We had a clear intent for our journey, to better understand where we are at, on an individual and collective level – to understand what changes we can make in the way we live, we work, we think, we behave, and to explore human solutions to support a better world. The best way to learn for us was to engage and communicate with the people, to have conversations with them about their way of living,  their culture, their vision for the future, their fears, their values, aspirations and hear their stories. There was so much to learn and engage on. Throughout our 19month journey covering 24 countries we engaged in authentic discussions, human to human.

We first got to know people and their cultures. We began to understand how our cultures impact positively or negatively on our world. In our conversations we challenged ourselves and other cultures on what the real challenges are which all face. We wanted to understand what future people wanted, what values should be driving this future, what would it look like, feel like, smell like. Our conversations also incorporated some of the themes from the Sustainable Development Goals (driven by governments and businesses), which set the world vision for 2030, including for example: poverty, natural resources management, economic systems and economic growth, inequalities, responsible consumption and production, well-being and the pursuit of happiness. We also looked at how people and their culture related to some of the themes from the Happiness Index.

We had two pivotal questions we asked to everyone we met to really learn from them:

1. What is the one lesson you have learned in life that you feel is something you need to share with others which would help them immensely?
2. What would you like people to say about you once you have passed-on?

Not easy questions to answer – try it yourself quickly.

We could see people puzzle through thought to get to answers. The second question certainly posed a thought block – probably because not many people think of this at all as they pass through life. Such questions enabled us to have really deep systemic conversations with people and to learn what drive us as human. We also discovered how each culture formulates a narrative and identity which frames their views on the world and their reactions to it. These narratives are incredibly powerful and pervasive, they can enable you, us to rise and be brave and become a leader to support a better world, or they can prevent us from learning, reflecting, changing and they keep you locked in your view of the reality, waiting for other to change it for you. We also came back with key questions, challenges for which we did not have answers, but we wanted to start a dialogue and collective efforts to address them.

     Some of our key realisations included:

• We do not have a collective co-shared vison for the future that we are all working towards, the current narratives are too polarised to enable social cohesion
• The current narrative of success and of the future is led by a small percentage of the population, the richer part. It is not defined and co-developed with the remaining 90% of the population based on their reality
• We do not have enough inclusive and systemic dialogues to tackle some of these big questions
• Fear is a massive block for improvement
• Improving the future is not only about income and money, it is about building self-confidence, enabling thinking, support creativity, change mindsets, change habits, support ecosystems development
• Trust is the missing link at the moment in the world
• Authentic and honest communication is key
• Having a clear purpose and intent will shift people around you
• Listening to understand is a skill that we all have to develop and improve
• Change starts with you, you have to be brave and be willing to take more risks

All the information collected (lessons) enabled us to shift own views and culture about our role and impact in the world. This learning journey, afforded us time to explore the best way to use our experience, knowledge and skills to support people and organisations in a similar developmental and transformative journey. Through this journey, we were able to find our personal and professional purpose, to shift culture, and build the courage to live it / go for it. The lessons learnt from this journey were leadership lessons on how to become a better human and become an authentic and purpose-driven leader. We are still on this journey, it is a never ending one, of exploration, commitment, responsibility, accountability, courage, boldness, failures, experimentations, determination and learning.