Welcome!
On this page you’ll find the full collection of audio and resource archives from Year 12 of our monthly Gathering calls. Speaker bios, call summaries, audios and recommended resources for each month’s call will continue to be added to this page soon after the call.
Our theme for this twelfth year of Gathering together is “The Art of Agility: Navigating the Natural Rhythms of Change.” Along with our Year Twelve offerings, please take some time to explore the past 11 years of program archives. This is a treasure trove of information, insights, strategies and practices to support you as an agent of purposeful change!
Year 1 Program Archive – “Mastering the Inner Game”
Year 2 Program Archive – “Align Your Outer Game with the Inner”
Year 3 and 4 Program Archive – “Integrating the Inner and Outer Collectives: The Dance of ME and WE”
Year 5 Program Archive – “Co-Creating the Global Collective”
Year 6 Program Archive – “Radical Relationship; Embracing the Gifts of Polarity”
Year 7 Program Archive – “Creating Agile And Sustainable Change That Matters”
Year 8 Program Archive – “Love in Action: Connecting for Impact”
Year 9 Program Archive – “Agents of Love; Weaving the Tangled Threads of Irreconcilable Differences”
Year 10 Program Archive – “Dancing in the Space Between; Creating Resilience and Possibility in the Now”
Year 11 Program archive – “Paradigms and Possibilities: Embracing Humanity’s Divine Potential”
Study Materials:
- Download your copy of Tim Kelley’s article that was the foundation for the Gathering’s first year here: Internal Requirements for Change Agents
- Download your copy of Tim Kelley’s additional article Types of Change Agents
- Download your copy of Audrey Seymour’s article that is the foundation for the Gathering’s second year here: 12 Requirements for Embodied Action
Browse the Year 12 archives:
12/4/24: “Harvesting our Exploration of “Change” Journey”
11/6/24: “The Art of Convening”
10/2/24: “Exploring how ‘Creators’ Navigate Change”
9/4/24: “Purpose Driven Innovation – Lessons from Joan of Arc”
7/3/24: “Making Change: The Power of Sharing Your Story.”
6/5/24: “AI Waves: Riding the Crest of Change with Presence, Purpose & Play.”
5/1/24: “Flowing Through Change with Presence, Awareness and Agility”
4/3/24: Reflections on the Nature of Change”
3/6/24: Todd Hoskins – Facilitating Change: Your Role in Co-creating a Better World”
2/7/24: Introducing our 2024 theme “The Art of Agility: Navigating the Natural Rhythms of Change”
We hope you can join us for our next Gathering on February 5, 2025. We take-off the month of January as your co-hosts design the upcoming year’s programs.
12/4/24: “Harvesting our Exploration of “Change” Journey”
“The only way to make sense out of change,
is to plunge into it, move with it and join the dance.”
—Alan Watts
Our year-end celebration and review of riches of the rich insights and resources we explored throughout this year’s Gathering theme – “The Art of Agility; Navigating the Natural Rhythms of Change” – was expansive, engaging and thought-provoking.
In addition to reviewing the highlights of this year’s programs, we delved into the concept of purpose and how purpose propels and sustains our energy and motivation. Clarity of purpose also provides a container – and an incubator – for our work and the inevitable changes we all face. We discussed the ways that both community and partnership are critical in providing the support we need to stay committed and resilient and how this Gathering supports us and we navigate change.
Here are some insights and experiences that were expressed by participants on the call:
- Appreciating the “void” as a creative pause – an integral and important part of the process
- Listening to the “calling” — that which stirs us to action even when we’re unsure of the intended outcome
- Learning to let go and trust the process
- Learning to hold without judgment both the shadow and light side of purpose so we can learn and grow as change-makers; stay in a growth-mindset and keep from getting “stuck”
- Exploring grief and making space for its natural process—moving from deep sadness or despair to acceptance and opportunity
- Exploring different formats for our Gathering calls to stimulate new ideas, relationships and insights
We thank each of you for your participation and look forward to seeing you all next year on February 5th, 2025.
11/6/24: “The Art of Convening”
Patricia and Craig Neal
May wisdom shine through me. May love glow in me.
May strength penetrate me. That in me may arise
a helper for humanity. A servant of sacred things.
Selfless and true.
