Purpose and Penguins

In November 2019, 99 women-in-STEMM and 12 faculty, representing 25 disciplines and 35 different countries, travelled to Antarctica to begin the final part of the Homeward Bound program.

These women - including  CEOs  and students, academics and activists,  farmers  and firefighters - changed my whole outlook on life with their passion, courage, capability, relentless optimism and appetite to make a positive difference.

Click on the green pins to meet the 99 women and see where they travelled from.

Click on the purple pins to meet the 12 faculty members and their areas of expertise.

On our journey to the bottom of the world, we were challenged by our faculty and our peers, and awed by Antarctica: its beauty, fragility, scale and wildlife.

The intensive on-board program focused on four key development components: leadership, strategy, visibility and science.

These were delivered as part of a larger 12-month program, with online content and collaborative learning for 11 months prior to departure, and face-to-face on the ground in Ushuaia days before we boarded the Hebridian Sky.

A Wellbeing Team also put focus onto psychological safety and wellbeing throughout the program.

The  Leadership component  of the program provided insight our leadership mindset and style, and the impact this has on our ability to act as a leader in our world.

On board the Hebridean Sky, we worked on developing and articulating purpose and values, exploring our motivations for leading, emotional intelligence and how to manage difficult conversations.

 Musimbi Kanyoro , Kenyan human rights advocate and Forbes 2015 top 10 women working for gender equality, helped guide us through this part of the program.

Strategic capability is an important part of effective leadership.

In Antarctica, world-renowned strategy consultant  Kit Jackson  taught us to first clarify and then communicate our personal strategy, planning how to prioritise and align resources to make that strategy happen.

Mapping out a personal strategy established a basis on which we could make the conscious choices required to live a more purposeful life, and to embed new behaviours into habits.

A key gap between to wanting to lead and being able to effectively lead is finding and projecting your voice – being visible.

This includes networking, presenting, public speaking, speaking up in meetings, using social media, writing, media engagement and influencing.

In Antarctica,  Jules May  and  Jen Martin  helped us to create a clear narrative around our professional and personal visionary goals. We developed a visibility plan, aligning it with our personal strategy map.

Finally, Homeward Bound aims to establish a global community to collaborate towards impactful outcomes.

The science component of the program Antarctic researchers  Justine Shaw  (co-founder of Homeward Bound) and  Cassandra Brooks  leveraged the collective knowledge and expertise of the participants to collaborate on chosen projects.

We learned about each other and shared wisdom and life lessons through the ‘Symposium at Sea’ presentations that each of us made on board.

You can explore the route of our ship, the  Hebridian Sky , on the map.

By taking part in this expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula, we broke the world record as the largest all-women delegation to go to Antarctica – an on the historic  60th anniversary of the Antarctic treaty .

Zoom into the map to see view our daily landings and wildlife surveys.

Putting on your own mask before helping others was the first thing I learned in Antarctica. We are in a war. We can get so preoccupied by helping/campaigning/sciencing we put aside sleeping, eating healthy and exercise. Just remembering to stop & breathe helped! Every day, we began with a meditation. We're not effective fighters if we're exhausted and sick.

Antarctica taught me how to stop. And breathe. So that I have the energy to fight another day.

The answer is: one bite at a time! I'd become overwhelmed by how impossibly big the challenge was for coral reefs. Most coral reefs have degraded significantly in my lifetime, and even if we adhere to Paris Climate Agreement, we're on track to lose 70-90% in the next 30 years as the planet warms. Its not just biodiversity loss facing us, but a looming humanitarian crisis. In the face of the enormity of the climate crisis sometimes the little stuff seems futile. Why even bother when its all going to die anyway?

But all those little things DO matter! Alone I can't "save the reef": but its better to start on something small than being paralysed into inaction by the enormity of the issue. Science educator  Rachel Sheffield  reminded us that the next generation is looking to us for leadership: we can't falter. Maybe my research outputs will be a tiny part of the puzzle, maybe they're futile. But at least I tried. And perhaps by taking action, I can inspire others to join me.

So don't just stand there frozen and stare: start with a small bite and you might be amazed by where you go!

While there is one fish left in the sea, there's something worth fighting for.

My lightbulb moment came a story from our onboard facilitator,  Fern Wickson .

She told us that the Cologne Cathedral - a stunning monument and world heritage site - took more than 500 years to build. The people that began the backbreaking work laying the mighty cathedrals foundations in 1248 didn't dedicate their lives to the building for themselves: they knew they'd never see it finished in their lifetime.

They didn't do it for their children either, they wouldn't live to see the cathedral. Or their grandchildren. Or their grandchildren's grandchildren.

They did it, regardless, because they believed in a better future. In something bigger than all of us.