Written by: Ben Treviño, Network Coordinator

“The bark of the olonā, endemic to Hawaiʻi, is traditionally used to create strong, durable fibers for cordage in weight-bearing nets and fishhooks. Named for this plant, Hui Olonā will be a net of key connectors and weavers that uplift and support Fellows’ impact.”

— From the 2023 launch of Forum of Fellows Hui Olonā

• When we visited every county to recruit for our 2024 programs, Fellows were there to tell our story.
• When we launched Leaders Lab—making our leadership philosophy more accessible than ever—it was Fellows who created the learning spaces and guided 99 Hawaiʻi changemakers through them.
• When we gathered on Maui for the 2024 Omidyar Fellows Summit, two dozen Fellows took the stage and put their work on display to define what Impact means to HLF.

Over the summer, one Fellow described our 5th Omidyar Fellows Summit (gathering all Fellows from all cohorts together), as “Fellows led.” This seemingly small comment marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the Forum of Fellows into the Impact Network that we envision for it.

However, it’s not the work in the front of the room that is marking us as Fellows led. Rather, it’s the unseen work that has taken place between Fellows, strengthening bonds and drawing the Network together in a way that all Fellows can plug into.

Plugging into the Network

Fellows will remember “The Clinic,” an exercise in which the cohort comes together to workshop a current challenge facing one of its members. After the presenting Fellow has shared as much of their context as possible through the overview and a brief Q&A, there’s a moment when the Fellow pushes their chair back from the conversation and their cohort proceeds as if they’re no longer in the room.

What happens in this moment? What at first blush seems like a moment of disengagement is quite the opposite. It is the moment you get to plug in.

Fellows led means multiple perspectives, processes, and methods

In November, 10 Fellows attended “A Catalyst for Change: Indigenous Innovation at UH” where Fellow Kūhaʻo Zane described the essence of the Papakū Makawalu process the Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation uses to extract data from ancestral chants: understanding from multiple perspectives, processes, and methods.

This process is also the essential magic of the clinic. I believe it is what Fellows have been referring to this year when they experience the Forum as being Fellows led. Now more than ever, we can plug in and observe that multiple perspectives, processes, and methods occurring across the Network are each driven by their unique circumstances and not established by a central authority.

Like Fellows experienced in the clinic, the diversity and plurality of our colleagues’ approaches—delivered through affectionate bonds of pilina and shared values—is a source of strength that each Fellow can draw on for their individual impact work.

An Emerging Vision

Being Fellows led also raises the question of direction: where does this distributed leadership want to take us? Our analysis of Network activities revealed Fellows coalescing around seven themes: 

1. Mālama ʻĀina and Climate Justice
2. Thriving ʻOhana and Healthy Relationships
3. Investing in Hawaiʻi’s Keiki and Ōpio 
4. Community Healing and Governance
5. ʻĀina and ʻIke Driven Innovation
6. Workforce and Leadership Development
7. Regenerative Business Economy 

Each theme weaves together the work of Fellows across the entire Network. Sometimes Fellows collaborate or coordinate directly, but more often than not, they work in their own contexts in their own ways. However, at any time, the connections of the Forum of Fellows allow them to push their chair back from their own context and plug into the multiple perspectives, processes, and methods simultaneously at work across the Network.

Through those same connections they also contribute to an emerging vision of what a transformed Hawaiʻi could look like, and somewhat more pragmatically, what transformations will get us there. 

At times this year, the country seemed singularly focused on which individual would be elected to our highest national authority and how their leadership would affect us. I’m proud to be a part of a Network that embraces leadership as an activity for all. One that invests, both individually and collectively, in the connections that enable distributed leadership to weave together more complex, more fulfilling, and more just futures than any individual leadership could on their own.