—Rudolf Steiner
Over the course of 2024, our Gathering participants have been traveling with us through the arc of our theme, “The Art of Agility; Navigating the Natural Rhythms of Change”. We’ve explored elements of this theme through many insightful and useful lenses!
What might “agility” and “natural rhythms of change” look like… feel like… and offer us through the lens of interpersonal relationship and belonging?
In this call, our guest speakers Patricia Neal and Craig Neal, founders of The Art of Convening and The Center for Purposeful Leadership, helped us envision – and begin to experience – a world where our interactions with others are enriching, meaningful, and harmonious.
Using an aspect of their core technology for co-creating containers of welcome, safety and belonging, the Convening Wheel, Craig and Patricia shared powerful stories of how they have leveraged this framework in their community-building work. The entire session was designed around this concept – so that we could all experience the essential value of using the Convening Wheel as a model for understanding the dynamics and keys to success in interpersonal relations – from the inside-out.
In our group discussion, we found many different applications for this Convening Wheel as a model for inclusive, authentic engagement and facilitating creating and purposeful dialogue to get to the heart of the matter.
Participants expressed their appreciation and insights including:
- “I have dreams of diverse groups of people coming together and seeing each other’s divinity. The concept of sacred discourse is very moving.”
- “If we can’t hold the divinity of both sides, it may serve to divide us.”
- “A lot stirred up in the collective – anger, fear. I had irrational fear yesterday, bigger than me personally. When I’m tuning in, we are the catalyst for change – ready to face different shadow aspects – places we’ve disowned. Face the fear so we’re not controlled by it.”
Patricia Neal, Executive Director, Center for Purposeful Leadership; Co-author, The Art of Convening: Authentic Engagement in Meetings, Gatherings, and Conversations, Berrett-Koehler Publishers (2011); author, An Essential Guide: Convening Great Virtual/Hybrid Meetings. Patricia’s focus is on CPL’s signature programs: CPL Communities and Membership, The Art of Convening Trainings, Essential Conversations. All CPL programs are dedicated to creating a world that works for all.
Craig Neal, originator, The Art of Convening trainings and methodologies; co-founder of Center for Purposeful Leadership; lead author, The Art of Convening: Authentic Engagement in Meetings, Gatherings, and Conversations, Berrett-Koehler Publishers (2011). He celebrates life as a passionate friend, guide, teacher, and ally to those called to create profound contributions in their life and work.
Resources and Next Steps
Here are some ways you can learn more about Patrica and Craig’s work and other valuable resources:
- Patricia & Craig’s Slides
- Art of Convening “Recipe Cards” (PDF)
- Center for Purposeful Leadership – Trainings and Community
- Weekly “Community Hearth” Gathering – Mondays @ 9-10am CST
- Todd Hoskin’s Poem – “The Reckoning”
10/2/24: “Exploring how ‘Creators’ Navigate Change”
Sara Saltee
You cannot change the way you feel until you change the way you think
because your thoughts will determine the way you feel.
—Tony Evans
On this call, our speaker, Sara Saltee, inspired us to explore how we “think” about change. During our discussion with beautiful images and wisdom, Sara emphasized that we need to shift our mindsets about navigating change from being primarily about “getting it done” (aka productivity) to including mindsets of creativity and care.
We started this exploration by reflecting on the early childhood messages we received about the value of productivity, creativity, and care. Were we told to stop daydreaming and just get it done? Were we told that family responsibilities were more important than pursuing our dreams or aspirations? Sara reminded us that the balance of integration of all three—productivity, care and creativity—yields the meaningful and purposeful outcomes we seek.
We then explored the concept of time and how the way we think about time shapes our capacity to navigate change. When we’re constrained by “clock” time, we live in a world of scarcity and linearity. Or we can shift to “kairos” time, which focuses on the “right” time and trusting that we will succeed in accomplishing our goals. When we can let go of the constraint of time, we are more able to drop into a flow state where ideas and solutions naturally emerge.
She also invited us to pursue opportunities of “intentional idleness” to spark thoughts and new perspectives and to embrace the unknown. She reminded us that the process of creation is a cyclical, spiraling process with four phases – Generation, Manifestation, Release & Connection, and the Void. Each phase is natural and an important aspect of creating something new.
