Curatorship Curriculum Last updated: 1 July 2023

By becoming a Curator, you join a powerful network of leaders worldwide who are driving change together.

By joining a Hub Curatorship, members develop two dimensions of leadership: self and others.

Our leadership journey starts with self: understanding your motivations and values, as well as your desire to lead, learn and understand the perspectives of others. You will be pushed out of your comfort zone to discover who you are as a leader and what you stand for.
Hub leaders also learn about mobilizing individuals, hubs, stakeholders and communities. A particular focus of our hub based model is developing the mindset and skills required to create a shared vision for change – as well as organizing and inspiring others to achieve it.

To help members develop these two dimension of leadership, Global Shapers HQ has designed a twelve-month self-paced curriculum. This curriculum features five modules split over your one-year mandate. Each module will focus on a specific responsibility and associated skill set related to effective hub leadership. Resources and recordings are available for each module.

Explore the best practices identified by past hub leaders since 2011, below!

Module 1

Learn, Evaluate and Strategize (July - August)

Assess your knowledge about the Global Shapers Community and take stock of where your hub stands. Define a roadmap to advance your hub's goals over the next twelve months.

LEARN

During your first two weeks, take time to review the guidelines and resources below. Listed is everything you need to know to ensure you and your hub is on track.

Understand our Charter: Our Charter outlines the standards that all members and hubs are responsible to uphold. Our Charter includes best practices identified by our members since our community was created in 2011. As Curator or Vice-Curator, you are responsible to uphold the principles in our Charter and ensure all hub members do so too.
Read and share our Official Guides: Over the last decade, Shapers around the world have contributed to a robust repository of knowledge, resources and tools to help you and your hub create change. Explore the official guides which answer many questions that will arise throughout your leadership – from how to add new members to your hub, how to apply to an upcoming meeting, or how to graduate your members to Alumni. Share the guides widely and include the guides in onboarding materials for new members.
Practice Responsible Behaviour: The Global Shapers Community does not tolerate harassment or discrimination of any kind. This policy extends to all local hubs. By becoming a Global Shaper, members commit to ensure that our community remains free from unwelcome, intimidating, offensive and improper conduct. All Global Shapers must uphold our shared values of: passion, integrity, service, cooperation and commitment. Read our Responsible Behaviour guidelines and take action when it is not practiced.

EVALUATE

Now that you have read the official documents, let's take a look at your hub. Do you meet all of the minimum requirements? Let's find out!

Assess your digital status: Review your hub page on Toplink. Is your hub description representative of what your team aspires to achieve? Are your social media channels and website listed correctly? Is the hub picture up-to-date? Does it match what’s on the our website? This is the first impression of your hub to audiences worldwide. Make it count!
Assess your hub membership: Has your hub reached a minimum of 20 members? Are all members listed on TopLink? Does every member has an up-to-date biography and professional photo? Does your hub achieve diversity bringing together people from all walks of life? Compare your members list to the Diversity Requirements in our Charter and refer to the guide for adding, removing and graduating members on TopLink.
Create or update your local guidelines: Each hub is responsible to create local guidelines that are aligned with our global Charter. Local guidelines should share the expectations of each hub member, as well as the hub’s process for cancelling memberships when expectations are not met. Assess what exists or needs to be created, and improve your hub's local governing documents as you begin your new role.

When it comes to your local guidelines, you may wish to ask yourself:

Do we have a charter and have all members read it? Are the requirements still relevant?
What is our hub's engagement policy? Are there clear expectations for all members?
Do you have membership selection committees or bodies appointed to fulfil this role?
What are your recruitment cycles? Are your recruitment practices inclusive to all?
Does your hub have a probation period and defined onboarding process for new members?
How do you welcome, celebrate and mentor new members to fully integrate into the hub?
Does your hub have a clear transfer policy? Where is it communicated?
What is your hub's leadership structure? Do you have distributed roles and responsibilities?
Do hub projects have clear focal points? Does your hub have an Impact Officer?
Do you have a conflict resolution policy and/or committee to terminate hub membership?

Conflict is a normal part of the change making experience. A majority of hub conflicts can be avoided by establishing clear guidelines and ways of working. Our Advisory Council created an all-inclusive hub charter template for you to build upon. Review and personalize it. Consult your Community Champion for support. Remember, all hub members should know that these guidelines exist, acknowledge or sign them when they first join the hub, and be notified when changes are made. This will help you to build consensus and manage hub disagreements.

You may wish to review the slide deck from the Global Shapers Annual Summit session on collaborative leadership, consensus building and conflict management.

STRATEGIZE

Each hub is unique and at a different stage of development. Whether you are a new hub with just several members or a team that has been established for years, start each new Curatorship Year by defining a shared vision and setting goals that are right for you.

