The Art and Practice of Regenerative Leadership
What new ways of thinking and seeing are needed within the many participatory organizing structures that are emerging?
How can we integrate living systems principles as we explore the leadership that is needed now in our organizations and communities?
What are our new practice grounds – spaces and times of shared learning, renewal and relationship that deepen our connection with both people and place?
Join us for September's DwD, with guest hosts Michael Jones and Michelle Holliday, as we delve further into an exploration of leadership based on an understanding of living systems.
Register for The Art and Practice of Regenerative Leadership
Through stories, dialogue and music over the course of the evening, we will move together through four timeless patterns that shape all living, creative, expressive systems. As we engage with these patterns in our leadership work, important new insights and possibilities emerge, opening a path to leadership that is generative and even regenerative, healing what has been wounded in our communities and ourselves by the structures we have inherited.
Underlying these patterns is a deep connection with place. Any living system is rooted in and nourished by the place where it grows, and we and our organizations and communities are no exception. For this reason, our gathering will draw on our own stories of relationship with place and the urban ecology we live in, inviting us to craft new narratives of what is possible.
Finally, we will explore what practice grounds may offer the most fertile soil for these new possibilities to take root. What kind of greenhouse or Solarium do we need to create to cultivate regenerative leadership in ourselves and our communities?
In convening this evening, Michael and Michelle will draw from the work they have been engaged in within their own communities as well as from an article that has been published in the current issue of The Spanda Journal entitled Living Systems Theory and the Practice of Stewarding Change.
About the hosts
Michael Jones
A leadership educator, dialogue facilitator, writer and Juno-nominated pianist/composer. His most recent book, The Soul of Place, is the third in a series on Re-imagining Leadership. Others in the series include Artful Leadership and the award-winning Creating an Imaginative Life. Michael has also been a thought leader with the MIT Dialogue Project and Dialogos and other prominent leading edge universities and centres. He has co-chaired several place-based initiatives and spoken on the leader's emerging role as placemaker in a variety of forums including The Authentic Leadership in Action Conferences (ALIA), The Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) and many others. As a pianist/composer Michael has composed and recorded fifteen CD's of his original piano compositions and performed as a solo pianist across North America as well as Korea and Japan. He has been integrating his music in his leadership and dialogue work for over twenty years. See www.pianoscapes.com to learn more about Michael and his work.
Michelle Holliday
A facilitator, organizational consultant, researcher and writer. Her work centers around “thrivability” — a set of perspectives, intentions and practices based on a view of organizations as living systems. To this end, she brings people together and helps them discover ways they can feel more alive, connect more meaningfully with each other, and serve life more powerfully through their work. This generally takes the form of designing and hosting transformative events, as well as delivering talks and workshops. Michelle also writes regularly, including a forthcoming book, The Age of Thrivability. Her research is summarized in a slideshow called Humanity 4.0, as well as in a TEDx presentation.
7:30am to 9:00am
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