She concluded with this powerful quote:
Every time we engage in the creative process, we are nourishing the part of ourselves that believes that change is possible. We are carving the neural pathways of our imagination that let us open to ideas, images and visions beyond what we currently see”.
—Adina Allen
Sara Saltee is an artist, writer, and creativity coach who has been deeply immersed in the study and practice of creativity for more than 20 years. In 2020, Sara founded the Saltee Academy for Complex Creators to help wholly original women embrace their distinction, connect to their authentic impulses, and make their highest contributions. Through the Saltee Academy, Sara shares the original tools and frameworks she’s developed over decades of working with artists, writers, leaders, and other creators.
Prior to founding the Saltee Academy, Sara taught as Adjunct Faculty in Communication at Regis University and Front Range Community College, and served as a culture change and strategic planning consultant to nonprofits and public agencies in the Puget Sound Region. For the past decade, she has designed and facilitated dynamic online train-the-trainer programs for a global community of grassroots leaders as the Director of Leadership and Learning Programs for Riane Eisler’s Center for Partnership Systems.
Resources and Next Steps
Here are some ways you can learn more about Sara’s work and other valuable resources:
- Subscribe to Sara’s bi-weekly Substack: salteegoodness.substack.com
- Subscribe to Sara’s monthly Saltee Academy Newsletter: https://www.salteeacademy.com/newsletter
- Visit her website: www.salteeacademy.com
- Sara has an assemblage of artworks (which were featured in some of the slides) can be seen and purchased at the Rob Schouten Gallery: https://www.robschoutengallery.com/sara-saltee
A couple of upcoming events that might be of particular interest:
- In January 2025 Sara will be starting her 6-month online program for reconnecting with our creativity called The Reclamation Project. More information can be found at www.salteeacademy.com/reclamation
- Sara’s new e-book “Welcome to the Round World: What to Expect When You’re Creating” will be launching in the next few weeks – notices will go out to both Substack subscribers and Saltee Academy News subscribers and it will be available via her website.
Books/Thinkers to Check Out:
- Steven Nachmanovich – Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art, and The Art of Is
- Robert Fritz – Your Life as Art (and many other books)
- Riane Eisler – The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics
- Carol Lloyd – Creating a Life Worth Living
- Tricia Hersey – Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto
9/4/24: “Purpose Driven Innovation – Lessons from Joan of Arc”
Natalie Turner
The only way to discover the limits of the possible
is to go beyond them into the impossible.”
— Arthur C. Clarke
On this inspiring Gathering call, Natalie introduced us to her model of Innovation and how we can leverage our Innovation Style to create and manifest our Purpose. Our firelighter, Joan of Arc—who was a woman committed to fulfilling her vision and purpose—reminded us that we have “one life and we live it as we believe in living it, and then it’s gone”… so let’s enhance our access to the power of innovation to create new futures and fulfill our purpose.
Her model, the Six “I’s of Innovation, reveals different mindsets and strategies of Innovation, which are:
- Identify – Being open-minded and curious
- Ignite – Being creative, generating ideas
- Investigate – Being analytical and critical
- Invest – Being courageous to make the hard decisions
- Implement – Being focused and committed to the completion of the project/initiative
- Improve – Being open and clever, looking for what could be done differently
We had an opportunity to assess our own strengths and explore possibilities of partnership and collaboration to shore up those areas where we are challenged.
Natalie Turner is a creative purpose-driven entrepreneur. Natalie is the Founder and CEO of The Entheo Network, a global leadership innovation company that she started in the UK in 2006 and established in Singapore in August 2010. She has a business and organisational strategy and innovation background, with expertise in mindset and skill set development to create more people and purpose-centred organisations.
Natalie, an experienced business facilitator, trainer, and strategic innovation consultant, has over twenty-five years of business and consultancy experience. She is the inventor of the Six ‘I’s® of Innovation, a PURPOSE and PEOPLE-centred innovation management and assessment methodology that helps organisations build innovative products, services and culture and the author of the Award-winning book “Yes, You Can Innovate.” Discover your innovation strengths and develop your creative potential”.
Natalie has worked for and consulted with some of the world’s leading organisations, including Singapore Airlines, BT, Cisco Systems, Lloyds Register Quality Assurance and GSK. Within Asia, she has worked with organisations such as LEO Pharma Asia, Digi, The Employee Provident Fund of Malaysia, DBS, and Changi Airport, as well as the Singapore Government Ministries of Health, Defence, Education and Manpower. She has also been a sought-after professional speaker at academic institutions such as Singapore Management University, NUS, and DUKE NUS Medical School.
