Homeward Bound: The journey of a lifetime
Written enroute to South America as part of the On-Board Faculty for the first Homeward Bound Antarctic Expedition, Dec 2016)
There’s nothing like travelling 14,817 kilometres from home, to lend a situation a certain perspective. Ushuaia, Argentina is the stepping off point for the first Antarctic voyage of Homeward Bound, a ten year project to create 1000-strong global collaboration of women with a science background to lead, influence and contribute to policy and decision-making as it informs the future of our planet.
Homeward Bound has been a consuming passion for the past 12 months as I’ve worked with my fellow faculty members and our support team to create and prepare a world class development experience in leadership, strategy, science and visibility for our inaugural cohort of 76 women. During that time I’ve framed Homeward Bound in different ways for myself and the many people I’ve spoken to and worked with to help bring us to where we are today:
A project to address the under-representation of women in positions of leadership in STEM
An educational initiative for women who want to make change happen, equipping them with the skills to do so
A movement to help the world understand that our planet is our home
That thing Dad does on the weekend (or at night time or sometimes both)
Throughout the journey my thinking has had as a singular focus, how can we make this a transformational experience for the women of Homeward Bound, before, during and after their time in Antarctica?
But now in Ushuaia, as I look out over the snow-capped mountains of Tierra Del Fuego another question has formed in my mind. What do I want to get from Homeward Bound? Every element of the Homeward Bound experience has been tailored to challenge participants to think and act in new ways, in short to learn. Learning is something of a common denominator for participants, all have experienced it in spades and for many education is part of their profession. As I prepare to board the expedition vessel the M.V. Ushuaia, one of the faculty responsible for delivering the program aboard I have realised that what I want from Homeward Bound myself is the opportunity to learn, to learn more about women and how they lead.
I know the statistics, could tell you about the few crucial personality differences between men and women that are supported by data or rattle off the research into which leadership capabilities or elements of emotional intelligence women demonstrate more frequently than men. I also know the key findings from a raft of studies that show how organisations with greater gender diversity in senior leadership outperform those that don’t. But knowing the statistics doesn’t tell me how women lead differently or more importantly why.
I’ve seen signposts and clues to answer these questions in the behaviours I’ve observed over the past year as I watched both faculty and participants collaborate to bring this project to fruition. I’ve witnessed ways of working that are different, sometimes subtlety other times overtly that might begin to help me understand. But the real opportunity lies ahead, during 20 days at sea with unique group of women working to an unprecedented purpose. An unparalleled chance to learn about one of the most underutilised renewable resources on our planet, the wisdom of women.