Next Meeting

Our Next meeting will take place on

22 January 2010 from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM

Collective Wisdom and the Transformation of Social Fields

With guest host: Alan Briskin

If we are to disentangle the extraordinary challenges that we face today, in organizations, communities and nations, we must transcend our divisions and develop solutions together.  But what enables us to collectively make wise decisions and sound judgments instead of splintering apart?

Join Alan Briskin, coauthor of The Power of Collective Wisdom: And the Trap of Collective Folly, as he explores the research that led to his book and takes us into an inquiry of social fields – how they can be experienced, noticed, and transformed.

Desired Outcomes:

• Deepen our thinking together
• Engage in a dialogue around Collective Wisdom
• Learn about “Social Fields” and their transformation

About our Presenter: Alan Briskin is an award-winning author, a pioneer in the field of organizational learning, and co-founder of The Collective Wisdom Initiative. His newest book, co-authored with Sheryl Erickson, John Ott, and Tom Callanan, is The Power of Collective Wisdom: And the Trap of Collective Folly. His other books include The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace, and the co-authored Bringing Your Soul to Work: An Everyday Practice, and Daily Miracles. Alan’s work as an organizational consultant and interest in groups and collectives extends back to the early 1970s, when he was part of an international community in Israel. He is a founding member of the Relationship Centered Care Network, which advances the marriage of compassion and clinical excellence in health care, and for nearly ten years was the primary consultant to the George Lucas Educational Foundation. He has given keynotes and conducted workshops on collective wisdom throughout the United States and in Canada, England, and South Africa. Alan is an organizational practitioner with twenty five years of experience and holds a doctorate in organizational psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA.

About the book: The Power of Collective Wisdom: And the Trap of Collective Folly

Peter Senge notes in his foreword to the book: “The authors show that  rather than being a ‘feel good’ concept with little tangible impact, wisdom is all about results, and especially what is achieved over the longer term…. Throughout this book are examples of how collective wisdom arises and is shaped precisely through people’s engagement with real problems, and through learning how to achieve lasting outcomes that matter.”

All the reader reviews on both amazon.com and google books give The Power of Collective Wisdom five stars!

RSVP for this meeting by 18 January and receive a 40% discount on your purchase of the book.

Please RSVP to Jim Martin before Monday 18 January 2010 to reserve your spot and alert him if you want a copy of the book

General Meeting Information

BASoL meets at: The Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center located at 747 Front St, in San Francisco. Saybrook is wheelchair accessible and a short walk from the Embarcadero BART station. Parking in the neighborhood ranges from $15 to $20 per day.

Our meeting schedule is somewhat irregular, we average about five meetings a year. If you are interesting in being a presenter please visit the About Presenting page

Our meetings run from 10:00 AM until 3:00 PM and are nearly always held on a Friday.

Coffee and tea are provided at each meeting.

We do break for lunch – bring your own or purchase something from the numerous food purveyors nearby. In the Summer months there is park across the street that makes for a lovely place to dine, but the grass can be a bit damp so some ground cover is a good idea.

Meetings are open to anyone with an interest in organizational and societal learning. BASoL operates as a recognized fractal of Global SoL – an IRS approved not for profit organization.

To defray our costs and cover our overhead we request a $20 donation per meeting from non-members. No one is turned away for lack of funds.

To join our mailing list, please send an email to Jim Martin with “Subscribe BASoL” in the subject line.