The Social Field

The Social Field is a podcast that showcases stories about what it means to be a social performance practitioner. Designed for people from a range of sectors (mining, oil and gas, renewable energy, forestry, agriculture, protected areas management and more) this will be appeal both to those directly involved in the discipline and to those accountable for teams doing stakeholder engagement, socio-economic development in communities, and social risk and impact management.This is  a teaser for the six new episodes launched as part of season two. Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors.  

This episode introduces you to The Social Field season two,defending the value of spaces like this and presenting storytelling as the structuring device for the rest of the season. As part of this episode, we link the focus directly to the work of addressing our most intractable problems associal performance practitioners. We also introduce some of our storytelling gurus who help us understand the strategic value stories can offer to our businesses and our work in sustainability and social change.   Contact: To learn more about the work Jess Schulschenk is involvedin, follow her on https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-schulschenk-9627944.You can also find out more about the Embedding Project at https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=embedding%20project&origin=GLOBAL_SEARCH_HEADER&sid=K-.To learn more about the work Brian Fitzgerald is involvedin, follow him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfit.You can also find the resources he mentions in his interview at the followingwebsite: https://www.dancing-fox.com. Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors.

Mpinane Mmahlatji, a facilitator of complex multi-stakeholder processes shares her rich experience of how important it is to start our interventions by gaining a deeper appreciation of the system and challenge we are facing. She also suggests we reframe how we plan for transition and exits. Kalnisha Singh adds to this discussion with a reflection on how to understand the moment one finds oneself in. She also challenges us to imagine the future with more ambition. Here the storytelling device of ‘timing’ teaches us how to orientate ourselves and others in the telling of our own stories, how to pace our interventions appropriately for different stakeholder audiences, and how to define our planning horizons in ways that support more meaningful conversations and outcomes. Contact: To learn more about the work Mpinane is involved in, follow her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpinane-mmahlatji-formerly-senkhane-7ab6a696.To learn more about Kalnisha’s work follow her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalnisha-singh or go to KD Strategies website at https://kdstrategies.co.za.Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors.

Karien Lotter, a social scientist with experience in the work of land access, displacement and resettlement, shares with us the learnings from her studies in regenerative systems around the importance of adopting different perspectives as we seek to understand and then intervene into the range of systems at play influencing communities. Bongani Baloyi shares his experiences of how cross-continent knowledge exchanges can support shared learnings. Here the storytelling devices of ‘characters’ and ‘location’ underscore the importance of zooming our focus both in and out to different scales in order to help us make sense of the different elements of the system at play. If we do not do this, we risk creating large blind spots in our work.  Contact: To learn more about the work Karien is involved in, followher at https://www.linkedin.com/in/karien-lotter-804a011a/.You can also read more about her thinking at the Landscape Lens platform on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-landscape-lens/posts/?feedView=all.To learn more about Bongani’s work follow him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bongani-baloyi-506402105or go to the MG5 Holdings website at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mg5-holdings-36257392. Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors.  

Queen B (or Bianca Jordan) is a socio-economicdevelopment manager in the renewable energy sector. She explores with us who is narrating our socio-economic development journey, considering the challenges ofco-creation as well as the empowerment journey required. In this episode, we also take a fuller view on the role played by a narrator in setting the frame for the work, including by setting the agenda, defining the language and selecting the participants who are involved. We are challenged to see how we can share aspects of this powerful framing role with other stakeholders, and communities in particular. Contact: To learn more about the work Queen B is involved in, followher at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bianca-michaeline-jordan-24297681. Credits Presented by: Lisa van Dongen Co-producers: Mzamo Moloi and Lisa van Dongen Sound design and engineering: AudiodaciousSpecial thanks to all contributors.