Ep.68 Leading From Behind: Rethinking Leadership Through Facilitation

Andres Marquez-Lara is the Founder and CEO of UFacilitate, a global facilitation company that works with foundations, NGOs, and multilateral (inter-governmental) organizations to help their leaders deal with what he calls the “messy human stuff”—egos, cultural differences, miscommunication, conflict—that put their missions at risk. UFacilitate has worked in 40 countries with groups such as the World Food Program, The Nature Conservancy, Easter Seals, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and many others. Marquez-Lara, an East Side Institute Associate, attributes his successful approach to leadership development to social therapeutics. “The world today is not predictable, and rigid hierarchical leadership no longer works very well. ... No one person can figure it out. It must be figured out together.  We think the best lead ers lead from behind.  They are those who can create social environments that help people to perform differently, try different things and figure out together where they want to go.”  In this conversation with host Desire Wandan, Martiquez-Lara talks about his approach to leadership and facilitation, his ideas for the decentralization of A.I. and his newly released book, Ritual 2.0. In addition to leading UFacilitate, Marquez-Lara teaches leadership development in various executive programs at Georgetown University. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Excellence in Public Leadership (CEPL) at George Washington University. He is also an Advisor at the Emergence Project for Purposeful Entrepreneurship at Stanford University. He and his work have been recognized by Ashoka and the American Academy of Certified Public Managers. LINK to Purchase of Ritual 2.0 - - - - - - Here is the link to purchase it and get a free excerpt: https://linktr.ee/Rituals2.0 https://messyhumanstuff.substack.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/andresmarquezlara/ https://subnetsforgood.com/ ----more---- Welcome to All Power to the Developing, a podcast of the East Side Institute. The Institute is a center for social change efforts that reinitiate human and community development. We support, connect, and partner with committed and creative activists, scholars, artists, helpers, and healers all over the world. In 2003, Institute co-founders Lois Holzman and the late Fred Newman had a paper published with the title “All Power to the Developing.” This phrase captures how vital it is for all people—no matter their age, circumstance, status, race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation—to grow, develop and transform emotionally, socially and intellectually if we are to have a shot at creating something positive out of the intense crises we’re all experiencing. We hope that this podcast series will show you that, far more than a slogan, “all power to the developing” is a loving activity, a pulsing heart in an all too cruel world. ----more---- The East Side Institute is a hub for a diverse and emergent community of social activists, thought leaders, and practitioners who are reigniting our human abilities to imagine, create and perform beyond ourselves—to develop. Each episode will introduce you to another performance activist or play revolutionary from around the world.   To learn more about the East Side Institute you can go to https://eastsideinstitute.org/   Made possible in part by Growing Social Therapeutics: The Baylah Wolfe Fund.