any alterna-
tive sources of power you'd add to the grid?

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Video: Working across generations

In this video, Adirupa Sengupta, Chief Executive - Common Purpose Asia Pacific, meets with YB
Syed Saddiq, Malaysia's Minister of Youth and Sports, to talk about what it means to be a young
leader in a fast-paced, rapidly changing world and working across generational boundaries.

ADIRUPA SENGUPTA: It’s such a privilege to be talking to Minister Syed Saddiq, Minister for Youth
and Sports with the new government in Malaysia. Thank you so much for your time this evening
and for inspiring us. Having heard your story, one of the things that struck me is as a leader, how
you do cross different boundaries in order to make a difference, and make the change that you so
believe in?

SYED SADDIQ: The Malaysian story is one of diversity. Our unity is inherently in the diversity we
have. While we have different races, religions, age groups, and political differences, we don’t see
that as a weakness but we see that as a strength. Because in the end those differences are what
unite us. And the point of unity is none other than the Malaysian identity. So that’s one part; to
view it as a strength, more than a weakness. When it comes to issues of age, say someone might be
too young or too old, how do you work with one another? I think we need to know that we all
have our own strengths and weaknesses, and if we are able to merge these two things together,
we will be able to move forward a lot faster and stronger.

ADIRUPA: Thank you very much. Where do you think the biggest point of friction is? You talked a
lot about moving forward and we need to move ahead. Where do you think some of your person-
al biggest challenges will come as you try to do what you just described?

SYED: It’s to challenge the misperception that youth or youthfulness is a weakness. That when you
are young you are automatically labelled as immature, incapable, inexperienced and therefore not

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worthy of any public position to move Malaysia forward. But while that misperception is there I
also think it can be addressed. And I think it should be addressed. The best way to do it is not to
just dismiss it, but to answer it through one’s success. Because when there are more and more suc-
cess stories of young people proving their worthiness, you have a whole generation of young peo-
ple who are able to break through the ageist walls. And I think that can be done.

ADIRUPA: What is it like to work with a 92 year old?

SYED: Exhilarating and exciting. Because while he is 93 now, he is ridiculously young at heart. The
fact that he took in so many young cabinet ministers is indicative of that. At the same time he is
very open to new ideas. We’ve posed so many crazy ideas to him and he’s taken it quite well. Point
is, while youthfulness is very important, we must also work very closely with the more vintage and
experienced leaders because that’s how you move forward; you combine the enthusiasm and ide-
alism and the hard experience of the later generation.

ADIRUPA: Thank you very much. You talked a lot about needing lots of young people to come to-
gether; its not going to happen with one story. You’ve heard about our Commonwealth100 initia-
tive. Why do you think programs like that are important?

SYED: It’s very important. One is I always believe in creating new leaders from all categories. And
when you have those new leaders and more programs which tune in that direction which also
combine the strength of the Commonwealth, which again is bedrock is in diversity in our history, I
think we will be able to march forward together. I think 30, 40, 50 years down the road we’re
looking at a more borderless and more integrated community. And the Commonwealth has been
there for decades. I think it’s better to strengthen that than to reinvent the wheel. And I think
Commonwealth100 will serve that purpose.

ADIRUPA: One last question, I promise. There’s been a lot of talk about the fourth Industrial Revo-
lution. You’ve been talking a lot about that at the World Economic Forum, I’m fascinated. What do
you think an AI generation of leaders can learn from the Internet generation of leaders, which
feels like many moons ago?

SYED: I think we have a lot to learn. One is when we are young we cannot be snobbish; we cannot
be arrogant. We must always be open to ideas, and lessons, and advice. I think one thing we can
definitely learn from the previous generation is to get whatever combined experience they have
and learn from it and build from it. Not to reinvent the wheel unless the wheel can be broken and
we will be the disruptors. So it’s about learning those things where we can and disrupting where
we must.

ADIRUPA: But trust is such an important part of that. How do you build trust?

SYED: Just to prove to them that we can do it. I think that’s the most important thing. Through
success and merit, trust will be built.

ADIRUPA: Thank you so much.

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Module 3: Awake
Guiding Question: How can we create more inclusive environments?

