Getting unstuck, together.

“You have to continue to respond to a system that actually might not even exist in the manner that you understood a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to our learning-based system, with a constant input of data which is turned into information and knowledge, we are able to create a space where we can consistently reflect, and identify the big decisions that will enable a move forward.”

“Transformation is about adapting to change. If done well, it can be energising and empowering. The need to react to current crises has catalysed changes in our local government that we had previously found difficult to contemplate. Enabling the necessary shifts challenged and accelerated the digital connectivity and agility of our organisations.”

“The key for real change is going beyond silos and thinking in longer timeframes. And having governments that understand we need to innovate, to do pilots and trials, to practice trial and error, and to learn in the process – this is how we’ll be able to come up with the solutions for change that will really work.”

“We have to start thinking about first principles once again. We have to ask ourselves the questions: how do we want to live together, how do we want to move together, be healthy together, and to further our well-being together? Having that conversation is incredibly important. We need to start figuring out our portfolio of best practices, activating an ecosystem around open-ended conversations, and open-ended questions as well.”

“With the pandemic, cyclones and wars affecting Malawi, we need to scan the environment for trends that are likely to impact our economy, hence requiring the need to develop alternative scenarios to create adaptability and resilience. The sense-making capabilities will be central in defining growth and governance paradigm shifts to realise the country’s goals of graduating into a low middle-income economy and meeting most of the SDGs by 2030.”

“The traditional leadership that is telling others what to do, is replaced by interconnecting our work in a way that allows us a larger and deeper goal. That is how the whole system is changing, because we cannot achieve a city transformation goal without mobilising a large number of stakeholders and constituencies.”

“Experience how people who are different from you live – just looking at differences does not teach us anything. It’s only when we let go and live by their rules, eat what they eat, that we really understand. New languages, new foods and new people all enrich us, and that diversity is what it means to be human.”

“We can make short-term decisions and take limited stands by funding single-issue projects. Or we can invest together in shifting the systems that underpin development.”