Bridging-Changes - Academy for Leadership in Practice

We do not know what our world will look like in ten years. We know that it will not look like it did four years ago. What we also know is that leadership styles will have to adapt to meet the challenges of an increasingly globally interconnected workplace with less presence, and where solutions lie in the efforts of a team rather than in the hands of a single person or the boss. Today’s world is too complex and interconnected for one person to know or do everything.  

In the South-East Asian region, where Bridging-Changes has been working for the past years, leadership is often characterised by top-down and authoritarian traits where subordinates are expected to follow rather than being encouraged to contribute through creativity, innovation or broader collaboration.

Based in Geneva, Bridging-Changes was founded precisely to help bridge imminent political or social changes. After focusing mainly on Myanmar, we have created an Academy for Leadership in Practice (BC-ALP) in response to the missing question of what kind of leadership Myanmar would need to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The Academy will focus on the skills that a leader needs today rather than on the theory of leadership, which is often context- and culture-specific. Participants in this highly interactive, intensive training will be between 30 and 40 years old with a desire to effect change in their context.

As we have begun to pull the three 10-day modules over ten months together, we have come to realise that this course would benefit others in the region and probably beyond.

What kind of leadership is called for to meet the challenges of the 21st century?

BC-ALP is a cooperative endeavour between different organisations and learning institutions such as the Asia Institute for Hospitality Management (AIHM), the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP) and the Thinking Ahead on Societal Change Platform (TASC). It is coordinated by Bridging-Changes SàRL, a social enterprise registered in Switzerland, and funded amongst others by the Bridging-Changes Foundation and other private donors.

Based in Geneva and with a presence in South-East Asia, there was an affinity to look for partners trying to think out of the box. International Geneva seemed a good place to start looking for like-minded allies.  

The TASC Platform was one of the obvious choices. By definition, called to think ahead of societal change, the team supported our vision: trying to make a concrete difference by teaching tools and skills focused on rethinking leadership. 

Working together allows both organisations to play to their strengths: TASC, as an open forum for exchange and innovation based and active in Geneva, can bring diverse perspectives on possible societal changes; whereas Bridging-Changes as the “do-tank” can bring direct insights, connections and implementation on the ground, embedded in a region with enormous potential but that is overlooked all too often in the International Geneva because less well-known and too complex to be understood in a soundbite.

A lot of knowledge and experience can be drawn from International Geneva. Conversely, the experiences of the Academy for Leadership in Practice can also bring a new dimension to International Geneva by bringing in voices that are not necessarily heard due to their age and the region that they come from.

Next steps:

The first module of the BC-ALP will kick off in June 2024. By end March 2024, we will have selected the first 25 participants and will start the pre-course training.

How to participate:

Send us your thoughts and experiences about leadership: What do you like? What would you like to see done differently? How? How can modern technology be leveraged to enhance true leadership in service of others? What constitutes a good leader? What would you like to learn in order to become the leader you wish you had?

Your thoughts and reflections will help shape the dialogue we are wanting to establish and the training we are giving.

Send us your comments and thoughts via the website and follow us on LinkedIn.

Claudine Haenni, Chiang Mai 09.12.2023