7: Generating Societal Value

Mac McKenzie has societal value figured out. Through his work as Managing Director of Bridge Partnership (Asia Pacific), a global firm specializing in organizational transformation and leadership development, and Founder of the Bridge Institute (Bridge Partnership's not-for-profit arm), he is devoted to his work, his clients, his colleagues, his stakeholders, and his family. He is one of those people whom the moment you meet you can't help but like and immediately admire. It's not just because he is friendly and fascinating, but because when you talk to him you sense that underlying his approachable demeaner is a person deeply and utterly committed to serving others. It permeates every fiber of his being. Mac exudes a calm, reflective energy that belies the incredibly difficult problems he and his colleagues help to solve. When he speaks he does so with the humility of someone who has worked in some of the more difficult hotspots (including central Asia, South Asia and South-East Asia) on behalf of hugely critical human crises and fully understands that he does not have all the answers. Bridge Partnership was founded 30 years ago and delivers world-class solutions for leaders and their organizations, helping them become a stronger force for good in the world. Under Mac's leadership, the Bridge Institute works at the community and societal level to help people solve intractable problems together (for instance, stopping violence in societies, creating passive immunity solutions for Covid-19, helping victims of sexual assault, advancing the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals…), working with people to solve issues collectively, then giving them the tools and collaborative confidence to continue doing this themselves. As a case in point, the Bridge Institute spent time in a country working with local groups to help them overcome social tensions and ongoing strife. In one of the groups was a young man whose father was killed during an uprising. He had devoted himself to avenging his death and saw the violence that took his father as a reason to pursue more violence in his name. The Bridge Institute worked with him and his associates on the social beliefs and political factors that had reinforced a culture of violence, getting them to discuss the tensions openly. As familiarity grew, they gained new insights from Mac and his colleagues about the benefits of a nonviolent, peacebuilding mindset. The result helped the groups ease tensions. And he came away dedicated to nonviolence and is now an active advocate for peace where he lives. Mac and his colleagues focus on civil rights by bringing together the youth in vulnerable regions to focus on developing their leadership capabilities through joint projects aimed at peacebuilding, helping them become advocates for social justice and agents for peaceful change.