In this challenging year, Leadership Inc China has found itself adapting creatively to the challenging and changing environment. One example is deciding to move our office in Shenzhen to a NiuHu Village in LongHua District. Niuhu is one of the original villages which Shenzhen was built around and is now being redeveloped with a new subway station and substantial residential and commercial development. We have started working with the local community in the preserving and utilization of some of the original buildings. The Wei family house will become a bookstore and community center and a base for the Wisdom Lab.
Leadership Inc has sponsored the Wisdom Lab, a Women activity organization focused on “Helping women to be seen and be heard, and developing an active self.” The Lab has held a range of activities including book reading club, conference organizing, direct broadcast programs and online community.
The WL Women Book Study Club has met in several location in Shenzhen for 105 times and read 10 books. The book study club is for women who likes reading and to dialogue about the book content integrated with their life stories, and shared the insights.
The Wisdom Lab, during the Covid lockdown, organized Direct Broadcast activities about the life and learning for women including: Coffee, Music, Drawing and special Valentine event
Leadership Inc has been able to continue our facilitation programs for community and corporate organizations including
- Open Space” workshop for 100 Secondary school students, to explore “What is the challenges we are facing at school and life? And how we overcome them?” which let the students to identify their issues and encourage them to solve them together.
- Half day World Café workshop for Shanghai Industrial Internet Association, involving 100 company owners, industry researchers and internet designers to explore the Industrial Digitalization issue and strategies.
- Climate Change Education Future Search” workshop (2 days) for 30 students from University in China. Organized by China Youth Climate Action Network, and sponsored by HEINRICH BOLL STIFTUNG
- GFM and Community Development program for Shenzhen Women Federation and local female officers.
- GFM and Life Planning (Life Chart) workshop for the Shenzhen Youth League.
- Organizational Cultural Alignment and Strategy workshop for PTG Corporation, a leading producer of surge protection devices.
- Strategic Planning program with the Royal Asiatic Society, Beijing.
Community Development practice in Zhenjiang: Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province is historical city in central China which has been experiencing substantial expansion and redevelopment. We have been working on urban community development and integrating displaced communities. We have trained and guided a team of 12 people in to provide facilitating and daily monitoring services at Jingkou Road Community, which includes an urban village, a Tea farm community, rehoused community buildings and commercial apartments.
We have assisted the community residents to set up a self organization to manage their community and provide support to arrange activities to activate the community culture. We received a praise of our work and concept of “Participatory Community Development” from the Secretary of Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CPC.
Leadership Inc has also been developing our virtual facilitation and training capacity with involvement in several global conferences and assisting in the ICA Asia Pacific Regional Meeting/Conference. We have continued our work with GFSC (Global Facilitators Serving Community) and supporting facilitated crisis and disaster recovery.
This article was first published in the Global Buzz, January 2021.