When creating a hub vision, ask hub members the following questions based on the four core activities of our impact model. Ensure all hub members contribute to the exercise and vision.

What skills and learning opportunities would inspire hub members this year?
How do we want to work together? What kind of relationships do we want to establish?
What issues are we most passionate about? What change do we want to create?
What projects do we want to work on and who do we want to work with locally?
How can we work with other hubs to expand our influence and desire to take action?

The following activities will also help you to strategize for the year ahead:

Participate in the Global Shapers Annual Summit: We believe that progress happens by bringing together young leaders who are intent on changing the world and engaging them in collaborative work to develop the courage, commitment and solutions to lead change in their communities and the world. Ensure you and your hub are represented.
Hold a hub meeting after the summit: Share your summit takeaways and iterate your hub's goals for the year ahead. Brainstorm on the questions above. Share our Charter and your local guidelines. Are we living up to these standards? Where are our blind spots?
If you're meeting online, use the virtual session toolkit: Use these tips and tricks to set intentions, test technologies, develop an agenda and cultivate your virtual facilitation approach when leading a session, meeting or retreat for your hub online.
Hosting it in-person? Read our sustainability guidelines: go paperless, commute smartly, eat consciously, choose sustainable materials, go plastic minimal and more!

Module 1 completion checklist:

Refer to MG Taylor's Vantage Points Model as a guide for building and agreeing upon your hub's strategy. From the philosophy level down to tasks – is there alignment between all hub members?

By the end of Module 1, you should be able to check-off the following tasks:

All hub members have agreed upon and iterated your hub's purpose and philosophy
All hub members commit to uphold our Charter and create a positive hub culture
All hub members understand and acknowledge your hub's local guidelines and policies
All hub members know where to find replicable hub strategies and tactics related to governance, engagement, impact and more via our official guides (wef.ch/gsc-guides)
All hub members agree on the logistics of hub meetings and have contributed to a year-long calendar of hub activities (members commit to attending at least 60% of meetings)
Curators and Vice-Curators have connected to your support system including your Community Manager, Regional Champions, fellow Curators and peers across the globe
Curators and Vice-Curators know their key deliverables and review our monthly newsletter, monthly live show, Toplink Calendar, and Toplink Activity Feed for updates on ways to stay connected, contribute to global campaigns and apply for new opportunities

Module 2

Mobilize and Connect (September-October)

This module will focus on learning how to lead and influence others in a volunteer setting. You will cultivate greater self-awareness and understand the fundamentals of team dynamics in order to inspire progress and manage diverse members.

MOBILIZE

Get everyone in your hub involved. Decentralize roles and responsibilities. After you have set common goals and a vision for your hub, allocate responsibilities. Make sure everyone feels like they belong and can actively contribute to the achievement of your vision. Define roles and ensure each responsibility is meaningful. Ensure everyone has a role or hub initiative they want contribute to. Ask for members to share their expertise and let them sign-up for tasks.

Important roles include:

Curator: Curators are hub leaders. With the support of Vice Curators, you are responsible for the hub’s mandate, mission, membership, growth, health and impact.
Vice Curator: Vice Curators support Curators to achieve the hub's vision and actively work to incorporate all members into hub activities, deepening engagement and action.
Impact Officer: Impact Officers facilitate quality hub projects. You are responsible for project management, monitoring and evaluation, as well as uploading projects to TopLink.
Wellbeing Lead: Wellbeing Leads safeguard the health and wellbeing of all hub members. You create safe spaces to express vulnerability and practice mindfulness.
Communications Lead: Communications Leads create clear and simple messages to coordinate hub members, increase hub visibility and engage local stakeholders.
Inclusion Lead: Inclusion Leads create and manage diversity, equity and inclusion in the hub, including processes related to hub recruitment, selection and engagement.
Financial Officer: Financial Officers establish a clear budget and identify financial or in-kind partnerships to help hub's achieve their goals following the standards in our Charter.
Conflict Committee: Hubs should have impartial, and if necessary confidential, conflict resolution committees in place to mediate hub conflict and uphold Responsible Behaviour.
Other roles could include: Recruitment Lead, Selection Lead, Project Taskforces or others! Your hub is free to define the roles and responsibilities needed to achieve your goals.

Identify your hub's recruitment needs.

Global Shapers are diverse in terms of education, expertise, income and race but are united by a common belief: that young people working together can create change in communities and the world. It is the responsibility of every hub, to recruit new members and expand our reach.

Each hub must have a minimum of 20 members and a maximum of 50 members. To strengthen and grow your team, focus on desired skillsets. For example, does your hub need a great project manager to take your impact to the next level? Does your hub need a fundraiser or recruiter to expand your reach? Or maybe you want to connect more with local government? Tailor your recruitment approach accordingly. You may wish to run an open recruitment drive using social media to reach wide audiences or invite targeted youth with the right skills to apply (try both).

