THE CIVICS with a Responsible Leadership Lab at the European Forum Alpbach 2024, “Moment of Truth”
THE CIVICS Innovation Hub co-curated the ‘Responsible Leadership Lab | Business, Civil Society & Politics: Partners in Challenging Times’ at this year’s European Forum Alpbach in partnership with LovePolitics, the Business Council for Democracy (BC4D), and EFA. We embarked on a journey to explore and redefine the concept of “Responsible Leadership”.
Over the course of 1.5 intensive days in the scenic village of Alpbach, we brought together 30 participants from business, civil society, and politics. Our aim was clear: to delve deep into the pressing challenges our societies face today, with a focus on democratic backsliding and the alarming rise of far-right populism and autocratic tendencies. Through open spaces for dialogue and collaborative discussions, we worked on identifying pathways for strengthening existing alliances across these sectors and how to forge new ones.
The ideas of “responsible leadership” and “strategic alliances” resonated strongly throughout our sessions. Participants were inspired by insightful presentations from key initiatives: Sonja Jöchtl shared the vision of love politics for the 21st century, Nina Lüders introduced the impactful work of the BC4D, and Martin Kirbach presented the transnational CIVIC SCOUTS AT WORK programme of THE CIVICS. These initiatives underscored the potential of uniting forces, whether between business and civil society or between civil society and politics, to uphold and advance our democratic values.
Our key takeaway? Strengthening and expanding these cross-sector alliances is more vital than ever for supporting and safeguarding our democracies. By fostering collaboration, mutual understanding, and responsible leadership, we believe we can collectively face the challenges of our times. Here are some further thoughts that came up:
- Democracy is a fragile skill that requires effort from everyone in society.
- Employees trust employers more than politicians (cf. 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer) hence, responsible leaders within companies have a great potential to strengthen a culture of democracy within society.
- Responsible leaders should work on their inner development, considering the Inner Development Goals.
- Forming strategic alliances across sectors also needs translation work between the different “languages”, finding the win-win-wins and communicating them effectively.
We extend our gratitude to the Robert Bosch Stiftung for supporting this initiative and to the European Forum Alpbach, with special thanks to Péter Hunya for amongst others the logistical support, as well as Maren Drewes and Dijana Vetturelli for their facilitation and guidance throughout this Lab.
We’re excited to continue this important work and look forward to reconvening soon to further inspire and cultivate responsible leadership in these challenging times and bringing business, civil society and politics closer together.
