Inside The Shift: Our Team, Our Values, Our Movement (Vol. 1, No. 3)

By Andrew Vidales

The Shift | Vol. 1, No. 3 – Liberating Radical Imagination

Belonging as the Engine of Radical Imagination

When I look back on the past year, I am reminded that the most transformative ideas are not born in Zoom meetings and conference rooms but instead forged in community. They surface when people feel safe enough to imagine boldly, empowered enough to innovate, and connected enough to see themselves as architects of the future. At LeadersUp, belonging is not only a cultural ambition; it’s the bedrock to drive innovation. It is the engine behind unlocking Radical Imagination.

Over the last year, the People & Culture team intentionally leaned into this truth. Building resiliency with our community begins by developing leaders who create safety, activate equitable opportunity, and share power. And before we could ask our stakeholders to take on this work, we had to model it ourselves. A commitment that was realized through our Evolve Forum Series and our Learning Arc to Future State, two inward journeys that challenged us to live and build on the SOP values we share – Normalizing Safety, Equitable Opportunity, Shared Power – as words expressed in actions.

The Evolve Forum wasn’t just a training series. It was an invitation designed to empower participants with the tools, language, and mindset to create inclusive, equitable, and safe workplaces. We made space to speak frankly about the terms on which we can thrive, the burdens that hinder us, and build the shared commitments required for trust. Prioritizing safety in that first session allowed us to give ourselves permission to slow down and be human together. By examining opportunity and power, we grappled with how to distribute decision-making more fairly and build pathways where every voice counts.

Alongside this, our Learning Arc to Future State will help us flex both our creative and adaptive muscles: key skills for imagining new systems. Through the incoming Imagination Series, storytelling offsite, and the Ancestral Power Framework, we honor our roots and reimagine what is possible. These shared experiences aim to expand our emotional intelligence and strengthen our ability to challenge the status quo with curiosity, courage, and care.

The internal shifts aren’t separate from our external impact; they’re what make it possible. The very best of our culture – the same practices that shaped it – powered our Policy Roundtable Series and the LAEEA Policy Agenda incubation, where BIPOC young adults led a region-wide process to design the economic systems they will inherit. Because we continue to invest in belonging internally, we are able to co-create belonging externally, ensuring that young adults feel prepared, supported, and seen as partners who have an equal seat at the policy design table. Radical Imagination requires Radical Belonging.

To our partners, supporters, and community: thank you. Your faith in our mission inspires this work. Your support helps us to scale inclusive leaders, go deeper in our culture change work, and build the collaborative ecosystems that are working towards an economy that is future-proof.

Together, let’s continue imagining forward and building a world of care, belonging, and shared power.

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Andrew Vidales is the Head of People & Culture at LeadersUp, driving organizational development and building inclusive, future-fit leaders.