Leadership Calgary
Hello all, long time no blog.
Leadership Calgary. What happens when you take one Lise and plunk her into a program that feels a lot like a crash course in university? You create that deer-in-the-headlights look that most of my classmates are sharing along with me. Why you might wonder? The breadth and scope of what we're attempting to explore is staggering.
It's called Pioneer Leadership and the Human Venture. I reckon that most of the year will be on trying to figure out exactly what Pioneer Leadership and the Human Venture exactly is. Some of our topics include The Creative Realization Process / Human-Life situation dynamics / Tools of Wisdom and Judgment / Personal Responsibility dynamics / Social -Cultural Co-responsibility dynamics.
One of the expectations of this course was written as follows:
"An experience of being thrust into "adaptive space" so that you have a base for better understanding the transformational leadership challenge, and an opportunity for` exercising self and social leadership."
Hmmm... I wasn't any clearer on what I was doing either.
So what this looks like is a group of 30 individuals who are from Government, Non Government Organizations, Corporate land as well as the self employed. Each of us had to apply and provide our resumes and provide essay answers to some tough questions, then came the interview. The one defining characteristic is that we all volunteer in our communities in some capacity and are interested in making a positive difference. And most of us are being sponsored by our employers to be there. I had to jump through some hoops to get my work to sponsor me. Ironic when EnCana turns out to be a major sponsor of this program.
We are all being taught by Ken Lowe of the Action Institute. Ken has made a lifetime of studying culture and the human experience as a researcher, counsellor and consultant. The program has been in Calgary for 7yrs now and its intent is to educate and send potential leaders back out into the world with most likely a vastly different approach to what it takes to change the world.
In addition to Ken's teachings I'm amazed at the cross pollination of ideas from each of us. Typically our friends and our social circles tend to reflect our particular world view and interests. It's been so cool to be exposed to such a diverse group of people. However we have enough commonalities to be in the room together.
The cornerstone to our education will be extensive reading. Did I say EXTENSIVE reading? The list of books is mind-boggling. Provocative, disturbing and enchanting. The premise is that we can't understand what is going on around us if aren't informed by the past, current events and being versed somewhat in a broad base of topics.
Book read so far:
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
Dark Ages Ahead by James Jacob
Deep Survival who lives, who dies and why
Don't think of an elephant
I just picked up:
The greatest story ever SOLD, the decline and fall of truth from 9/11 to Katrina by Frank Rich
Getting to Maybe, by Westley, Zimmerman, Patton
Oh and on a really scary note try checking out the Political Science section of the bookstore. There you experience the crazed polarity of the US right now in their politics. The Right screaming how the Left is morally bereft. The Left wringing their hands that the Right are killing the earth and its occupants. And the right is so openly focused on their religious beliefs, so much for the goddamn seperation of church and state. Then there are all the books in between. I was overwhelmed. Mostly because it all sounded like bad news.
One thing that Ken has cautioned us in the program. That the more we read, the more we'll realize how little we know. He says "you are always more ignorant than you are knowledgable". Then realization of how big the problems are and what is going on over the world, for me personally I get overwhelmed. This is where Ken's caution comes in, he says there is no room for hopelessness or despair. That as people who want to make a difference that is not an option.
The essense of this program is similar to what I've been learning in my Shamanic program. I can translate the term "The Human Venture" to the "Gold Horse Prophecy". The Shamanic prophecy in essense outlines the great Horse Race of Humanity. Do we move forward as awake, alert, aware humans in peace & beauty ( the Gold Horse) or in tryanny, ignorance, fear, repression and war (the Dark Horse)? The jury is still out on the matter. Our future is uncertain. This is pretty much the Human Venture Ken talks about. Where is humanity headed and how can we make it better? The biggest difference is that Leadership Calgary has an outward focus on how to make it better while my shamanic path is essentially focused on the inner journey of healing yourself first, then walk that out in the world.
I'll post what books we're reading and any interesting tid-bits. Oh this is a god tid-bit. At our first Workshop some of us met up in a bar after and ended up Kareoking till late in the evening! It's always good to know who the partiers are, I get a sense that I could make some good friends out of the deal. I think my newest adventure is off to a great start.
