“We need to get better at crossing boundaries and actually caring about what each of us cares about. That requires new tools, new ways of being. It means that we’re going to actually be different, if that’s going to happen. When we reach across boundaries, we get changed. That’s good news and bad news. That means that my sense of identity will shift because of my authentic relationship to somebody really different from me.” ~ Akaya Windwood

Here at Rockwood, our intention is to develop interconnected networks of leaders working toward the common good. Last spring, Rockwood’s President, Akaya Windwood, spoke about The Art of Collaborative Leadership: Building Networks of Interconnected Leaders at the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s Nonprofit Management Institute. You can listen to the workshop here.

During the session, she discussed how, “so many of our leaders feel like we’re in it in by ourselves,” and how creating change is not just about any one individual leader, organization, or sector, “it’s actually about how can we get our movements together so that we’re moving a larger social agenda that is about supporting the common good, and nobody is leading in isolation.”

The workshop includes moments to stop and reflect on prompts, like: “When was a time that you crossed a divide, or someone reached out to you, and it made a difference?”

We’d love to hear your answer in the comments below.

Flickr photo credit: Birds of a Feather by Les Chatfield.