Article: Inclusive environments and difficult situations

When the Commonwealth100 Guiding Model was created, 59% of the young people who were
involved said they had experiences of intolerance both in person and online.

Intolerance leads to exclusion and disempowerment of others. When people are excluded or dis-
empowered, both in society and in smaller groups, they are stopped from fulfilling their potential.
In short, everyone benefits from an inclusive and tolerant environment because everyone is able
to contribute to their full ability. Empowerment is not a zero-sum game; it has the power to im-
prove everyone's conditions.

So how can we can foster more inclusive environments as leaders? One way may be by being
awake to the experiences of our peers. Listening is an active skill. Awareness needs to constantly
be updated and refreshed. Being aware of current affairs in the 1980s does not imply the same
amount of awareness of today’s world, and similarly thinking that you know what your peers, col-
leagues, or society want is not the same as asking them and giving them a real opportunity to
voice their opinions.

For example, one of the young people I spoke to mentioned how “being awake as a team leader or
mentor creates equitable environments in which people have the opportunity to reach their full
potential.’” In his case, he felt that male students being more outspoken and proactive in class-
room discussions often made female students feel less capable and created disinterest. He says,“I
have personally caught myself from interrupting in a classroom when I was frustrated by how
slowly my peers (who were all female) were to understand the concept. At first didn't understand
why I was frustrated but upon introspection realised that I was unconsciously making use of male
arrogance.’”

So, in this situation being awake to your own biases and behaviours, and the implications of these
of your peers has helped to create a more equal environment. Enabling the space to voice opin-
ions and having the ability to listen are important features of being ‘Awake’.

For example, you may have been in a situation, either in your institution, community, or online,
where you were faced with an opinion you disagreed with. However, we have said that if we are
to be awake to the opinions and experiences of our peers, it is important to be a good listener.

Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was recently in an interview with a French journalist
where she was asked if there are any bookstores in Nigeria. Rather than getting angry, she re-
sponded calmly with composure “Yes, shockingly, there are.” And then later addressed the issue
on twitter. She initially had an angry response, which was later followed by a clarification after
having taken the opinion of the journalist on board.

Reflection Questions: Think back to a time when you were forced to listen to opinions different
than your own. How did you feel and act in that situation? Would you have done anything differ-
ently?

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Video: What can we do as young leaders?

Here, Hareem Ghani, Women's Officer of the National Union of Students for the UK shares one of
her experiences of working with different groups of people, and why it is important for leadership
to stand up against intolerance:

“For me it was when I started an anti-harassment campaign at Kings called It Stops Here. I knew
from my previous experiences but also being within feminist student organising groups that there
was going to be a lot of backlash to that. A lot of people would say: well actually this isn’t the re-
ality, women don’t experience this harassment, it’s all made up. And one thing I had to do was
convince people to support this campaign. This included going out to rugby clubs, and reaching
out to football societies. Reaching out to groups who had no understanding of the issue. Or if you
were to raise awareness of the situation it would be like absolutely not an issue to begin with,
you’re just lying about it. So what I had to do was speak to them one-on-one and convince them
that it was a reality for those people but actually connect it to their lived experience as well. So
when we talk about experiences of harassment, for example, we don’t talk about how it relates to
issues of toxic masculinity and how conversations around toxic masculinity and men’s mental
health actually enable harassment to take place. So that was the conversation when I met with the
rugby society.

This campaign is important because it talks about the specific harassment experienced by men and
it talks about toxic masculinity and pressures that men also face. It was a way of catering to a par-
ticular demographic, it was about selling a particular point. I think the leaders that we need are
leaders that are empathetic and are willing to listen. I think for me, that’s the most important
thing: leaders who are willing to listen. [Leaders who recognize] when they might be perpetuating
a system or maintaining the status quo. Leaders who are actually willing to take a step back and
afford others a platform, listen to their experiences, and allow for others to listen to their experi-
ences also. I think that’s what creates a really powerful leader. One that doesn’t centre themselves
in conversations, but centres others and their experiences and their realities. It paves the way for
other people to self-organize and gives them resources that they may need. A lot of people think
that leadership is taking centre stage and making a speech. In a lot of circumstances it can be. But
sometimes it’s actually handing the microphone over to someone else; its allowing them to talk
about their lived reality, which you have no experience of whatsoever, and actually letting them
talk freely about that experience, which they might otherwise never get to do.”