Leadership Calgary. What happens when you take one Lise and plunk her into a program that feels a lot like a crash course in university? You create that deer-in-the-headlights look that most of my classmates are sharing along with me. Why you might wonder? The breadth and scope of what we're attempting to explore is staggering.
It's called Pioneer Leadership and the Human Venture. I reckon that most of the year will be on trying to figure out exactly what Pioneer Leadership and the Human Venture exactly is. Some of our topics include The Creative Realization Process / Human-Life situation dynamics / Tools of Wisdom and Judgment / Personal Responsibility dynamics / Social -Cultural Co-responsibility dynamics.
One of the expectations of this course was written as follows:
"An experience of being thrust into "adaptive space" so that you have a base for better understanding the transformational leadership challenge, and an opportunity for` exercising self and social leadership."
Hmmm... I wasn't any clearer on what I was doing either.
So what this looks like is a group of 30 individuals who are from Government, Non Government Organizations, Corporate land as well as the self employed. Each of us had to apply and provide our resumes and provide essay answers to some tough questions, then came the interview. The one defining characteristic is that we all volunteer in our communities in some capacity and are interested in making a positive difference. And most of us are being sponsored by our employers to be there. I had to jump through some hoops to get my work to sponsor me. Ironic when EnCana turns out to be a major sponsor of this program.
We are all being taught by Ken Lowe of the Action Institute. Ken has made a lifetime of studying culture and the human experience as a researcher, counsellor and consultant. The program has been in Calgary for 7yrs now and its intent is to educate and send potential leaders back out into the world with most likely a vastly different approach to what it takes to change the world.
In addition to Ken's teachings I'm amazed at the cross pollination of ideas from each of us. Typically our friends and our social circles tend to reflect our particular world view and interests. It's been so cool to be exposed to such a diverse group of people. However we have enough commonalities to be in the room together.
The cornerstone to our education will be extensive reading. Did I say EXTENSIVE reading? The list of books is mind-boggling. Provocative, disturbing and enchanting. The premise is that we can't understand what is going on around us if aren't informed by the past, current events and being versed somewhat in a broad base of topics.
Book read so far:
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
Dark Ages Ahead by James Jacob
Deep Survival who lives, who dies and why
Don't think of an elephant
I just picked up:
The greatest story ever SOLD, the decline and fall of truth from 9/11 to Katrina by Frank Rich
Getting to Maybe, by Westley, Zimmerman, Patton
Oh and on a really scary note try checking out the Political Science section of the bookstore. There you experience the crazed polarity of the US right now in their politics. The Right screaming how the Left is morally bereft. The Left wringing their hands that the Right are killing the earth and its occupants. And the right is so openly focused on their religious beliefs, so much for the goddamn seperation of church and state. Then there are all the books in between. I was overwhelmed. Mostly because it all sounded like bad news.
One thing that Ken has cautioned us in the program. That the more we read, the more we'll realize how little we know. He says "you are always more ignorant than you are knowledgable". Then realization of how big the problems are and what is going on over the world, for me personally I get overwhelmed. This is where Ken's caution comes in, he says there is no room for hopelessness or despair. That as people who want to make a difference that is not an option.
The essense of this program is similar to what I've been learning in my Shamanic program. I can translate the term "The Human Venture" to the "Gold Horse Prophecy". The Shamanic prophecy in essense outlines the great Horse Race of Humanity. Do we move forward as awake, alert, aware humans in peace & beauty ( the Gold Horse) or in tryanny, ignorance, fear, repression and war (the Dark Horse)? The jury is still out on the matter. Our future is uncertain. This is pretty much the Human Venture Ken talks about. Where is humanity headed and how can we make it better? The biggest difference is that Leadership Calgary has an outward focus on how to make it better while my shamanic path is essentially focused on the inner journey of healing yourself first, then walk that out in the world.
I'll post what books we're reading and any interesting tid-bits. Oh this is a god tid-bit. At our first Workshop some of us met up in a bar after and ended up Kareoking till late in the evening! It's always good to know who the partiers are, I get a sense that I could make some good friends out of the deal. I think my newest adventure is off to a great start.
posted by Lise B at Sunday, October 08, 2006
1 Comments:
Hi Lisa,
I was in LC in 2002 and I remember so well that "dear in the headlights" feeling that you so well described.
Here I am five years later, searching the net for Ken's notes and realizing how much I wish I could go back and take in his leacture one more time!
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