25 September
Creating a Ground for Virtual Dialogue
Land-based practices and facilitating meaningful dialogue in a virtual environment.
With guest host: Glenna Gerard
Note: This was a “Virtual Meeting”
A growing number of important conversations in both our personal and professional lives are taking place virtually. Paradoxically, as our technology advances to the point of providing us with many different ways to be in virtual conversations our human capacity for virtual conversation remains somewhat limited. We know how to gather virtually, but can we create meaningful, engaging and satisfying virtual conversations that yield results and build relationships?
In this session Glenna helped us explore an issue of interest through a virtual dialogue, incorporating land based reflective practices with dialogue principles to create a meaningful dialogue where we:
- Experienced being fully engaged in a virtual conversation versus watching our attention move “in and out”
- Experienced the impact of integrating one or two land-based reflective practices as a way to create more presence and a sense of “embodiment” in a virtual format
- Created a different rhythm of conversation that facilitates deep listening as a collective
- Experimented with building a container for more meaningful virtual conversations through a specific format/process
About Glenna Gerard
My work is my art is my life is my play…
I wrote a book with Linda Ellinor entitled DIALOGUE: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation, which has been translated into Portuguese, German and Chinese. I have also contributed many articles to a variety of international publications. I partner with consultants, leaders, individuals, and groups, in the private and public sectors to develop ways to make the principles and practices of Dialogue more accessible to people in practical forms, in their individual practice, in a business, in personal relationships, in interfaith and intercultural communities. In my emerging work I find myself partnering more fully with the Power of Place and the Rhythms of the Seasons, weaving Presence Walkabout experiences within the landscapes of New Mexico.
Website: www.glennagerard.net
24 July 2009
Experiencing Systemic Group Dynamics
Working with Organizational Constellations to find
surprising resolutions to challenging group dynamics
With guest host: Volker Frank
Changing organizational behavior and group dynamics is difficult and serious business – whether you are a business owner, manager, consultant or team player. Even when there is overwhelming agreement about the challenges, there are often as many explanations and suggestions for solution as voices around the proverbial table. We have access to great systemic models and theories that describe behavioral patterns, and yet in practice they often don’t help us identify the actions with the most leverage. They are useful when we are looking into the rear view mirror to learn and appreciate what finally made the difference.
Volker helped us to explore how the felt sense of stepping into our “appropriate place” within an organization can guide us to resolutions of stubbornly persistent group dynamics and challenges. We used the organizational challenges and real life situations that participants brought to the session to surface underlying group dynamics in a non-judgmental and respectful way. The day was well received and quite intriguing.
About our presenter:
Volker Frank works with small and medium size businesses that face difficulties reaching their goals, managing organizational change, and resolving leadership issues. He supports his clients to increase their effectiveness and ability to learn and adapt quickly to internal changes and external demands. As a former software consultant he focused on how people work, which shaped a conviction that working with social dynamics is key to increasing organizational effectiveness. Today he offers leadership coaching and works with teams and organizations to develop new ways of collaborating, planning and innovating. He is inspired by self-organizing and emergent solutions that bring out the best in people at all levels of the organization.
Please visit: www.VolkerFrank.com for more information.
29 May 2009
New Dimensions of Being a Leader
The Art of Putting Our Differences to Work
With guest host – Debbe Kennedy
Organizations and individuals all over the world are discovering that knowledge and know-how for putting differences to work is a critical skill and the most powerful accelerator for generating new ideas, creating innovative solutions, executing organizational strategies, and engaging everyone in the process. Debbe led us through her take on:
- The new dimensions of being a leader
- Five qualities for leaders and innovators at every level at this time of great challenge and opportunity.
- A proven step-by-step process for creating powerful teams based on difference.
About Debbe Kennedy:
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/Debbe-Kennedy-BIO-2.pdf
About Putting Our Differences to Work:
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/podtw-iv-flyer-2A.pdf
Websites:
www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
www.globaldialoguecenter.com
Global Dialogue Center Brochure:
http://www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com/pdf/gdc-brochure-v3.pdf
16 April 2009 SPECIAL AUTHOR EVENT
Ethical Dimensions of Organizational Life:
Influencing Organizations Toward Integrity
A Conversation with Art Kleiner, Elizabeth Doty and Marvin Brown
BASoL hosted a special with three authors working on this the ethical dimensions of organizational life. Together we explored:
- What does it mean for an organization to have integrity? Who is accountable for corporate misdeeds – the company as a whole, or the individual within? What is the distinction between ethical individuals and ethical corporate cultures?
- How do we cultivate organizations that act more responsibility and ethically with transparency? How would organizations have to change to make it easier for their managers and leaders to be open and transparent? How can awareness of the nature of organizational life lead to a higher standard of ethics?
- What role can “heretics” play as they confront the ethical dilemmas in their company?
Art Kleiner
Art is the author of the critically acclaimed The Age of Heretics (2nd edition, Jossey-Bass, 2008) and the editor-in-chief of strategy+business, the management magazine published by Booz & Company. A former editor of The Whole Earth Catalog, he is also the author of Who Really Matters (Doubleday, 2003), a co-developer of the “learning history” process at MIT’s Center for Organizational Learning, and the editorial director of Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline Fieldbook series.
Elizabeth Doty
Elizabeth is a long-time member of Bay Area SoL and author of the upcoming book The Compromise Trap (Berrett-Koehler, 2009). Her firm,WorkLore, is an organizational learning consultancy that helps individuals and organizations generate extraordinary value by helping them harvest the insights buried in their own experience. She is particularly interested in what individual’s stories about work have to tell us about cultivating organizations that act with integrity.