Resources and Next Steps
Natalie introduced us to a wealth of resources outlined below, including her book that describes the model and gives you access to discovering your Innovation Style. Please take a moment to review all that’s available to you:
If you would like to discover your innovation strengths, you can purchase Yes, You Can Innovate. The book includes a profile which can be completed online. Just send your proof of purchase to Natalie and she will send you a link to complete your report.
Natalie’s purpose reflects in her work through:
- Inventing The Six ‘I’s® of Innovation
- Writing Yes, You Can Innovate
- Hosting retreats through Women Who Lead
- Key Notes through Natalie Turner Speaker
You can learn more about Natalie and her model at:
- The Six I’s of Innovation
- Yes you can Innovate – site for her book
- A blog on the Centre for Optimism about Natalie’s view on leadership, vision and innovation
7/3/24: “Making Change: The Power of Sharing Your Story.”
Rachelle Zola
“Remember, you don’t fear people whose story you know.”
—Meg Wheatley
At this Gathering for Change Agents, Rachelle Zola, one of our community members shared her current endeavor to awaken people to the stories of racial injustice and radical love.
Rachelle was called to take on a journey of walking 754 miles to hear and share the stories of people’s lives. We witnessed her deep love for people and her unwavering commitment to awaken people’s spirits.
Rachelle is a facilitator, author and lifelong advocate – from working with children with special needs and their families to her current work for racial equity. She’s captured national attention and continues to make waves. In 2021 Rachelle garnered recognition for a 40-day hunger strike demanding Congress pass H.R.40 – Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. With a vision that builds upon centuries of work to imagine a more loving world, Rachelle inspires communities to confront injustices and work for liberation and compassion.
We explored “Making Change: The Power of Sharing Your Story” through a few dimensions:
- Rachelle’s story
- The stories of the people she’s meeting and amplifying
- How those stories impact and change Rachelle
- How hearing Rachelle’s story changes us
- How sharing our own stories can be a powerful tool in our change agency
Our virtual fire was lovingly lit and held by the spirit of Maya Angelou, who plays an important role in Rachelle’s one-woman performance and dialogue circles, LATE: a Love Story, which she offers to groups along her route.
At this unique moment in her journey, Rachelle told us that she had walked 500 miles and had to leave her RV support van behind to walk this 80-mile stretch of southern Tennessee. She put her faith in the community to support her and was rewarded by warm and welcoming people hosting her in their homes where they broke bread and shared stories together.
After hearing Rachelle’s story and the stories she’s sharing along the way, participants met in pairs to explore how hearing Rachelle’s story was changing them in the moment, and how this influenced their perspective of their approach to being a change agent.
Here are some reflections we heard from these small groups:
- “Humor helps. Shared what we experienced as difficult… lightness makes space… I’ll read the fine print more closely in my next life.”
- “Being vulnerable with your own story opens the space for another… creates connection by recognizing our humanity.”
- “How I have changed as a change agent. Attraction is so much more powerful than pushing, commanding, forcing. Power makes no change in any one’s soul. Working on listening and listening deeply.”
- “Listening to what’s been said about storytelling and how that connects us with others. And the importance of that connection. We are all on our own journey. Can’t expect others to show up as I’d like them to. Sharing our stories we see our sameness. Being vulnerable highlights how we are more alike than different.”
- “Story that is coming up for me — on one level we’re all the same. I have guilt around not seeing people’s uniqueness. Struggle with the dichotomy. Wanting to be more available. Shame and guilt around the pain and not getting stuck in it.”
- “The uniqueness of stories. If we can listen long enough, we can lean into shame. Appreciate how Rachelle normalizes our differences and witnesses the pain expressed by others. And the importance of holding space for others to unburden themselves. How can we learn not to blink when someone says something that might offend us, or blame us?
The impact of Rachelle’s stories and her commitment invigorated all of us to re-evaluate how we are living our purpose.
Rachelle left us with this wisdom: Meet people you’ve never met before. Say to them: “Tell me what you’d like me to know about you.”
Resources and Next Steps
Below are some resources to support you in taking this topic even deeper. Add some of your own to our Facebook group to share with other members of the Gathering.
