“I’m Not Satisfied with the Status Quo”

For the third time, I’ve attended The Partnership Conference wondering whether it would live up to my increasingly high expectations. And for the third time, it did. Here are some reflections on a wild week.

For nearly a decade, Brad Offman and his team have been convening The Partnership Conference, bringing together a few hundred charity and nonprofit leaders, alongside their supportive peers in the corporate sector. The aim this year, as always, was to spark the connections and ignite the inspiration that drives determination and collaboration on big social issues and opportunities across Canada.

This time, we convened in Calgary—the meeting point of Canada’s omnipresent, eco-industrial divide. Our venue? The Calgary Zoo! The sheer playfulness of that choice set the tone for two days of positive curiosity, peer-based learning, and social sector camaraderie.

There were many great presentations, and too many sidebar one-on-one chats to count. Here, though, are four of my biggest takeaways from the event.

What + How = Impact

The Partnership Conference’s Claire Elizabeth Williams opened the conference with a presentation about the Inner Development Goals—and more importantly about the importance of ensuring we pay attention not only to what we’re setting out to achieve, but how we’re working together toward shared goals. 

While there are many frameworks for leadership (and lots of them are excellent), the IDGs present a cohesive move of the locus of leadership away from the charismatic individual at the front of the room toward the inner capacity within each of us. Only when we understand, develop, and manage ourselves, can we be fully equipped to step into right relations with others, and inspire that honest, constructive work of partnerships—which is of course the theme of The Partnership Conference.

Understanding Philanthropy

One speaker sparked controversy during a Q&A session when they shared that when their company considers philanthropic commitments to partner charities, they both insist on line-by-line assessments of the charities’ budget and that administrative overhead be kept to no more than 11% of income.

I swear you could hear eyes rolling in the room! It’s woefully outdated thinking. We would never expect a company to run on 11%; why should we expect a charity to do so when they’re striving not only to make financial ends meet, but also to achieve meaningful social impact goals. But that’s not the main point.

Courage to Break Through

Does it surprise you to learn that 60% of Canadians want CEOs to speak out on the climate emergency? Or that 58% want them to speak up about diversity, equity, and inclusion? We’ve been talking for some time now about the important role CEOs play on the issues of the day—and many have signed on to A Call to Purpose.

At The Partnership Conference, our friend Phil Haid made the case for CEOs to hold to the courage of their convictions, sharing their point of view, showing up for the causes that matter to their companies, looking for ways to collaborate with peers and partners, and “turning products into impact.”

Consider Costco’s example: after their board rejected activist shareholders’ demands that they roll back their DEI efforts, net sales grew by 9.1% and foot traffic in stores grew by 5.7%.

The Story is Ours to Write

On climate in particular, the persuasive narratives we need to convince the world to change are elusive at best. Yes still 67% of Canadians are largely or more concerned about climate change. The problem is that we don’t know our fellows are equally concerned!

Science narratives don’t work. Carbon economics make sense, but in an age of misinformation and eroding trust in institutions, fewer people believe in that story. So we’re in an interstitial moment between effective narratives.

The opportunity ahead is to develop and popularize a compelling story of a future made brighter by our work to come together, “confront the brutal facts,” and pursue change. One thing is certain for business leaders, according to Amber Bennett of Re.Climate: Beware the moral frame of reference and speak instead to the material factors in the work. Leave the moral story to others; sell products and services, based on the real value they’ll deliver—including but not limited to the climate positive impacts.

What’s Next?…

The Partnership Conference will reconvene in Toronto this October, under its new name, Greater Purpose. We hope to see you there!

Ready to start boosting your impact? To find the partners who can lift your capacity and unleash your courage? Let’s start a conversation.