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Exercise: Position statements

We all know that there are people in the world who hold opinions we disagree with. But what do
you and those around you think? Read the following statements and reflect on how you feel
about them. Then, collect responses from your friends, peers, colleagues, and other people. How
would you go about having a conversation about one of these issues you feel strongly about?

1 is strong disagreement, 10 is strong agreement.

Positive discrimination should be allowed so an organisation can address any imbalance between
the make-up of its staff and the population of the area.

□ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Individuals shouldn’t be allowed to adopt children of a different ethnic origin.

□ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The private sector should be able to influence the national curriculum.

□ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The Media does more harm than good.

□ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Women should be allowed to lead religious communities (e.g. be ordained as bishops).

□ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Prisoners with drug problems should be forced to stop immediately with no replacement drugs.

□ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

When their child misbehaves, parents should be able to punish them in any way they see fit.

□ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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Module 4: Trustworthy
Guiding Question: How can we be authentic leaders?

Article: If you stand for nothing, what do you fall for?

How you react to challenging situations and disruption is often likely to become a marker of how
you are perceived. In this section on trustworthiness, we will be discussing personal brand and
why being aware of your personal brand is important in building your leadership.

We often hear that “trust is declining” in today’s world. This seems counter-intuitive to the rapid
rise of the sharing economy, and the way we are increasingly trusting strangers (like with Uber,
AirBnB, etc.) So is it that we only trust institutions and governments less, but trust other individu-
als more?

Trust is an abstract concept, and in order to be able to ‘rebuild’ it, it needs to be in our control. So
while the perceived societal decline in trust in institutions seems a large and distant issue, our per-
sonal trustworthiness is in our control. As a leader, being trusted by the people you work with
across levels, organizations, and boundaries is essential to your working relationships, and is a first
step in rebuilding trust more broadly as well.

So, how can you ensure that you are accurately projecting your trustworthiness? One way is with
your personal brand.

A lot of effort goes into branding. So, whether or not you represent an organization or a brand
yourself, you have your own personal brand. As Michael Bichard (Civil servant, UK) says : " Just as
people buy from a brand they trust, people listen to one they trust. You have to put great effort
into deciding what it is, then building it and guarding it. Because people will want it and they will
want to link it to what they are passionate about.”

You need to make your personal brand really about you and not just buzzwords you’ve read. You
also have to take great care of your brand because you don’t want it to be ruined - least of all for
a petty reason. It is important to reflect on what behaviours you are unwilling to compromise on,
what you think makes someone trustworthy, and how you can best decide, project, and preserve
your personal brand.

Dr. Musharraf Hussain (Education and Inter-faith work, Pakistan/UK) agrees: “How do you judge a
good compromise? If it doesn't violate your basic principles and the other party has had to move
too. Of course, compromises are very difficult for minorities. As a minority, an outsider, you feel
weak and you sometimes justify things on the basis of the lesser of two evils. You become defen-
sive and are sometimes willing to make very big compromises, and settle for less."

Reflection Questions: What are the key values that you uphold as a leader? What are some that
you would like to embody in the future?

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Video: Building trust in working relationships

Lauren Le Franc, Founder of JA Coffee Roasters shares her experiences of building trust and being
trustworthy as a key part of her leadership:

“When I was 18, I decided to return to Jamaica. My neighbour had a coffee farm and I learned about
the coffee process and found out that the small holder farmers had big problems. So I decided that I
wanted to do something about this and ended up setting up my own organic fair trade coffee busi-
ness. Now my business sells in different jurisdictions and I have two offices: one based in London and
one in Jamaica and we sell all over the world. The way the coffee industry is in Jamaica, small holders
are forced to sell to processers. These processers pay little or no money below market value. When I
set up my business, I decided I wanted to buy from these farmers and sell the coffee above market
price so that I could help fund projects within the farming community. In order for me to do this I had
to gain the trust of the farmers so that they would sell to me, because they don’t have to sell to me.
They can sell their coffee anywhere else. I decided that I would implement a model that they would
be able to trust me and work with me. Because of the longstanding history of coffee farming a lot of
people from overseas would come and make promises to these farmers and not keep it; they would
use them. It was very difficult for me at the beginning to build trust. But now I have over twelve farms
that are signed onto my co-op, and I myself have my own organic farm.

