Employee activism as a spiritual practice - Tessa Wernink, Undercover Activist

I’ve noticed that activism is having a moment in places I was not used to seeing it - inside companies. Back in my corporate days, I kept your head down and did my activism at home. Serial rebel Tessa Wernink has been shaking things up since co-founding Fairphone. I met her in her new role at The Undercover Activist. We get deep into employee activism: the dissonance about staying in a job and staying true to values, the role of power, and activism as a spiritual practice. THE IMPACT. Tessa Wernink: -leads The Undercover Activist, an education and research platform that coaches and emboldens young professionals to take constructive action to change their organisations from within -was part of the founding team of Fairphone, turning a campaign for fairer electronics into an impact-driven business model -is co-founder and host of the podcast series, What If We Get It Right? -studied English Literature and International Development, Journalism, Deep Democracy, Non-Violent Resistance and Communications -grew up in Hong Kong, and now lives in Amsterdam with her partner and their three boys THE JOURNEY. In our conversation, we explore: -Tessa’s international upbringing: “there is more than one truth” -Starting Fairphone: a rebel questioning systems -Roots of The Undercover Activist: action research, a learning hub -Befriending conflict: “resistance is the energy, not the enemy” -The dissonance: “Should I stay in this job and try to kind of be that person I want to be” -A learning journey: knowing our rights, safe spaces to be uncomfortable, making it personal -Activism and power: the “power shadow” of leaders, “do we need power to have influence?” -Activism as a spiritual practice: “how we get there is where we’ll arrive”