Shrouded in the sad happenings of the ‘disappearance’ of the Malaysia Airlines on Saturday, we boarded the flight to Mexico for Module A Leadership Breakthroughs in Mexico City. Getting on a plane against this background, reminded me that leadership is a risky business. We are called upon to step out of our comfort zone to enable the world to become a better place, and for us at Middleground it is to continue with our Breakthrough Initiative of calling upon leaders the world over to step up and take up their leadership. Every day we must decide whether we want to step up and put our contribution out there, or keep it to ourselves. This is because there is a risk in wanting to change things because true change means challenging the status quo, questioning the gap in peoples’ espoused values and the behavior they are actually exhibiting, or sometimes putting yourself out there and disturbing individual and organizational equilibrium. The trick is to get out of your comfort zone into the ‘learning and development’ zone without slipping into a panic zone. This is the realm of true leadership, as Monica Sharma said. As a transformational leader you need to be able to see a different future, and commit to making that future come to fruition by dong what needs to be done! So we are half way through Module A, the wall of greatness is up proudly proclaiming the profiles of the amazing leaders we have in the room, flipcharts are being populated, the natural lighting in the room at the British Council Mexico has been let in through the high-tech roof shutters, and we’re on our way! Elana and Twalib, March 2014