Dec 19, 2024
The Situation
After planning efforts were postponed for 2.5 years due to the pandemic, One Challenge International needed to develop its organization-wide strategic plan to establish direction and intended outcomes for a five-year period. There was a strong need to bring together organizational leaders from across the globe for learning, deep connection, discernment and planning for the future.
Global Learning Partners was invited to provide consultation to One Challenge’s conference design planning team as it crafted a five-day, multi-stakeholder event for 96 organizational leaders.
The Journey
The conference, the first such gathering in seven years, was critically important and needed to be a huge success. However, there were numerous challenges to overcome:
- To establish broad organizational direction in a post-COVID world, guiding efforts in 40+ countries with many sub-contexts.
- Although planning a large virtual multi-stakeholder, multi-day event, the design team did not meet in person until the day before the conference.
- Breaking the model of how such gatherings have happened in the past towards a learning-centered approach
- Quickly establishing relationships and high trust among conference participants within the first two days, as many participants were new in leadership roles within the previous seven years.
- To have all organizational members contribute to the conference design.
- To ensure all conference participants, and their non-conference teammates, felt heard and of value.
- To strongly link the conference and its intended outcomes with the future viability of the organization.
- And more…
The Impact
The OC US 2022 Global Leadership Conference was a huge success. It exceeded all our expectations, and today we’re experiencing the fruit of a well-planned conference and process. Some highlights with direct ties to the conference process:
- We are together as we work within our five-year strategic plan, pursuing five strategic directions that are already effecting change and positioning us for our longer-range future.
- Our organizational leaders are connected and experiencing deeper, trust-filled relationships that are stabilizing in the midst of organizational and global change.
- Our broader OC Global Alliance is pursuing deeper collaboration and unity.
- Some of our organizational leaders are pursuing new key directions, paving the way for future growth and effectiveness.
- New teams and networks have been established, birthing new initiatives with opportunities to see multiplication happen in the future.
- We have a deepened commitment to collaborative efforts through learning-centered events.
Some testimonials from conference participants:
Our expectations were met, though not in the way we anticipated. We “three amigos” thought the focus would be on our external ministries. Wednesday though, “Discerning our Direction” day, brought an important pivot as the focus shifted to what we need to become rather than what we do, beginning with developing an extraordinary culture of prayer. From thereon, God clarified for us all, both as individuals and as a family of ministries, how to move forward in the coming years to thrive and be in step with what He is doing around the world.
The creative way this conference was planned and executed will help me in my leadership going forward. As I lead my team, and collaborate with other church and ministry leaders, I’m now equipped to guide them into collective discernment, and to facilitate planning processes that will build trust and synergy. Thank you for helping me navigate next steps in my ministry leadership!
