Allan Gray Speaker Series: Peter Willis & Gareth Morgan

"Becoming Good at Crises" During this conversation, Gareth Morgan and Peter Willis will set out how anyone who currently leads in an organisation or has an aspiration to do so can be good at crises.

When: Tuesday, 27 May 2025 17:30 - 18:30 (GMT+2)
Where:Online
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Event information

Becoming Good at Crises

Peter Willis and Gareth Morgan believe that the quality of leadership has an outsized impact on any organisation’s chances of coming through crises not just intact but thriving.

During this conversation, Gareth and Peter will set out how anyone who currently leads in an organisation or has an aspiration to do so can be good at crises. They will address the internal questions a leader should consider, since normal life may have done little to prepare them for the demands of leading through a major crisis. They will walk through the six main capabilities they believe any organisation needs to build if it and its leadership teams are to be genuinely resilient when the next crisis arrives.

During the conversation they will draw on their shared experience of how Cape Town navigated two recent existential crises, the multi-year drought that ended in 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are some early responses from readers on "Becoming Good at Crises: A Fieldguide for Leaders"

“I’m not sure I’ve ever before read a ‘leadership manual', but if the rest are half as good as this, then I have been missing out. Peter Willis and Gareth Morgan have written a highly digestible, instantly relatable guide for how leaders can prepare for the crises we all know are coming, even if we don’t know exactly when or in what form. My copy is covered in notes and underlinings for how to strengthen foresight and develop an “unswerving vision of organisational resilience”.

Mark Watts, Executive Director C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group

“Can one be ‘good’ at crisis? Yes! Peter Willis and Gareth Morgan have distilled lessons from recent crises to provide us a practical field guide. An unexpected gift following drought and pandemic, the guide will help leaders and their teams prepare for, and respond to, the challenges ahead.” 

Barbara Humpton, CEO, Siemens USA

 www.becominggoodatcrises.co.za

We invite you to be part of the Allan Gray Speaker Series, bringing together individuals with an interest in re-scripting the orientation of organisational & societal life – to more closely reflect positive values which serve the common good, responsible leadership, clean living, embedding hope for the many and challenging the alienation and damage caused by self-serving decisions, actions and behaviours at all individual levels and within organisations.
 

Please note: After you have RSVP'd for the session, you will get an email with the webinar link and instructions for joining / connecting to the session

Speakers

Peter Willis

Co Author
Peter Willis grew up in the UK and studied history at Oxford University. In 1993, after fifteen years of working in London, he moved to Cape Town with his South African-born wife, who was returning from political exile. In South Africa, he pioneered sustainability leadership development, and from 2002 to 2014 was African director of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Since 2014, he has been a freelance facilitator of innovative processes and strategic dialogues and a leadership mentor. He also trains people and whole teams in the art of facilitating breakthrough meetings and workshops. From 2019-2022, Peter was one of the founding fellows of the Institute for Strategic Risk Management. Read more on his website: www.conversations.pw

Gareth Morgan

Co Author & Executive Director of Future Planning and Resilience, CCT
Gareth Morgan grew up in Durban, South Africa. He studied political science at the University of Natal, and then environmental change at Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of South Africa in 2004 and served there for nine years. His legislative focus areas included water and environmental affairs. For the last decade, he has been a senior official in the City of Cape Town metropolitan government and is currently the Executive Director of Future Planning and Resilience. He was part of the leadership team that developed the strategic responses of the city government to the Day Zero drought and the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a Tutu Fellow and an Aspen Global Leadership Fellow. He was recently appointed as a member of the board of directors of the Resilient Cities Network.