Good Leaders Podcast Episode 18 – Ashoka’s Marie Ringler: ‘I’ve been proudest of myself when I’ve jumped into cold water’
She hates small talk and has a taste for bold decisions: Ashoka’s Europe leader Marie Ringler talks to Tim West about her journey from politician to social innovator, what it takes to achieve systems change and why people’s feeling of powerlessness is the biggest poison in the world.
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What should you talk about over dinner with friends? Not their jobs or latest holidays. “Ask them: what did you do to save the world today? And celebrate that,” says Marie Ringler.
Ringler, the leader of Ashoka Europe and a member of the network’s leadership group, is not one for superficial conversations and small talk (she hates that) – and she makes no exception as she talks to Pioneers Post founding editor Tim West in this episode of the Good Leaders Podcast.
So what made Marie Ringler, once the youngest member of Vienna’s regional parliament and city council, give up politics and embrace a network of social innovators? A different way of creating impact.
Ashoka, the pioneering network of social entrepreneurs and social innovators founded by Bill Drayton four decades ago now numbers 4,000 fellows from around the world. “Everyone in our community is a leader,” Ringler says.
When we are able to build trust with other people, we're able to do things together so much more effectively
She explains her role as a convener to help fellows connect, increase their impact though collaboration and inspire others to become changemakers themselves – including a lot of work to engage young people in particular. She likes to call herself the “chief trust officer”. “When we are able to build trust with other people, we’re able to do things together so much more effectively,” she says.
She argues we need to re-explore what citizenship means – not as something linked to a passport, but as an active contribution to society. Giving everyone a sense of agency to make a difference in their lives and in the world is essential, she argues, not only to achieve large-scale systems change, but also to fight off general disillusion that has led to growing polarisation and the rise of populism in society. “That sense of powerlessness is the greatest poison in the world,” Ringler says.
Ringler discusses:
- Her career path from politics to social innovation
- Her role as the head of Ashoka Europe to build trust and collaboration between changemakers
- What good leadership looks like
- The need re-engage people in society – so that “everyone can be a changemaker”
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