The Social Field

The Social Field is a podcast that showcases stories about what it means to be a social performance practitioner. Designed for people from a range of sectors (mining, oil and gas, renewable energy, forestry, agriculture, protected areas management and more) this will be appeal both to those directly involved in the discipline and to those accountable for teams doing stakeholder engagement, socio-economic development in communities, and social risk and impact management.This is  a teaser for the six new episodes launched as part of season two. Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors.  

This episode introduces you to The Social Field season two,defending the value of spaces like this and presenting storytelling as the structuring device for the rest of the season. As part of this episode, we link the focus directly to the work of addressing our most intractable problems associal performance practitioners. We also introduce some of our storytelling gurus who help us understand the strategic value stories can offer to our businesses and our work in sustainability and social change.   Contact: To learn more about the work Jess Schulschenk is involvedin, follow her on https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-schulschenk-9627944.You can also find out more about the Embedding Project at https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=embedding%20project&origin=GLOBAL_SEARCH_HEADER&sid=K-.To learn more about the work Brian Fitzgerald is involvedin, follow him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfit.You can also find the resources he mentions in his interview at the followingwebsite: https://www.dancing-fox.com. Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors.

Mpinane Mmahlatji, a facilitator of complex multi-stakeholder processes shares her rich experience of how important it is to start our interventions by gaining a deeper appreciation of the system and challenge we are facing. She also suggests we reframe how we plan for transition and exits. Kalnisha Singh adds to this discussion with a reflection on how to understand the moment one finds oneself in. She also challenges us to imagine the future with more ambition. Here the storytelling device of ‘timing’ teaches us how to orientate ourselves and others in the telling of our own stories, how to pace our interventions appropriately for different stakeholder audiences, and how to define our planning horizons in ways that support more meaningful conversations and outcomes. Contact: To learn more about the work Mpinane is involved in, follow her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpinane-mmahlatji-formerly-senkhane-7ab6a696.To learn more about Kalnisha’s work follow her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalnisha-singh or go to KD Strategies website at https://kdstrategies.co.za.Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors.

Karien Lotter, a social scientist with experience in the work of land access, displacement and resettlement, shares with us the learnings from her studies in regenerative systems around the importance of adopting different perspectives as we seek to understand and then intervene into the range of systems at play influencing communities. Bongani Baloyi shares his experiences of how cross-continent knowledge exchanges can support shared learnings. Here the storytelling devices of ‘characters’ and ‘location’ underscore the importance of zooming our focus both in and out to different scales in order to help us make sense of the different elements of the system at play. If we do not do this, we risk creating large blind spots in our work.  Contact: To learn more about the work Karien is involved in, followher at https://www.linkedin.com/in/karien-lotter-804a011a/.You can also read more about her thinking at the Landscape Lens platform on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-landscape-lens/posts/?feedView=all.To learn more about Bongani’s work follow him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bongani-baloyi-506402105or go to the MG5 Holdings website at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mg5-holdings-36257392. Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors.  

Queen B (or Bianca Jordan) is a socio-economicdevelopment manager in the renewable energy sector. She explores with us who is narrating our socio-economic development journey, considering the challenges ofco-creation as well as the empowerment journey required. In this episode, we also take a fuller view on the role played by a narrator in setting the frame for the work, including by setting the agenda, defining the language and selecting the participants who are involved. We are challenged to see how we can share aspects of this powerful framing role with other stakeholders, and communities in particular. Contact: To learn more about the work Queen B is involved in, followher at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bianca-michaeline-jordan-24297681. Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors.

Mariam January, a sustainability consultant and partowner of her family’s taxi business, shares with us some of the ways in which the different worlds she live in clash, highlighting the influence of “the rules of the game” in shaping how we move through different spaces. She alsochallenges us to be awake to the structural forces that influence how things play out – so we can both be more honest with ourselves and, where needed, confront them.  Contact: To learn more about the work Mariam is involved in, followher at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariamjanuary/ Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors.

We explore the skills, tips and tricks of how storytellingpractices can be used more effectively to enhance our work as social performance practitioners.  Contact: To learn more about the work Jess Schulschenk is involvedin, follow her on https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-schulschenk-9627944.You can also find out more about the Embedding Project at https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=embedding%20project&origin=GLOBAL_SEARCH_HEADER&sid=K-.To learn more about the work Brian Fitzgerald is involvedin, follow him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfit.You can also find the resources he mentions in his interview at the followingwebsite: https://www.dancing-fox.com. Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors.  

Karien Lotter, Andy Booth and Rob Gerrits participate in this long form and standalone podcast episode where they discuss the launch of the The Landscape Lens: a five-part conversation series exploring how transformative projects can move beyond managing impact to managing change. This looks beyond mitigation to actively engaging with inevitable landscape-level social, economic, governance, cultural and other changes.This episode explores the key themes from this series and discusses its reception and aspirations for the future. More on The Landscape Lens: Large-scale private sector energy and extractive projects don’t simply cause impacts - they reshape landscapes, livelihoods and institutions over generations. Yet our dominant management frameworks remain rooted in risk mitigation and compliance, designed for static contexts and short timelines.Each paper builds the argument step by step: from reframing the social dimension, to exposing why current methods fall short, to seeing systems and landscapes differently, and finally, to what it takes inside organisations to make this shift real.Read the Series:Paper 1 – Managing the Social Dimension of Large-Scale Transformative Projects https://lnkd.in/dFFujqnPPaper 2 – Why the Way We Work No Longer Works https://lnkd.in/dKwDXUb2Paper 3 – Seeing the System https://lnkd.in/d_9Gwn_6 Paper 4 – Seeing the Landscape https://lnkd.in/drvxuJ4c Paper 5 – Are Major Projects Ready for Systems-Based Thinking? https://lnkd.in/dZ2f-UCh #LandscapeLens hashtag#TransformativeProjects #SystemsThinking hashtag#SocialPerformance #RegenerativeDevelopment hashtag#ChangeManagement