- LATE LOVE Website with interactive map, video stories and more!
- Join the LATE LOVE Community Circle every other Friday at 9-10am PDT to share stories and heal together. Sign up for free here.
- Late Love Digital Quilt on Instagram – see written stories from people Rachelle has met along her journey.
6/5/24: “AI Waves: Riding the Crest of Change with Presence, Purpose & Play.”
Leif Hansen
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”
~ Arthur C. Clarke
Well, there you have it! If we look at these times we’re sharing in the evolution of this planet, we’re clearly living in a world that is teeming with magic!
How do you hold the idea of “magic”;
mysterious? otherworldly? spooky? dangerous?
miraculous? fascinating? fun?
We’re guessing it depends on which parts of you are answering that question, right? And so it is with the deeply pervasive and life-altering changes like the ones that we’ve been experiencing.
On our June 5th Gathering call, we invited Leif Hansen to facilitate an engaging and informative conversation on the topic of Artificial Intelligence titled: “AI Waves: Riding the Crest of Change with Presence, Purpose and Play”.
This call was an enlightening and useful way to expand our perspectives and resources relating to our topic for this year, “The Art of Agility: Navigating the Natural Rhythms of Change”. If you missed the call (including the informative slides and demos Leif offered; plus the lively discussion), put some time in your calendar to listen to the audio!
Whether our parts are raving fans or raging against it, AI is here and – we really don’t know much about the impact that this will have short and longer term. The challenge and the opportunity might just be to imagine and incorporate this new form of intelligence – with curiosity as well as care. For example, what value can an AI add – and how might that serve humanity and the planet?
Here’s just a taste of some of the bits we surfaced and discussed in this call:
- According to the live demo Leif did with his AI assistant, 77% of devices already incorporate AI – and 77% of companies are exploring it as a top priority
- It’s projected that the global AI market will contribute $15 trillion by 2030
- Many challenges need to be addressed, including ethics, security, impact on employment, significant gaps in access and the effects this will have on human evolution
- What if the universe is basically giving us what we’re asking for – and our job is to get clear on what we want and what would be most useful and beneficial individually and as a collective?
BIG changes activate big energies around essential human vulnerabilities such as lack of control, safety, navigating in uncharted waters and not knowing where we are headed. AI is surely one of these BIG changes and bound to set off as much fear as it does excitement.
As Albert Einstein said,
“The most important decision we make
is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe”.
***
What will you choose to believe?
Leif Hansen is the CEO of Spark Interaction and has been a transformative events facilitator, international speaker, Fortune 500 team trainer, and human potential coach for over two decades. He supports professionals on various leadership topics, delivering highly interactive and often “playformational” events experienced by tens of thousands. His “SoulTech” workshops, featured on NBC’s Today Show and PBS MediaShift, anticipated and addressed societal impacts of social technologies long before “social media” became a buzzword. Now, he applies his foresight skills to the potential challenges and opportunities of AI for human potential. Leif enjoys working with heart-led leaders and mission-minded teams, helping them envision and create bold, beautiful, and globally beneficial futures.
Resources & Next Steps
Below are some resources to support you in taking this topic even deeper. Add some of your own to our Facebook group to share with other members of the Gathering.
- Leif’s Beautiful Presentation (PDF)
- Leif hosts The Future Lab: www.TheLearningLab.ai/
- Get the full class or join a Learning Lab mastermind group
- Join free for 1 week!
- Package for both is: https://futurelab.mn.co/landing/plans/417358
- Other Resources
- https://chatgpt.com/
- ChatGPT Lenses: Worldviews & Ethical Diversifier https://chatgpt.com/g/g-mzG0wBKl6-lenses-worldviews-ethical-diversifier
- From Angela Bennett – “The World as I See it” by Dr Fei-Fei Li. This book is part autobiography, part AI development story and juxtaposes the development of AI with the complexity of our own evolution. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/144405196-the-worlds-i-see
5/1/24: Flowing Through Change with Presence, Awareness and Agility
Rajiv Mehta
“Whenever you feel afraid, just remember. Courage is the root of change—
and change is what we’re chemically designed to do.”
~ Elizabeth Zott
How do you maintain care during moments of change?
