When Vulnerability Becomes a Superpower: Conversations At The Edge

What does it really take to collaborate across boundaries - across geographies, power structures, and cultures - when stakes are high and systems are broken? That was the question at the heart of this week’s Conversation At The Edge, hosted by II’s Mark Tabbron, and our two guests; Brigit Helms, a climate and economic development strategist working across the Global South on energy transitions and critical minerals, and Chiugo Aghaji, Executive Director of the Miller Center for Global Impact at Santa Clara University.

Mark's first invitation: Choose something, in your immediate reach, that represents how collaboration feels when it's working well.

The Grain We're Working Against

Both speakers spoke passionately about the structural headwinds they face in their domains. Chiugo pointed out that "going with the grain hasn't worked"; that current systems carry vested interests that actively resist change. Participation, she noted, is too often treated as a ceiling rather than a floor. Communities are consulted after decisions have already been shaped, not brought in from the start.

Brigit framed it bluntly too; social entrepreneurs working to end poverty are operating against market failures, government failures, and a "Frankenstein's monster" ecosystem that was built around funders, not the people they're supposed to serve.

Inclusive Collaboration Requires Preparation

The red thread that ran through the whole conversation was clear: real collaboration requires that those most affected have a genuine voice and power, not just a seat at the table. Chiugo's work on critical minerals in the DRC and Latin America showcased this clearly; decisions about resources extracted from someone's land cannot be made without the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of those communities. Tokenism, like placing women at a table without preparing them for technical discussions, is worse than useless. It gives the appearance of inclusion while preserving the very same power dynamics underneath.

So what can we all do about it?

1. Invest in preparation, not just participation. Getting the right people in the room means funding capacity-building beforehand. Without it, inclusion becomes a tick-box exercise.
   

2. Let affected communities tell their own stories. Data collected through donor-driven framing and frameworks gets distorted. Authentic narratives from the people closest to the problem are both more accurate, and more powerful.
   

3. Rotate leadership within multi-stakeholder groups. Shared responsibility for outcomes (not just through visibility or presence) transforms how people show up and collaborate.
   

4. Use your platform to elevate excluded voices. Brigit's personal commitment is to never sit on a panel without at least one social entrepreneur represented. Small acts of gatekeeping, done consistently, shift the culture of conferences and institutions.
   

5. Treat vulnerability as institutional practice, not just personal courage. Vulnerability cannot rely only on brave individuals speaking up. It also needs to be built into how institutions work: creating space to share uncomfortable truths, question assumptions, pause when something is not working, and adapt before harm is done.

   
   

The Takeaway That Stuck

Perhaps the most memorable image came from participant Tim Hurson in the breakout reflections:

a stakeholder is a stake that holds up the tent… and if all the stakes are removed, the roof falls on those who thought they were in power. The people we call "marginalized" are often the ones holding the whole structure together.

Our conversation closed with a shared aspiration: building peer infrastructure where changemakers across the world can find community, reduce isolation, and sustain the energy to keep going. Because belonging and purpose, as Brigit put it, are what make resilience possible.

We hope that our Conversations At The Edge are just a small step towards this peer infrastructure for boundary spanning change-makers that we all work hard to overcome the pressing challenges we all face today.

Watch the conversation back here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyflhWjjD7w

The next session in the Conversations at the Edge series returns in September, featuring voices from the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and the Asia Science Mission. Register here.

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