Partnering: Forge the Deep Connections that Make Great Things Happen
Some of the most successful people in the world all have a secret power: their partnerships.
Our individualistic society has created a cult of self-interest. The result: fear, division, and domination, which has crushed our ability to relate meaningfully to each other and diminished our ability to innovate and collaborate.
Jean Oelwang, founding CEO and Trustee of Virgin Unite, has interviewed over 60 business and life partnerships - including Desmond and Leah Tutu, and Ben and Jerry - revealing how to nurture relationships with depth and purpose. These kinds of deep connections have a profound ripple effect on everything we do, supporting us to achieve more, withstand anything and amplify impact. Enduring partnerships are the foundation of a meaningful life as well as the backbone of any successful organization. In this book she unpicks the values that connect great partners, offering practical tools for staying in sync, disagreeing respectfully and a blueprint for expanding small partnerships into large-scale collaborations.
Packed with wisdom to nourish the relationships that give us strength and meaning, Partnering is a call-to-action for individuals resisting individualism to lead with purpose and impact.
https://pluswonder.org/explore/
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the core components of strong partnerships and relationships.
- Identify how to bring the core components of partnering into organizations to greater depth and harmony.
Jean Oelwang
Jean is the founding CEO and President of Virgin Unite, an entrepreneurial foundation that builds leadership collectives, incubates ideas, and re-invents systems for a better world.
Over the last 19 years, she has worked with partners to lead the incubation and start-up of several global initiatives, including: The Elders, The B Team, The Carbon War Room (successfully merged with the RMI), The Africa Donor Collective, Ocean Unite (now ORRAA), The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, 100% Human at Work, The Virgin Unite Constellation, and The Branson Centres of Entrepreneurship. She also played a key partner role in the incubation of many other initiatives such as The Audacious Project.
As part of her work over the last three decades, Jean has helped corporations put the wellbeing of people and the planet at their core, including working with over 25 Virgin businesses across 15 industries to help embed purpose in all they do. Jean also served as a Partner in the Virgin Group leading their people strategy.
Jean spent seventeen years living and working on six continents to start and help lead mobile phone companies in South Africa, Colombia, Bulgaria, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and the US. She was the joint CEO of Virgin Mobile in Australia prior to starting Virgin Unite.
Jean has long explored the overlap of the business and social sectors having worked for the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife in Australia, and as a VISTA volunteer where she worked with – and learned from - homeless teens in Chicago.
Jean holds several advisory board roles, including The Elders, Vintro, Vatican Humanity 2.0, and the Sara Blakely Foundation. She is on the boards of RMI, The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, Ocean Unite, Unite BVI Foundation, The B Team, Penn State Board of Visitors, Just Capital, and NOVONIX. She is also honoured to be a B Team leader.
She co-founded Plus Wonder to spark more meaningful deep connections and collaborations in the world. She is the author of the new book, Partnering.
Jean has been on the TED and TEDx stages as a host and speaker and has been the recipient of several awards including the Bernie Glassman Trailblazer Award, FilmAid Philanthropic Leadership Award, Helen Eakin Eisenhower Award, Gerry Susman Sustainability Award, 2021 Beta Gamma Sigma International Honoree Award, ACCR Capital Community Engagement Award, and Penn State Fellows Award.
George Rivera
George Rivera III serves as the Senior Vice President of Enterprise Solutions at the Society for Human Resource Management. He is responsible for broadening the awareness of SHRM's mission to enhance workforce development by building and strengthening partnerships with some of the largest enterprise organizations across the globe. In addition to helping bring to market the top ideas and innovations through outreach, representing all things workplace, workers, and work.
George is a proven business development thought leader who places a deep emphasis on people, with more than 15 years of experience building and scaling highly productive, results-driven sales organizations. Prior to joining SHRM George spent over a decade honing his expertise in HCM cloud technology, retirement, insurance, and other employee benefits, as well as HR services and PEO offerings as he led sales efforts of Paychex Inc., a top HR consulting organization. In addition to business-growth responsibilities, George also led critical cross-functional company initiatives throughout much of the organization including Learning and Development, Marketing and Lead Generation, Finance, and Talent Acquisition, but the most rewarding experience, by far, was his service on the board for the annual United Way Campaign.
George Rivera III recognizes that strong leaders build strong businesses and strong businesses build strong communities. George is firm believer in focusing on strategic growth for all partners.
When not at work, Rivera serves as Vice President for SHARE International a Non-Profit that aims to support the indigenous peoples of the Amazon in Peru.