There are four things that you need to get right in order to be trustworthy, in my opinion. They are:
transparency, you have to listen, keep your promises, and also stick to whatever vision you have.
Transparency is important to me because as I am a farmer, and a coffee trader, having an ethical sup-
ply chain is very important. Because the end consumer can see how we treat the farmers, and the
farmers can also see where their coffee is going. So having a complete transparent supply chain is im-
portant. Listening: I think in the past when I first set up my business I didn’t listen as well to the farm-
ers and what they needed. I had a vision of what I wanted to implement which didn’t quite work, so
sitting down and having open conversations also helps to build trustworthiness. Promises: also don’t
make promises you can’t keep. If you can’t keep these promises or if plans change again you should
just have a conversation and be realistic about what it is. For me it’s very important to speak to the
farmers and have realistic expectations. You need to be clear about what vision you want to achieve
and what direction you would like to go. I think for me in my experience if there’s someone who is
disruptive, it affects the whole model that I’ve implemented. It affects the whole community. So it’s
important that everyone is on board with the same model and the same plan. If not, it creates chaos.”

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Exercise: Your leadership style in three words

When working with new and different people it’s imperative that people get an accurate sense of
who you are quickly. It’s all well and good knowing what your brand is but if others are unable to
perceive it as intended, then it loses its impact and value. It’s key that people can tell what you
stand for, what your values are and what kind of person you are.

This exercise is designed to help you reflect on your personal leadership brand and get feedback
from your peers, colleagues, family and friends. It is helpful to compare how you and others per-
ceive your brand, what the similarities and differences in perception are, and what implications it
has for your leadership and for living your brand.

Guiding Question: What are the values and traits most central to who you are?

First, write down what you think your personal brand is in three words. You can start from the list
below, or think of them on your own. What are three words that you think most accurately de-
scribe you? For each word, explain why you chose it.

Challenging Researcher Practical Serious Responsible Observant

Analytical Detail oriented Task oriented Inventor Reflective Idea generator

Team player Problem solver Driven Assertive Careful Confident

Conscientious Co-operative Creative Decisive Disciplined Independent

Logical Meticulous Open minded Optimistic Organized Outgoing

Patient Quiet Rational Realistic Resourceful Perfectionistic

Thorough Perceptive Focused Approachable Charismatic Pragmatic

Second, ask five other people to describe you in three words as well without telling them the
three words you picked for yourself. You can ask friends, family, colleagues – anyone in your net-
works who knows you well. You can also post on your social media if you are interested in hearing
more opinions.

Reflection Questions: Where did others' perceptions of you match yours, or not match? What
steps could you take to strengthen your personal brand?

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Exercise: Storyboarding

Similar to a comic book, this exercise has you drawing a story. The story is yours and it looks at a challenge you
are facing. This is a great way for you to look at your challenge differently and a great way to put challenges
into perspective. The story board will make you examine the journey to get from point A to point B. It asks you
to reflect on what the end will look like as well as the challenges and steps that it takes to get there. In imagin-
ing these steps and challenges and in stating them, leaders often find it easier to see ways to get to their end
goal faster. Obstacles will always exist; this is just a means to make them easier to overcome.

Stage 1- Where you are going - 5 mins

Relax, and get an image in your mind of a goal you are trying to achieve. In your imagination, transport yourself
forward in time to the point where you have achieved your goal successfully. What does it feel like? What is
happening? How are you and others reacting to it? Draw in Box 6 a picture that conveys to you this situation.
Don't label it yet. This is your artistic interpretation, you may draw whatever they feel most comfortable draw-
ing, this could be stick figures or large swaths of colour.

