k20 Kindness Without Borders Summit
I’ve been thinking a lot about the inaugural k20 Kindness Without Borders Summit since returning home from Florida last month.
As someone who is spending much of my time speaking about kindness, leadership, connection, and culture, it was unbelievable to be surrounded by people from all over the world who are also doing this work, each from our own perspective. Researchers, educators, healthcare professionals, nonprofit leaders, authors, speakers, and advocates all gathered because we believe kindness matters.
One of the things that struck me most at the summit was how many people shared some version of the same story.
Very few of us set out thinking, “I’m going to dedicate my life to kindness, connection, belonging, or wanting to change the world.”
Instead, there was often a small moment, or an experience, a loss or a challenge that seemed to “tap” us on the shoulder and gently say, “This is something I need YOU to do.” Some people called it a “hit” or “download”.
As I listened to so many stories, I found myself thinking about my own experience. I certainly didn’t imagine when my father died in 2006 and I started the 1,000 Mitzvahs project that it would eventually lead me here, speaking and consulting around kindness, leadership and culture. Yet looking back, I can see how one thing led to another, and how often the next step appeared because I was willing to pay attention when something kept showing up in my life.
HOW CAN WE WORK TOGETHER?
What was equally exciting is that nobody at the Summit seemed interested in keeping their ideas to themselves.
People were asking, “How can we work together?”
One of the gifts of the summit has been the follow-up conversations that have happened since I returned home. Emails and Zoom calls. We are sharing ideas. People from different parts of the world and different industries are exploring ways we might learn from one another and collaborate. I’ve been waking up early each morning with the kind of renewed excitement I had in the early days of my work, thinking about possibilities and the notion that perhaps we actually CAN change the world TOGETHER.
I’m here if you need help and happy to connect you to the growing kindness network to tap into all of it. Maybe you want more resources to create your own kindness week in November or invite your hometown or city to join us in becoming a kindness city. Maybe you need more resources for your leadership at work about the benefits of kindness. We have apps to spread kindness, films, and other things that you could use to help amplify kindness in your neighborhood, school, or organization.
-Linda
