I get invited to speak often, sometimes to community and service groups, sometimes to young people. I always ask, why me? What can I offer?
“You’re such an inspirational person.”
And I think, Oh God, here we go again.
When I look back over my life, I struggle to identify one thing I’ve been involved in that continued in the way I’d hoped after I stopped leading it. I’ve spent decades building relationships, bringing people together, raising money, developing education programs and encouraging people to think differently.
We achieved some extraordinary things together. I’m proud of that. But, and it’s a big but, if I was so inspirational, why didn’t those initiatives continue without me?
We celebrate founders, leaders and people who make things happen. We applaud their achievements, give them awards and invite them to tell us how they did it. We’re forever hearing that every initiative needs a strong leader, someone to drive it forward. No, no, no! What we need is a team of people who share responsibility, make decisions together and have a stake in what happens next.
Next week I’m speaking at the UN Youth NSW Voice Grand Final at Parliament House. My presentation is about what I wish I’d known, what I’d do differently and what surprised me during 20 years of working with young people.
What I’ve learnt is that bringing people together to achieve something is a very different skill from supporting people to create something they will continue after you move on.
It’s taken me 70 years to appreciate just how important this is.
Recently, our local MP told me that every day another community organisation approaches her looking for funding. She wanted to know how we could help them “hunt as a pack”.
I loved the expression. I thought Strength in Numbers sounded a little less predatory.
We then identified more than 200 organisations in our region doing great work. Imagine what they could achieve if they discovered what others are doing well, pooled their resources and worked together to fill the gaps.
When I was a local journalist, community organisations were forever asking me to promote their activities and help them attract volunteers. Rotary, Lions, Probus, choirs, everyone seemed to be looking for more people. Occasionally I’d suggest that two organisations might consider joining forces. Suggesting that Lions and Rotary could work together generally earned me a look suggesting I’d taken leave of my senses.
People have spent years building their organisations. They’re proud of what they’ve achieved and understandably protective of them. Changing that thinking will be a minor miracle. Showing them others who have succeeded might help them see how much more they could achieve for the causes they care about.
Fortunately, I know people who are already doing things differently. In Cowra, the Information and Neighbourhood Centre has developed an approach to supporting community organisations that we can learn a great deal from. And in Nowra, a group of volunteers, most of whom come from my hometown of Kiama, decided they could make their greatest contribution by supporting people experiencing homelessness and food insecurity.
They discovered the extraordinary work being done by the local Sikh community, which prepares and distributes meals every Sunday outside a medical centre it owns.
While the Sikh community provides the meals, the Kiama volunteers organise groceries, sleeping bags and other essentials. Each week they talk to the people who come along, ask what they need and organise what they can to fill the gaps. Then they post on their community Facebook page to let people know what is needed the following week.
The collaboration has also influenced the medical centre. It began opening on Sundays and, recognising how many people struggled to afford out-of-pocket medical expenses, moved to bulk billing. Volunteers can identify people who may need medical attention, while ensuring the centre remains accessible to other patients.
Each group contributes what it does best, and together they’re meeting needs that might otherwise have gone unnoticed or unmet. While community organisations across our region tell me how difficult it is to attract volunteers, this group has so many people wanting to contribute that they’re looking for more opportunities to involve them.
My first step with Strength in Numbers was to find a social sector strategist who could map our community organisations, then bring together people already demonstrating what successful collaboration looks like. The Sunday Community Support Group, Care Essentials and the Cowra Information and Neighbourhood Centre have plenty to teach us. Our local MP is helping bring attention to the opportunity.
We’ll start by connecting organisations working on homelessness, food insecurity and domestic violence. They’ll discover what others are doing well, where the gaps are and how they might fill them together. Once we have a successful model that others can see working, we can extend the approach to other community needs.
One of the things I do through my business, SynergyScape Solutions, is help boards review their strategies and work out where they want to go next. Recently, I worked with a board that had enormous opportunities to achieve more by collaborating with other organisations.
And yes, you know what I’m going to say next. I designed their strategy for them.
I was tearing my hair out, beating myself up over where I’d gone wrong. It was taking up far too much space in my head. Eventually, I asked my favourite collaboration specialist, Stuart, “So where have I gone wrong this time?”
He said very gently, “Lynne, Lynne, Lynne, Lynne. Do things with people, rather than for people.”
You can imagine how excited I am to have a legacy project where I can put that into practice.
I’m certainly not alone in wondering whether the things I’ve helped create will continue without me. Strength in Numbers is giving me the opportunity to bring groups together, help them learn from one another and recognise when it’s time for me to step away.
The people behind the Cowra and Nowra initiatives were doing extraordinary things before I came along, and they’ll continue doing them whether I’m involved or not.
Now that’s inspirational. That’s what inspirational means to me.
And I’m a positive person, so I’ve worked out what to say the next time someone invites me to speak because they think I’m inspirational.
“I’d be delighted to speak to your group this month, provided you invite a group I find inspirational to speak next month.”
And I can think of quite a few groups I’d like you to meet.