Fulcrum: Events

Why leaders need to listen and not just wait for their turn to speak

It’s what James Comey, in his book ‘A Higher Loyalty’ calls “the Washington listen”. But you don’t need to go to Washington to experience it.

You see it in board rooms every day: meetings where leaders get together to tell each other what they already know. Power and hierarchy determines who will speak and who is heard. The cut and thrust requires that we zone out whatever anyone else is saying, lest it prove a distraction from the point we are trying to remember and wanting to make.

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Poetry for Peace

In response to the tragic events in Paris in 2015, we held an informal Fulcrum gathering at St Ethelburga’s in the City. It was an opportunity to refocus our efforts on creating a better future and we sought inspiration from the sages and poets whose words inspire us and remind us there is an alternative to a “hard power” approach that relies on military might. That evening, in the wonderful Bedouin tent which sits at the centre of St Ethelburga’s in the City of London, we reflected on the words of Iran’s female poet laureate Rira Abbasi:

“Poetry of peace, with its progressive culture and quiet style of objection, slowly and intelligently moves forward. Poetry of peace does not create heroes and epics about brave and fearless people; it discourages all-consuming beliefs, the polarisation of differences and the obedience of people. Poetry for peace instils courage, clarity, common sense, imagination and, finally, the strength to awaken justice.”

Authority

Our first colloquium, with speakers Jim Clifford and Dympna Cunnane. This colloquium explored a number of questions on the subject of authority as we believed it to be important in many settings, including work organisations, educational settings, families and society at large.

• Is the law simply a set of rules made by those who have power to protect their interests?

• Whose authority do we respect, if any?

• What kind of authority do we see in public life and what does it say to us?

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Betrayal and forgiveness

At our second colloquium we considered the issue of Betrayal and Forgiveness and at this event we invited participants to consider their ‘shadow side’ and asked:

• Can we be more compassionate towards ourselves and therefore to others?

• Can we ask ourselves if we might have ever done what we have felt the other has done to us?

The speakers included Author and psychotherapist, Robin Shohet, Elisabeth Buggins, CBE Chair of Birmingham Women’s Hospital and Jim Clifford, OBE.

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Towards 9 billion

How do we create the conditions whereby we welcome rather than fear 9 billion and enable them to build stable and meaningful lives for themselves and their children?

At our 3rd Fulcrum colloquium we teamed up with Joss Tantrum of Terrafiniti, the people behind the “Towards 9 Billion campaign”. Joss introduced big, hopeful and playful ideas as a basis to explore this tantalising question.

To begin the evening however we started on a more sombre note as we listened to award winning documentary filmmaker, Shafiur Rahman.

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