Due to popular response, we have decided to offer the full length interview between Alison McCallum and Nomfundo Mogapi as a SEASON ONE EXTRA.Those of you who have enjoyed episodes 2 and 3 which featured Nomfundo Mogapi (from the Centre for Mental Wellness and Leadership) will find this especially interesting.We also hope you will share this with your managers and human resources colleagues who will find it especially interesting in so far as it explores how they can create a safer environment for social performance practitioners to work in.Contact:To learn more about the work Nomfundo does, contact theCentre for Mental Wellness and Leadership at⁠https://cmwl.co.za/⁠CreditsPresented by: Lisa van Dongen and Alison McCallumCo-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van DongenSound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors as well as AngloAmerican, the sponsor for season one.

In this inaugural episode, we introduce The Social Field podcast and unpack more on what a social performance practice entails. We learn more about the differing perspectives on the discipline and its functionality across sectors by hearing people’s origin stories for how they came to the work. Content: Check out Eva Pomeroy's article quoted in the introduction at the following link: https://medium.com/presencing-institute-blog/social-fields-shifting-the-quality-of-our-collective-being-6bfc8de3afac Credits: Presented by: Lisa van Dongen and Alison McCallum Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: Audiodacious Special thanks to all contributors as well as Anglo American, the sponsor for season one.

Chulumanco Mdingi, a community relations manager in the renewable energy sector, shares his extensive practical and theoretical knowledge of socio-economic development in the South African context. Chulumanco describes some of the poor practices he has been exposed to but also points to the structural challenges with operating in community contexts. Psychologist Nomfundo Mogapi shares her knowledge of how family and intergenerational trauma make this challenge significantly more difficult to manage without adopting heightened levels of awareness on the psychological architecture of communities. Contact: To learn more about the work Nomfundo does, contact the Centre for Mental Wellness and Leadership at https://cmwl.co.za/ Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen and Alison McCallum Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: Audiodacious Special thanks to all contributors as well as Anglo American, the sponsor for season one.

If you want to maximise your impact in the work you do, psychologist Nomfundo Mogapi argues the most important thing you can do is invest in therapy. In this episode, we explore the importance of working on one’s own psychological wellbeing as a key requirement for operating successfully in the social performance field. Nomfundo Mogapi helps us understand the brain science behind why therapy and other psycho-social support is necessary for teams and leaders operating in wounded contexts. Nomsa Fulbrook-Bhembe from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) also shares her story of how this work shows up in her personal life. Contacts You can find out more about Nomfundo and the work she does at the Centre for Mental Wellness and Leadership at https://cmwl.co.za/ Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen and Alison McCallum Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: Audiodacious Special thanks to all contributors as well as Anglo American, the sponsor for season one.

A social performance manager supporting renewable energy projects in the mining sector, Sindiswa Gaven speaks to us of her experiences of what makes certain social performance teams effective. She shares how working in a cross-functional ways builds confidence and creates more meaning in the work we do. She goes further to call for companies to better involve employees living in neighbouring host communities as well communities themselves in delivering improved social performance outcomes. We also hear more about Daniel Kim’s Core Theory of Success. Content To learn more about Daniel Kim's Core Theory of Success, you can follow this link: https://thesystemsthinker.com/what-is-your-organizations-core-theory-of-success/ Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen and Alison McCallum Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: Audiodacious Special thanks to all contributors as well as Anglo American, the sponsor for season one.

This episode was inspired by a question asked by Olebogeng Koatlhai, a Social performance specialist supporting Major Capital Projects. She challenges our views on how mega projects and large organisations could be working together with civil society to progress the objective of a just transition. Alison McCallum also shares her views on the challenges of collaboration and the importance of operating with high levels of both advocacy and inquiry. Content To read more about the difference between inquiry and advocacy, see this article -https://thesystemsthinker.com/productive-conversations-using-advocacy-and-inquiry-effectively/ Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen and Alison McCallum Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: Audiodacious Special thanks to all contributors as well as Anglo American, the sponsor for season one.

The season concludes with a reflection on how the discipline has evolved in the past 20 years or so from when the term ‘social performance’ was first coined. It explores the levers that have supported this evolution and explores how different organisations and sectors may be at a different point on the social performance maturity journey. It begins to imagine the seeds of the future and what these suggest for the discipline. We also meet Andy Booth, Head of Social Transitions at Anglo American to hear about his experience of how the discipline has changed. This is a part one of a two-part episode. Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen and Alison McCallum Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: Audiodacious Special thanks to all contributors as well as Anglo American, the sponsor for season one.

Episode six (part two) continues to explore ideas about the future of the discipline by shifting focus to the global and local trends and themes that we observe at the very forefront or frontier of the practice. These include radically rethinking the role of external stakeholders (including community stakeholders) as partners in the journey, supported by new forms of participatory process and agreement making. Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen and Alison McCallum Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: Audiodacious Special thanks to all contributors as well as Anglo American, the sponsor for season one.

The Social Field is a podcast that showcases stories about what it means to be a social performance practitioner. Designed for people from a range of sectors (mining, oil and gas, renewable energy, forestry, agriculture, protected areas management and more) this will be appeal both to those directly involved in the discipline and to those accountable for teams doing stakeholder engagement, socio-economic development in communities, and social risk and impact management.