Marvin Brown
Marvin teaches organizational ethics at Saybrook Graduate School and the University of San Francisco. He is the author of Working Ethics (Jossey-Bass, 1990), The Ethical Process, Third Edition (Prentice-Hall, 2002), and Corporate Integrity (Cambridge, 2005), which in 2006 was awarded Outstanding Academic Title in Philosophy by Choice.
27 March 2009
Marc Lesser: Integrating Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence to Increase Creativity and Team Learning in the Workplace
“The self is not a fixed entity, but a dynamic process of relationships….People are equipped to experience the sacred, to have moments of elevated experience when they transcend boundaries and overflow with love.”
~ David Brooks, Article entitled: The Neural Buddhists, New York Times, May 13, 2008
Marc led an interactive day to explore mindfulness and emotional intelligence practices as a way of increasing our ability to be more creative, as well as be a great team member, team leader, and develop our understanding of how to influence creativity and team learning. Mindfulness and emotional intelligence are practices for increasing our field of awareness. A basic assumption is that we are already creative and highly motivated. We merely need to remove the obstacles to uncovering and bringing forth these qualities.
Marc Lesser is CEO of ZBA Associates LLC, a company providing executive coaching, seminar, and facilitation services and is a developer and instructor of a program at Google called Search Inside Yourself – Mindfulness/Meditation and Emotional Intelligence for leaders. Marc is also the new facilitator of the Saybrook Dialogues (formally Presidio Dialogues). He is the founder and former CEO of Brush Dance, a publisher of greeting cards, calendars and gift items, with spiritual themes and artwork. Marc was a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for 10 years, was director of Tassajara, and is a Zen priest. He is the author of Less: Accomplishing More By Doing Less, and Z.B.A. Zen of Business Administration: How Zen Practice Can Transform Your Work and Your Life. He has an MBA degree from New York University.
30 January 2009 John Renesch, author of Getting to the Better Future: A Matter of Conscious Choosing.
John is the founder of The Presidio Dialogues and is in the final stages or completing his new book, tentatively titled The New Human. John facilitated an interactive dialogue on the subject of dysfunctional systems and transforming them into fully functioning, life-affirming systems, be they organizations, communities or societies.
Bio:
John is a businessman-turned-futurist with over thirty years experience as an entrepreneur and business owner. He served as Managing Director of a real estate investment company, President of two NASD broker-dealer firms, and managing principal for several other enterprises. In the early 1980s, his interests shifted from a local to a global focus as he discovered systems thinking and organization change theory. He became impassioned with the unrealized potential of human beings and the organizations in which they struggle to function. Since then he has become one of the most outspoken writers and speakers in the world about the human condition, organization functionality and social transformation. He is not the kind of futurist who predicts or plans scenarios; John challenges, provokes and nudges people into thinking differently now so they can shape the futures they want instead of simply accepting whatever unfolds.
For more information visit the following websites:
www.GettingToTheBetterFuture.com
www.globaldialoguecenter.blogs.com/johnrenesch/
Optional pre-reading:
Renesch 2006 article from Philosophy for Business
Renesch newsletter from 2000: “Why Real Change Programs So Often Fail”
5 December 2008, Managing by Agreement: The New MBA
Stewart Levine, J.D., presented his unique process for creating agreement, empowerment and sustainable collaboration in the most challenging circumstances. These agreements improve productivity while saving the hidden real cost of conflict. His innovative work with “Agreements for Results” and his “Resolutionary” conversational models are unique. The models create a quick return to productivity when working relationships break down between individuals, team members and working groups of all kinds.
About our guest: Stewart Levine, J.D. is a widely recognized authority on conflict and collaboration. Stewart improves productivity while saving the enormous cost of conflict using “Agreements for Results” and “Resolutionary” conversational models. As a lawyer he realized fighting is ineffective in resolving problems. At AT&T he learned why collaborations fail: people do not create clarity about what they want to accomplish, and how they will get there. He has worked across the organizational spectrum – Fortune 500, small, government and non-profit.
Download Stewart’s materials:
slides-120508 (.ppt)
communication-toolbox (.pdf)
culture-of-agreement (.pdf)
Other paper cited on Mediation (.pdf)
Website: More information is available at Stewart’s website: ResolutionWorks
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26 September 2008, Open Technology: A Strategy for Organizational Empowerment
Anthony Fortenberry shared his experience modernizing the City of Northglenn, CO, as well as the challenges he faced in managing the associated tech-driven organizational change. In 2002, Anthony created a roadmap for modernization at the City of Northglenn based on transition to a network-centric work environment. What ensued was a two year uplift of the City’s computing infrastructure, resulting in an unprecedented (among local governments) rapid modernization and increased ability for the City personnel to understand and leverage emergent technology.
Anthony Fortenberry is the former Director of Technology (CIO) for the City of Northglenn, CO, and the Founder/CEO of Open Solutions For Government, a non-profit organization providing education and technology in the public. Anthony is the can be reached via email afortenberry@ogov.org or visit his website at: http://www.ogov.org
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July 18th, 2008, Jeffrey Conklin, Ph.D., author of Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems.
Dr. Conklin shared with us his unique process for making visible the often hidden elements and attachments in our conversations, and how awareness of these things can lead to innovative and more deeply satisfying outcomes for people engaged in exploring complex and challenging issues. Dialogue Mapping is a new approach to project work in which collective intelligence is achieved through framing powerful questions and conducting a comprehensive and creative exploration of their possible answers.
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May 23rd, 2008, Alain Gauither presented the research findings from his Generative Leadership Project. This was a very informative day with a great mix of lecture and interactive components. If you missed the meeting you can download both Alian’s pre-reading and a copy of the slides he presented.