Stage 2- Where you are now - 5 mins

Bring your imagination back to the present. Form an image of the major elements of the present situation, and
draw that in Box 1, much as you did for Box 6. Don't label it yet.

Stage 3- Intermediate turning-points - 5 mins

Do the same thing for Boxes 2-5, using them to depict a sequence of four key intermediate steps in successfully
moving from the present situation to the desired situation -four key 'scenes in the drama'. These scenes usually
deal with obstacles, obstacles that are overcome, accomplishments, key victories or stages in the process. Don't
label them yet.

Stage 4- Potential blocks - 5 mins

When you have finished all six boxes, and are happy that they convey (to you) a successful progression from
'here' to 'there', spend some time contemplating your picture, and when you feel you have a good sense of the
positive progression through the six boxes, begin to think of what must be overcome if you are to make this
progression. Write a word or brief phrase under each picture to show what might block the progression at that
point; these are the key challenges you must overcome.

Stage 5- 20 minutes

Discuss what you have created with other people. You might want to ask your friends, family, colleagues, or
community members for support in overcoming your obstacles, and /or offer support to others to them over-
come theirs.

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Draw your progression from ‘Here to There’.

Start at box 6 then go to box 1, then boxes 2-5.
When completed write a word or brief phrase
under each picture to show what might block
the progression at that point; these are the key
challenges you must overcome.

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Module 5: Quick
Quick: How can we embrace and lead change, instead of being led by it?

Article: Adapting to Artificial Intelligence

The world around us is changing quickly. For this module, we will be using Artificial Intelligence
(AI) as an example of a disruptive technological change that 21st century leaders are faced with.
How will AI force us to adapt our leadership, and how can we be more agile, adaptable and quick
to lead in these changing circumstances?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning have recently become buzzwords in the techno-
logical space, and beyond and the terms came up multiple times from young people interested in
the digital space, but also from those who had heard the terms but were unsure what their impli-
cations would be. It is important to be clear on the distinction between the two terms, and what
they mean. Artificial Intelligence is programming that allows machines to perform tasks that
would traditionally need human intelligence- such as speech recognition, translation, and decision
making. We see AI in action all around us, particularly with tools like Siri and Alexa having made
voice recognition commonplace. Machine Learning is a type of AI where machines are able to
learn and improve their own programming when exposed to new information.

Large-scale investment into AI and Machine Learning have begun, with the Bank of America pre-
dicting a $153 billion AI market by 2020, which is just two short years away. How then does this
impact us? Do we all need to be computer science specialists to hold onto our jobs?

So, there is both fear and excitement surrounding this big change. How can we approach change as
a positive thing for our leadership and make the most of it?

There is no doubt that the impact of AI on big industries such as healthcare, transportation, manu-
facturing, finance, and education will be transformative. However, while the relationship between
these industries and AI is being explored and often commented on (further reading is attached be-
low), the implications on leadership remain unclear.

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review outlines some of the qualities which may be be-
coming more important in leaders in the wake of AI. “Certain qualities, such as deep domain ex-
pertise, decisiveness, authority, and short-term task focus, are losing their cachet, while others,
such as humility, adaptability, vision, and constant engagement, are likely to play a key role in
more-agile types of leadership.” So, leadership is moving beyond a focus on IQ, and further to-
wards emotional and cultural intelligence (EQ and CQ), which machines are likely to take longer to
pick up, but also which are likely to be areas where people will continue to trust people over ma-
chines.

The Global Leadership Summit in January 2018 also discussed the issue of leadership in the age of
AI and came to the following conclusion, “As with every other job where automation takes over,
leaders will be able to use artificial intelligence to take care of many tedious tasks. But instead of
just letting the algorithm “make” the decisions, it’s best to view it as a colleague with lots of in-
sight in several topics. The actual decision has to be made and communicated by humans though.
For example, did you know that leaders use up more than half of their time doing administrative

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work? That was found by an Accenture study on the topic that asked managers on all organisa-
tional levels how they spend their time. A lot of cumbersome planning of schedules, reports and
analyses that would have to be done by humans otherwise can be done by computer programmes.
But they should stay a basis for the decisions that are made and not predetermine them.”

