Mark Nicolson - Architect of Solidarity

Mark Nicolson is a polite and genuine British man residing in Santa Cruz, California. He went to Oxford University to receive a Bachelors degree in Latin and Greek, and went on to Stanford business school to receive a Masters degree. Although he started his career as a successful banker, he decided to shift his work because he didn’t find what he did to be fulfilling and important. So instead of making big money like most of his Stanford class mates, he became an indirect architect of Solidarity. With that I mean that he himself is not a Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela kind of person, who are involved directly with a community to bring about change. He is more of a mentor or therapist for the direct architects of solidarity. Mark Nicolson works with individuals and non-profit organizations and chooses his clients very carefully. He makes sure that all of them have the same vision as him in mind: helping to make a significant change for the better in the world - for example, in human rights, economic justice, community engagement, environmental education, social justice, forgiveness and reconciliation. 

Mark Nicolson assists these individuals or organizations in identifying their values, set goals, and helps them stay within the lines of their values and achieve what they are aspiring to do. His idea is that great companies are dependent on the relationships and the culture within the organization, because with non-profit organizations there are always set-backs, and when don’t have the proper relationship with your co-workers and partners it can be hard to deal with that. If the atmosphere in the organization is not right and individuals have different ideas and values, it’s easy to blame each other for these certain drawbacks. Mark Nicolson aids in avoiding complications such as feisty arguments and helps them overcome obstacles together and grow from those. He is careful to make everyone he works with feel safe to share issues and concerns so that they can ask for and receive help.

He does the work he does that around guiding individuals and non-profit organization by himself. He is however, employed at a company called Ventana, Academy for the Love of Learning, where he does similar work (helps organizations work better together as a team). He does not think that this work should be viewed as an act of solidarity because the companies (Ventana’s) visions are less about making the world a better place.

Like I said, he can be viewed as a therapist for architects of solidarity because he guides them in asking for help and building the right relationships with their peers. He shares a similar motivation as mostly all architects of solidarity. Helping others learn and change so that they are inspired to make the world a better place. So rather than actively running and organization to help the world grow for the better, he hopes to move people to get them to help the community.

Mark Nicolson does this for a variety of reasons. In a way he believes that people who were luckier than others, for example lived a better, happier life with more opportunities and possibilities, should in some way be appreciative and show their gratitude. He believes that they have a responsibility to help those who are less fortunate; he hopes that people who were blessed with more share their wealth. Additionally he feels that this kind of work is more fulfilling than his previous jobs that were centered on making money. Helping people and trying to create a better world to live in, gives him meaning to his life. For Mark Nicolson it is a way to say thank you for all the gifts he has been given from his family, friends, and mentors who have shaped and helped him become who he is. His beliefs however, are not grounded in any religion or spiritual orientation. Although he does value the contemplative practices of Buddhism, and respects that for many architects of solidarity and other people it is a vital source of inspiration, he has never found religion to be a source of strength for himself. However, he says, that he does subscribe to a comment of the Dalai Lama, “My religion is my kindness”

One of his current clients is no other but Father Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winner of 1984. Mark Nicolson is helping Tutu and his family create a Tutu family legacy foundation. This foundation will hold archives that include all the work of Desmond Tutu. It’s supposed to be a center that shows and explains Tutu’s work. There are going to be programs that will help people learn about reconciliation. Basically, they are building a center that includes all of Tutu’s work and will try to keep these ideas alive. So that future generations can interact and work with his visions. Mark Nicolsons role in creating this foundation is to help Tutu and his family deal with many of the interfamily conflicts about how to set up this foundation. He is there to guide them through the steps of the process and set goals, about what they are hoping to achieve with this foundation.