Next-Generation Masterclass

Building Transcultural Empathy For System Change

20th November 2021

10:00 AM (BST) / 5:00 AM (EST)

Key Benefits

Key benefits

Develop richer insights when investigating complex problems, by developing greater awareness of your default historical and geographical biases.
Build better connections with people from other cultures: find your own cultural centre of gravity to gain greater cultural confidence and cultural flexibility.
Learn easily replicable reflective activities to stretch cultural empathy, that you can replicate and run with your team, your stakeholders – or socially with your friends.

Introduction

Effective governance typically relies on shared narratives and a shared language. Finding common ground between distinct traditions is therefore critical to negotiate a new normal – establish a new system of governance, or achieve any lasting, large-scale change. Yet we live in a fragmented world, one where identity politics and tribalism prevail, one that lacks common value systems – or even a basic agreement on what is true, what is good, and what is relevant. Not to mention, one where English is the default medium of communication, yet is not everyone’s first language.

So, as inhabitants of an imperfect and fragmented world, how can we develop a greater sense of emotional connection with people who come from different traditions, speak different languages, or interpret their situation through different mental models and value systems? Why exactly does it matter, and what problems arise when we don’t pay enough attention to questions of language and culture?

This interactive, experimental masterclass, will offer participants an opportunity to sit with those questions. How can we become more attuned to the value systems and mental models of people from different traditions – whether national, disciplinary, or ideological? How can we identify shared layers of identity to build new common ground? How can we develop deep mutual understanding with limited linguistic overlap? And what happens when we do? This session does not attempt to provide definitive answers, not even a silver-bullet practice. Rather, it proposes to serve as an ‘intercultural listening gym’: an emotional and cultural stretching session which can be employed for any project that requires bridging cultural and linguistic gaps.

Who Should Attened

Professionals and changemakers working in multicultural, multilingual and/or transnational organisations or initiatives. Anyone seeking to improve their empathetic capabilities to embrace differences, deepen connection and discover and create common foundations for more effective collaboration.

Julien Leyre

About Dr. Julien Leyre

Dr Julien Leyre is a French-Australian writer, educator, and governance innovator. He works with exceptional people on emerging projects addressing the systemic challenges of the 21st century, helping them give shape to their vision. His interests cover global/distributed public goods, governance innovation, education design, digital community building, AI for good, the rise of China, effective altruism and Ignatian spirituality.

Together with Carin Ism, Leyre is co-author of the upcoming book “How to Rule a World: A Guide to the Established and Emerging Tools for Power and Governance in the 21st Century” and co-founder of the Future of Governance Agency (FOGA). He is also an advisor to the Global Carbon Reward project, a revolutionary policy proposal to establish a central-bank-backed carbon currency to fund global decarbonisation, and isgood.ai, an organisation inventing the next generation of AI-powered tools to upgrade our understanding of impact and outcomes.

Julien was previously the editor-in-chief at the Global Challenges Foundation where he developed and curated quarterly publications on global risks and governance. Previous to this, he founded the Marco Polo Project, a Melbourne-based charity reinventing social work for global communities, with particular focus on China. Julien is an alumnus of Paris-Sorbonne University and Ecole Normale Supérieure and recently completed a transdisciplinary PhD with Monash University, exploring digital Chinese language education as a distributed global public good in the making. Julien was listed on the Victorian Multicultural Honour Roll in 2016 and selected as New Australian of the Year in 2017. He likes to listen and look for common ground.