So leaders may need to be better at long-term, big-picture thinking, and develop their humility and be
quick to adapt out of administrative tasks in the context of Artificial Intelligence.

Reflection Question: Give one example of someone who is leading change, rather than being led by it. Your
example may be from your own experiences.

Video: Opportunity and change

Here, Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS Bank, Singapore on how AI is changing the job market and why
we, as young leaders, need to be quick to adapt to change:

“I think that the thing to be most excited about is that technology today can have a really pro-
found impact on economic welfare and social welfare. I think for the first time in human history
you have the possibility to reach millions of people with solutions you could not do before. At
cost points and price points which are now affordable to the masses. The biggest thing to worry
about is the flip to that equation. I think there will be a genuine pressure on jobs. I think the na-
ture of work is changing. I think machines will be able to do a lot more than they do today. I think
AI means that it’s not just robotics in the blue collar space, but also AI in the white collar space
which will be increasingly creating pressure. So thinking and reimagining the construct of work
and understanding where the future jobs will come from, and what kinds of skills you need to de-
velop in the working place to be able to adapt to this new world of jobs, that’s very scary. I think
the whole idea of education and skill development is going to have to change radically. Instead of
today where you teach everybody you learn in the first twenty years of your life and you build a
reservoir and spend eighty years of your life drawing out of the reservoir, you’re going to have to
change to a system where you’re constantly accreting to your body of knowledge. You have to
reinvent yourself every ten years.”

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Survey: Big changes

We used Artificial Intelligence as an example of a big change in this module, and in the Open
Source Leadership Model, but we realize there are many other profound challenges that we are
confronted with in today’s world.

Guiding Question: Which of the following do you think is the biggest change we are confronted
with today which will impact professional lives across sectors?

Artificial Intelligence Climate change

Displacement and migration Political polarization

Rising Economic Inequality Increasing life expectancy,

(rich and poor gap) Better healthcare

Other

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Conclusion: Open Source Leadership in the world

So far, we've been reflecting on ourselves and our leadership, and engaging and exchanging with
our peers on the course. Now it's time to look outwards and see if you begin to notice the Open
Source themes in your life.

Take a photograph of something or someone that you feel embodies one of the Open Source
themes. Something that personifies being interconnected, accessible, awake, trustworthy or
quick!

Post it on Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn with the hashtag #CW100 and tell us why it symbolises an
Open Source leadership competency.

For me, for example, I found that hosting our Open Source Leaders session at the Commonwealth
Youth Forum was really inspiring. It was incredible to see all the young leaders in the room sharing
their passions and engaging with each others' work. This is my photo for Interconnected!

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Video: Next steps

“We’re now at the end of Commonwealth100. Thank you for sharing your experiences and engag-
ing with each other. We’ve talked about AI, what implications it has for our leadership, we’ve
talked about trust and building our personal brands, we’ve shared things that have influenced us
and our opinions, and hopefully we’ve learned lots from each other as well. There are a couple of
questions I’d like to leave you with: Are there any behaviours of yours that you’ve changed as a
result of the Open Source Leadership model? Are there any you’d like to change? Do you have any
new goals, things you’ve been able to think about or reflect on that you may not have had the
chance to do before? And also how do these new 21st century leadership skills tie into the new 21st
century world that we want to see? What kind of world do we want to see, and how can we use
the skills we’ve developed here to create that world?

Please do send us your feedback, we’d love to hear how you’ve used the model in your daily life
and the impact it has on you. And do share it with your friends if you think they can benefit as
well from having these kinds of conversations and going through this experience. Share it, get it
out there; its an Open Source Leadership model, so it grows in strength the more of us that do it
and the more of us that know about it.”

We hope you enjoyed this offline version of Commonwealth100! We hope you register soon at
commonpurpose.org/commonwealth100 for the online course. We would love to hear your
feedback, so please do tell us about your experience by emailing the Lead Course Coordinator,
Megha Harish, at megha.harish@commonpurpose.org .

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Megha Harish
Marketing Manager and Project Manager
– Commonwealth100
Common Purpose
E: megha.harish@commonpurpose.org
Twitter: megha_harish
Common Purpose Charitable Trust
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