The FHI 360 Global Leadership Meeting (GLM) consisted of an interactive, four-day virtual meeting, offering a variety of live and asynchronous forums for FHI leaders. The meeting was designed to:
- Amplify diverse voices and share unique perspectives from across the FHI 360 family on global trends and important paradigm shifts impacting our work.
- Explore innovations across the FHI 360 portfolio to energize and inspire FHI 360 leadership.
- Strengthen understanding of the FHI 360 family of companies, the organization’s diversification strategy, and how ‘the family’ makes FHI 360 stronger.
- Collaborate on innovative solutions to global challenges that demand attention.
- Strengthen connections and foster communication across the FHI 360 leadership network.
- Strengthen digital literacy and build confidence in utilizing diverse digital tools and platforms.
The format of the 2021 GLM consisted of a daily two and a half- hour plenary session, a 90-minute design sprint for each region (US/LAC, Africa/Europe, Asia) which expanded on one of the daily sub-themes, and one to two informal meet-up meals, allowing leaders across regions to build connections and get to know each other in a relaxed and fun setting. In addition to the live forums, participants had the opportunity to explore additional content through GLM On Demand, an extensive library of videos and print resources spotlighting FHI 360 projects and people all over the world. The GLM leveraged a number of technology platforms to enhance interactivity, and promote digital literacy and confidence. Platforms like Zoom, Wonder, Miro, and MS Teams, served as helpful tools to enhance retention, drive engagement, and provide participants with a new set of skills to utilize with and pass on to team members.
Throughout the GLM, participants had the opportunity to participate in breakout groups during plenary to engage with the topics and hear a diverse set of perspectives in randomized groups. Participants also had the opportunity to participate in three design sprints over the course of the week. Design sprints were divided regionally into two U.S. groups, one Asia group, and one Africa group to accommodate timezones. The objectives of the design sprints included enhancing participants’ knowledge of the human centered design (HCD) process, creating an opportunity to apply components of the HCD process in hands-on activities, providing a forum to expand and brainstorm around themes introduced in plenary, and teaching participants how to leverage Miro — a collaborative online whiteboard. In addition to gaining knowledge of HCD, participants engaged in discussion in response to “how might we” questions over the course of the three sessions.
The inclusion of a diverse array of speakers and topics, including messages from FHI 360 leadership, Diversity Equity and Inclusion spotlights, topical SPARC talks (Special Platforms for Action Reflection and Collaboration), FHI 360 subsidiary panels, enterprise services features, and storytellers from field programs all over the globe helped ensure leaders left the meeting:
- Energized to lead people and projects in a dynamic, often virtual environment.
- Armed with tools, connections, and ideas for applying innovations and making effective, forward-thinking decisions.
- Invested in understanding and sharing about the roles of the FHI 360 family of companies in achieving organizational goals.
- Feeling connected to the mission, vision and people that make up FHI 360.
- Eager to contribute their time, talent and energy to the next 50 years of FHI 360.