Additionally, you may wish to match your recruitment and selection targets to local census data to ensure your hub reflects the demographics of your city. Hubs should be informed about local inequalities and aim to include historically marginalized and/or underrepresented groups in their membership. Select members who are from all walks of life and have diverse lived experiences. Review the Diversity Standards in our Charter and apply these in your hub.

Develop a recruitment timeline that includes a call for applications, interviews, trial periods (if applicable) and a clearly defined onboarding process. Please note that hubs cannot:

Have more than 3 members from the same organization or company. Hub members must represent diverse stakeholder groups, including disciplines, industries and professions.
Have more than one gender represent more than 60% of the total membership. Hubs aim for equal representation of men and women, and the inclusion of gender-diverse persons.
Select nor transfer members who are direct family relatives or partners of existing members. Like other volunteer networks, members avoid conflicts of interest.

Aim at reaching at least 25 active members in your hub by the end of your Curatorship Year. Remember, hub members are not considered officially Global Shapers until they are onboarded to TopLink. See our tips on recruitment for more information.

Connect

Once you've recruited the right people with the right skills and assigned the right roles – schedule regular touchpoints to align and inspire hub members, and advance the work.

Beginning at the start of your mandate, be sure to meet with your hub a minimum of once per month. Members should attend at least 60% of hub meetings, if not more. By now, all hub members should have attended at least one hub meeting since you became Curator in July.

Hub meetings can be in-person or virtual, depending on what’s possible in your city. But don’t stop here! There are many other activities you can organize too to inspire your members:

Hub Retreats: Hub Retreats bring members together over one or two days to build personal relationships, share lived experiences and set goals together. Hub Retreats lay the foundation for a positive team culture, and ensure all members feel like they belong.
Meet the Leaders: Meet the Leaders connect Global Shapers to local leaders who work across business, government or civil society through interactive dialogue. Sessions focus on a topic of interest to hub members and provide them meaningful local connections.
Stakeholder Dialogues: Stakeholder Dialogues bring together local stakeholders to share ideas and input into topics of interest to the hub. Stakeholder Dialogues can bring together reputable youth organizations to nominate potential members or provide insights into potential hub projects – they build local relationships and visibility for hubs and members.
Informal Activities: Fun is the key to every hub's success. Create space for informal moments of connection, bonding and building. Plan regular social activities to bring members together, explore unknown areas of your city or share what matters most to you.

Think about what memorable and engaging activities you (or other hub members – remember the power of delegation!!!) can organize to inspire, empower and connect your Global Shapers.

Connect with local stakeholders in your community and potential partners.

When starting a new Curatorship Year, we encourage you to begin by connecting deeply and meaningfully with your local community. Listen and learn from community leaders – past, present and future. Take time to learn about past collaborations and to know your community's history, before you take action. Co-creation begins with consultation and being truly inclusive.

Work with your hub's Impact Officer to integrate representatives from your local community and project beneficiaries into your hub's vision and projects. Seek feedback to ensure that what you have designed meets their needs, or find out if it should be re-shaped. Build bridges within and across your community to strengthen your work and take collective action.

Strive to integrate missing stakeholders into your hub's journey and identify new partners if needed. Refer to our partnership principles in our Charter and our fundraising guide for additional tips. Build a strong narrative around your hub and project idea to make your strategy relevant, relatable and inspiring. Welcome partners to become part of your story to create a sense of ownership and interest. Ask local media to amplify your hub's work as widely as possible! Share media release, announcements and impact stories with Global Shapers HQ and your Community Manager. We can promote and amplify your key messages!

Module 3

Assess, Share and Celebrate (November - December)

This module will help you to assess your achievements to-date. Learn how to develop a positive feedback culture, facilitate inclusive conversations that lead to action, and express gratitude.

ASSESS

Are you and your hub on track to meet your goals? Looking back at the roadmap you co-designed with hub members at the beginning of your mandate in July, what have you achieved and what might not have gone to plan? Do an individual exercise to review progress first. Prepare a list of hub achievements and key contributors, as well as a list of potential areas for hub development. Think through how you would like to share these items with hub members.

Are members still engaged and inspired to act? Convene a hub meeting to review your progress and allow each hub member to report on their achievements. Ask if members still find their commitments relevant and inspiring, or whether their commitments need to be revised.

Think about switching roles if anyone is stuck or disappointed. This meeting will test your ability to facilitate constructive discussions that lead hub members to (re)commit to action.
Don't shy away from discussing your blind spots, gaps or road blocks by simply asking the question: "What would you like the hub or hub members to do differently next year?"
If shortcomings exist with individual members, Curatorships should communicate these to Global Shapers one-on-one. Curators can consider placing members on a two-month review period. If amendments are not made, membership cancellations can be made.

