Show Notes:
Where are the islands of sanity in the midst of this modern mayhem? Where can I catch my breath, see the bigger picture and prioritize my next strategic steps? Join Rachel Sinha and Tatiana Fraser, the co-founders of The Systems Sanctuary, in their conversation with Tuesday and Tim. The four of them share stories of their work and explore some key learnings on the ascendency of relationships, peer learning as a strategy, how power plays out in a systems analysis, why they bring a feminist analysis and lens to their work, and how depth and connection bring joy into the work.
About Rachel + Tatiana
Rachel Sinha
Rachel is co-founder and Director of The Systems Sanctuary. Together with Tatiana Fraser, The Systems Sanctuary is designed to be a ‘refuge for systems leaders’. Recognizing the very real challenges associated with leading systems change work and especially for women leading this work in the world.
Today they coach and train systems leaders internationally on the theory and practice of systems leadership through their popular Masterclass on Systems Practice.
The Sanctuary is known for creating small, high-quality, peer-learning Cohorts of individuals calling for systems change. With care and support, these become large scale, deeply-bonded flourishing ecosystems for systems change on topics from Gender Based Violence, to the Opioid Crisis to Climate Change.
Rachel has a long track record of starting-up and co-leading ecosystems and networks that create the conditions for systems change.
She co-founded The Finance Innovation Lab in London, a collaboration between WWF and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) in 2008. This award-winning systems change initiative became a key case study in the early years of Innovation Labs and has been shared at Yale, Harvard and Stanford amongst others. Rachel was chosen to sit on the European Commission panel for Social Business as a result of her work on the Lab and received a ‘person of exceptional ability’ Green Card, to move to the US with her young family.
Rachel co-founded spin-off initiatives from the Lab including the Natural Capital Coalition and Audit Futures. Most recently, with Tatiana and a core group of other systems change leaders, The Sanctuary team became the start-up crew for Illuminate - designed to cultivate the field of systems change practice internationally with partners including Academy of Systems Change, CoCreative, Garfield, Lankelly Chase and School of Systems Change.
She began her career in Marketing (and has an MA in it), working both agency and client side and still holds that strategic mindset. She has always had an interest in Psychology (and a BA) and knows the value of creating clear punchy comms that cuts through the noise to shift hearts and minds and bring people in.
She has worked on Sustainability issues at the think tank of ICAEW and with the International Federation of Accountants in New York and has facilitated social innovation processes with senior post secondary leaders in Canada with McConnell, with systems change funders and beyond.
Rachel is British and currently lives in St Louis in Missouri in the US with her three kids.
Tatiana Fraser
Tatiana is a writer, mother, activist and systems change coach. She has 25 years of experience leading and scaling systems change initiatives, creating strategic learning communities and movement building. She is co-founder of The Systems Sanctuary, where she teaches and coaches systems change leaders and teams internationally and writes and speaks on bridging feminist practice and systems change.
Co-founder and past executive director of Girls Action Foundation (1995- 2012) and co-author of Girl Positive (Random House 2016), Tatiana has worked to reframe the narrative and to advance the leadership and social justice of girls and women.
Tatiana is an Ashoka Fellow, recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women (Women’s Executive Network), the recipient of the McGill Alumni James G Wright Award and the Champion of Lifelong Learning by the Quebec Association of Lifelong Learning. She has served on numerous boards and advisory committees including Illuminate, The UN Commission on the Status of Women, The Carold Institute, Food Secure Canada, Exeko, CKX and Actua among others.
A mother of 2 kids and living in Montreal, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Women Studies and MBA from McGill University.
Resources:
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“Bridging the fields of feminist and systems practice: Building ecosystems for gender equity,” by Tatiana Fraser and Juniper Glass (September 2020)
“Feminist Systems Change,” by Tatiana Fraser and Rachel Sinha (2021)
“The Way of Integrity,” by Martha Beck
Who do Rachel + Tatiana recommend that Tim & Tuesday talk to next?: Bayo Akomolafe, Karen Barad, Author of “Meeting the Universe Halfway” & Nora Bateson
Poem: “The Way It Is,” by William Stafford
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.