The Power of We with Jane Wei-Skillern

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Jul 1, 2025

Jane Wei-Skillern, a senior fellow and expert in network leadership, shares her insights on transformative change through relationships. She emphasizes that the power of impact lies not in control but in trust and collaboration. By prioritizing human connections over organizational hierarchy, leaders can create dynamic networks that foster community success. Jane offers practical advice on vulnerability and humility, urging listeners to step away from egos and embrace a mission-first mindset. Her inspiring stories and principles challenge conventional leadership paradigms.

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ANECDOTE

Leaders Who Put Mission First

Jane Wei-Skillern describes meeting Nancy Berry and Geraldine Peacock as formative examples of leaders who prioritized field-building over organizational aggrandizement.
Their humility and focus on collective impact drew Jane toward studying network leadership.

INSIGHT

Shift From Organization To Network

Network leadership views the network, not single organizations, as the primary vehicle for social change.
This reframes impact from isolated institutional wins to collective systems-level outcomes.

INSIGHT

Ambition Through Trusted Partnerships

Moving to network thinking reduces scarcity-driven, resource-centric approaches and enables greater ambition.
Trusted partners and a dynamic constellation of actors let networks pilot, learn, and scale solutions more effectively.

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What if the greatest lever for impact isn’t found in strategies or institutions, but in the quality of our relationships? In this inaugural episode of The Relational Podcast, David Jay talks with renowned network leadership expert Jane Wei-Skillern about how shifting our mindset from organizational control to relational trust can unlock transformative change.

Drawing from decades of research at Harvard, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, Jane shares powerful stories of leaders who chose humility over ego, trust over control, and community over individual success. Together, David and Jane explore the principles that set successful networks apart:

Mission before organization
Trust, not control
Humility, not brand
Constellations, not stars

Through thoughtful insights, personal reflections, and compelling poetry, this conversation invites listeners to rethink leadership and embrace relationality as a path toward lasting impact.

A big shout-out to the Wasan Network for bringing us together - especially Meg Busse, Rachel Sinha, Christine Lai and Melanie Kahl, facilitators of the “Making the Case for Relationality” huddle. We appreciate your role in fostering this conversation. Thank you for tuning in!

By sharing this episode and letting others know what inspired you, you help expand the community of co-creators building a more compassionate world. Dive deeper into our work at Efecto Colibrí and join us in sparking the collective change we all envision. We value your voice—together, we can empower social innovation.

Conceived and co-created during a Wasan Network small group in partnership with Huddlecraft. Wasan is a global network of social impact and philanthropy practitioners who believe that relationships sit at the center of social change. Learn more: https://www.wasan-network.org/

Production and dissemination by Efecto Colibrí: Efecto Colibrí blends storytelling, social innovation, and the power of relationships to produce and distribute original and partner podcasts that bridge communities and sectors, shift mindsets, and spark action toward a more just, diverse, and regenerative future. https://efectocolibri.com/en/

Artwork by Anjali Chandrashekar. https://anjalic.com/About