May 02 2024 27 mins
I’ve noticed that activism is having a moment in places I was not used to seeing it - inside companies. Back in my corporate days, I kept your head down and did my activism at home. Serial rebel Tessa Wernink has been shaking things up since co-founding Fairphone. I met her in her new role at The Undercover Activist. We get deep into employee activism: the dissonance about staying in a job and staying true to values, the role of power, and activism as a spiritual practice.
THE IMPACT. Tessa Wernink:
-leads The Undercover Activist, an education and research platform that coaches and emboldens young professionals to take constructive action to change their organisations from within
-was part of the founding team of Fairphone, turning a campaign for fairer electronics into an impact-driven business model
-is co-founder and host of the podcast series, What If We Get It Right?
-studied English Literature and International Development, Journalism, Deep Democracy, Non-Violent Resistance and Communications
-grew up in Hong Kong, and now lives in Amsterdam with her partner and their three boys
THE JOURNEY. In our conversation, we explore:
-Tessa’s international upbringing: “there is more than one truth”
-Starting Fairphone: a rebel questioning systems
-Roots of The Undercover Activist: action research, a learning hub
-Befriending conflict: “resistance is the energy, not the enemy”
-The dissonance: “Should I stay in this job and try to kind of be that person I want to be”
-A learning journey: knowing our rights, safe spaces to be uncomfortable, making it personal
-Activism and power: the “power shadow” of leaders, “do we need power to have influence?”
-Activism as a spiritual practice: “how we get there is where we’ll arrive”