Common Purpose Blog

Dishaa (our Venture which connected leaders in the UK and India) was so successful, unbelievably successful, that we have been asked to launch similar Ventures between lots of countries around the world (see www.commonpurpose.org/ventures). Dishaa means direction in Hindi, so we will have Phambili (direction in the Nguni languages inc. Xhosa and Zulu), Dao Xiang [...]

Below is Rosie Walford’s guest post about her experiences on Day 4 of the Dishaa event that took place in Pune, India. To start from the beginning, check out her experience of Dishaa Day 1. To learn more about the initiative visit the Dishaa website. In the final phase of Dishaa, the mood changed again. [...]

Below is Rosie Walford’s guest post about her experiences on Day 2 of the Dishaa event taking place in Pune, India. To start from the beginning, check out her experience of Dishaa Day 1. To learn more about the initiative visit the Dishaa website. Responsibility and Complexity: This morning I discovered how much I admire [...]

The following is a guest post from Rosie Walford, a participant on the 2011 Dishaa event in Pune, India, sharing her experience from Day 1 of the course. Stay posted for further updates each day. We were a bunch of strangers from very mixed backgrounds and we were still being very polite on our first [...]

“Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius.” This is a quote from an ABC Nightline news story about IDEO, a company in Palo Alto, CA who are experts in nothing but the process of how to design something. Participants at the Dishaa event in Pune watched this on day two [...]

Yesterday, 40 leaders from the UK and India gathered at the Tata Management Training Centre in Pune, India for the first event of the five year Dishaa initative. Launched by British Prime Minister David Cameron on 28 July 2010, Dishaa is an initiative that will expand, enrich and energise relations between India and the UK. [...]

The following is a guest blog from Amy Ritman, Senior Course Director at Common Purpose, working on the Dishaa UK-India leaders course. William Hague’s speech this week at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong resonated with our experience of putting together our new initiative called Dishaa. In his speech, Hague stresses the importance of [...]

Following the UK’s comprehensive spending review last week, this is a crucial time for the country to consider how it can do more with less. For example, the NHS can simply no longer afford itself. Old models, old mindsets and old systems simply can’t continue to operate efficiently, with significantly less resource. The UK would [...]