Introductory workshop: Reimagining Inclusive & Sustainable Recovery with Transformational Leadership

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen and distinguished guests,

It is truly an honor to welcome you to this introductory workshop on ‘Reimagining Inclusive and Sustainable Recovery with Transformational Leadership’. This workshop is organized under the leadership of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth, in collaboration with the Ministry of Civil Service and its Royal School of Administration, the United Nations and its partners, MIT Presencing Institute and United in Diversity Foundation of Indonesia.

We are excited about the possibility of starting a transformational leadership journey that brings together government, private sector and civil society.

We are also excited to have Professor Otto Scharmer, from MIT Sloan School of Management and co-founder of the Presencing Institute to accompany us on this journey, together with his team Becky Buell, and Dr Ben Chan and Frans Sugiarta from the United in Diversity Foundation in Indonesia.

How has the UN come to this journey? The simple answer is curiosity.

I heard Professor Scharmer speak virtually at a leadership session for UN Resident Coordinators in 2018. I was immediately inspired by the simplicity of his provocation: that with an open mind, an open heart and open will, we have the capability as leaders to change systems. I was curious to learn more and in the process the UN Country Team in Cambodia became one of two pilot teams in early 2019 to launch an SDG Leadership Lab.

I had one singular purpose for the SDG Leadership Lab in Cambodia: to foster collaborative leadership through joint learning and innovation. As a UN Country Team, we embarked on 6-month learning facilitated by MIT/Presencing Institute under the leadership of Prof. Scharmer. This experience enabled us to look beyond our usual practices, forcing us to think differently, to co-creating development solutions fit for the 21st century.

The outcome of the UN learning journey was an organizational culture more committed to collaboration and innovation. It remains a work in progress. As all of you know, we need to practice new ways of working all the time, otherwise, we fall back to behaviours that we are used to. So we continue to learn, adapt and innovate every day.

Then COVID came. The need for working together, for collaboration, for solidarity, became ever more apparent for the UN to be effective in responding to the crisis.

The pandemic also taught us that in a crisis lies an opportunity for transformation.

At the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the UN in November last year, we invited Professor Scharmer as a guest speaker for the High-level Symposium on Reimagining the future of multilateralism in a post-Covid world. We thought it would be useful to share what we learned about leadership from the emerging future with partners. It was then that Prof. Scharmer piqued the curiosity of H.E. Boros, who in turn inspired all of us to embark on this exciting journey.

With strong support from H.E Von Sauth, Minister, Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, this introductory workshop offers us the opportunity to learn about transformational leadership and collaboration in social protection.  

Learning about how transformational leadership in social protection could not have come at a better time.  Today is an opportunity to reflect on how collaboration can leverage the achievements of the Royal Government in social protection. Three questions that shaped this introductory workshop were around integration, building systems and feedback:

How can we work in an integrated manner, without silos to achieve our shared vision of an inclusive, sustainable and equitable recovery from COVID pandemic?

How can we transform our social assistance, social security, health care, education, and public service delivery systems as the foundation for resilience and prosperity?

How do we know if we are on the right path?

I have two hopes for this morning:

One, that you will consider this half-day workshop as a good investment of your time.  

Two, that you will also be inspired, not only by Prof. Scharmer but also by each other’s insights and contributions as leaders in your respective fields.

Thank you very much.