How can we fulfill our commitments to one another and our community? Design a roadmap for the next six months and redistribute tasks if required, ensuring no one is left behind. Understand that competing commitments could impact individual hub member’s contributions – not everyone has to contribute in the same way. Provide space for sensitive discussions, frustrations and constructive criticism. Find out if hub members felt supported by the Curatorship during these past months. Seek feedback on how you can support them.

SHARE

Share progress with stakeholders, including beneficiaries and Global Shapers HQ. Work with your hub’s Impact Officer to share your progress with your hub’s partners, stakeholders, donors and beneficiaries. Express your gratitude and involve stakeholders in your next steps.

Work with your Impact Officer to document your hub's progress on Toplink. Share your hub's highlights and achievements with all Global Shapers worldwide on our Toplink Activity Feed and tag your Community Manager and Community Champion. Include hub growth in terms of new members and hub achievements towards the commitments made at the Global Shapers Annual Summit. Encourage your project leads and Impact Officer to update hub projects in TopLink, including project description (up to 200 words) and photos of your work!

CELEBRATE

Celebrate your hub's achievements at the end of the calendar year. The year’s end is an ideal moment to take stock of achievements, but also to unite as a hub. Find a way to transform your end of year hub meeting into a celebration of your impact and results. Consider creating hub awards, inviting in a special guest and/or Alumni, or showing members how much they’re appreciated. Even if things did not go as planned, find reasons to celebrate and bond!

Module 4

Support, Motivate and Facilitate (January - March)

This module will help you understand the roles of follower, supporter and facilitator. Adopt a growth mindset and a desire to learn and embrace challenges, share the spotlight with your peers and empower leadership potential in others. This module will also cover how to run democratic and transparent elections.

SUPPORT

Prepare for your hub's elections. As hub elections approach, review Election Guidelines and plan fair and transparent elections in your hub. For elections to be valid, the hub has to have at least two candidates for Curator and at least one candidate for Vice-Curator. Your role is to ensure elections occur on time and that members feel inspired to run. Identify potential candidates, communicate them to the hub and support them with their leadership plans.

MOTIVATE

Launch a call for applications. Launch an open call for Curator and Vice-Curator applications early in the New Year. You may think you know who is interested in the position but there are always surprises. By opening the call to application to all hub members, you eliminate your personal blind spots and contribute towards a culture of openness, fairness and transparency.

In the case that no members step up, plan extra time for Global Shapers to reflect on the opportunity and consider running. You may have to nudge potential candidates. Curators and Vice-Curators may wish to approach hub members one-on-one and share why you think that they are the right person for the job. Be ready to accept rejections and have a back-up plan!

FACILITATE

Support candidates with their leadership plans. Elections should not be popularity contests. Candidates must share their leadership plans with hub members so voters can understand each candidate’s aspirations for the hub. Your role is to ensure that there is enough time for candidates to share realistic leadership plans that align with our Charter and hub goals. Each candidate should have equal time to present their plans in a hub meeting. All leadership proposals must be uploaded to the hub’s TopLink Library to ensure they are accessible to all hub members. Tag your Community Manager and Community Champion once uploaded.

Ensure voter turnout. As in any elections process, the hub election results will only be valid if at least 51% of eligible hub members participate in the vote. This is an opportunity for you to motivate members to engage and express their opinions. It matters now more than ever!

Appreciate and thank runners-up. Sometimes election races are tense and members find it difficult to accept defeat. Re-integrate runner-ups into the hub, express your appreciation for their efforts and find them different ways to meaningfully contribute to the hub's goals.

Module 5

Solicit Feedback, Finalize and Empower (April - June)

This final module will help you to reflect on your achievements and provide feedback on your progress. You will complete all pending tasks, empower your successor and ensure a smooth leadership transition for your hub. Your term will come to an end!

DELIVER RESULTS

Consider your leadership legacy. As your Curatorship mandate comes to an end, consider the lasting impact you hope to leave behind in your hub and local community. Tie up loose ends, tick the boxes of the Curatorship checklist and ensure the results you wished to deliver are on track for completion. What do you want to achieve before the 30 June? The time is now!

SEEK FEEDBACK

Assess your leadership. Great leaders use honest and constructive feedback for personal and professional development. To learn more about your influence as a leader on your hub, ask your peers through an anonymous assessment survey or one-on-one discussions with members. Their feedback is important and will offer closure as your mandate comes to an end.

Consult your Community Manager or Regional Champion. At the end of your mandate, we hope that you better understand your leadership strengths and weaknesses and how you can continue to grow. Consult your Community Manager or Community Champion and share what has been rewarding or challenging about your leadership experience, and what kind of support you would like to see for future Curators. Share highlights and projects on TopLink.

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