Rajiv Mehta led a powerful interactive discussion in our most recent Gathering for Change that explored this and many other questions. He reminded us that the notion of taking a disciplined approach to bringing attention to the caring relationships in our life is a very basic concept—and yet one that many of us struggle to keep in focus.
When we increase our awareness by building up instincts to navigate without having to think too much, we increase our skills to pay attention, analyze and make rapid decisions based on intuition. The more agile we are, the better we can navigate the challenges that arise.
Rajiv went on to explore how people learn so much more when we learn it as collective self-reflection vs. individual. This is what we love so much about our Gatherings!
Here are some of the reflections of people who joined the gathering:
- “We may think we are a burden to people. But something lights up when we speak about how we care about other people. It’s an opportunity—when someone gives us the opportunity to care. It brings out what is essentially human. Fear vs. providing an opportunity to others to care for us.”
- “We’re walking around without knowledge of what people are going through”
- “It’s not that people don’t care, but they couldn’t step into what they were going through”
- “Care Team – this has helped me create an idea: how do we be able to meet people’s needs?”
- “Self-aware and self-care go together”
- “People are thrilled to give care to others”
- “It’s in my job description to take care of myself”
- “I’m looking forward to developing an inner CareMap”
- “I’m basking in caring support from the community”
Rajiv commented that we often glorify helping others, but rarely want to admit that we need help. Allowing ourselves to be cared for makes everyone feel much better. It’s part of us being human together.
We explored one of the tools from Atlas of Care—The CareMap for understanding our relationships. Rajiv also shared various creative models of organizing our observations from the book, Dear Data.
Rajiv Mehta is a leading expert on care and community. He has led groundbreaking research and the development of innovative tools and experiences that empower people to nurture cultures of connection and belonging and better care for each other. This has resulted in numerous engagements around the world including consulting, collaborations, keynotes, and workshops (participants have ranged widely: business execs, Navy SEALs, doctors, students, waiters, house cleaners, etc. and many different patient and family caregiver communities). Key developments include the Atlas CareMap tool and the broader Mapping Ourselves methodology. Rajiv has served on the boards and advisory panels of several nonprofit and government organizations, including Family Caregiver Alliance, U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and AARP, and caregiving research programs at Stanford, USC, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. His current efforts are focused on the question, “Why are many efforts to cultivate connection and belonging in organizations so ineffectual?”, and how we can do significantly better.
Rajiv is CEO & Founder of Atlas of Care. He studied business at Columbia (MBA), and aerospace engineering at Stanford (MS) and Princeton (BS), conducted research at NASA, and lead innovation efforts at Apple, Adobe, and other tech companies. Since 2006 he has applied this experience to nurturing thriving families and communities.
Resources and Next Steps
These resources will support you in taking this topic even deeper:
- Audio Recording of this Gathering with Rajiv
- Rajiv’s Beautiful Presentation (PDF)
- Atlas of Care – Mapping Ourselves (6 Tools)
- Atlas CareMapping (article)
- Rajiv’s NEW Newsletter – “Exploring Belonging” on LinkedIn
- Book: Dear Data
4/3/24: Reflections on the Nature of Change
This Gathering for Change was deeply engaging. Thank you to all those who attended and contributed your beautiful perspectives as we continue to explore this year’s theme, “The Art of Agility: Navigating the Natural Rhythms of Change”. As fellow change agents, we are excited to deepen our collective understanding about change itself. After a beautiful invocation of our fire-lighting ritual by the spirit of Donella Meadows, we opened up space for a dialogue about the nature of change. We discussed the relationship between change and transformation and our own relationships with change.
We started by asking: What is your role in moments of change?
- Visionary – putting together disparate ideas to move beyond old paradigms
- Curious explorer
- I am a big picture thinker of possibilities and ask who do I need to BE to get that result?
- For me, change is following my inner guidance and taking action on the guidance I’m given
- Change to me is when something is unpredictable and unknowable ahead of time, potential for surprise, excitement, delight, joy
In small groups, participants explored their personal beliefs about change and transformation, which we invite you to ask yourself if you didn’t attend live:
- Which are supportive?
- Which are limiting?
- What insights does this give you re: inner work you’d like to do?
Upon returning to the larger group, here are some comments that we heard:
- “Change for me is to understand, see that a lot of things are around in the world – see things we’re not aware of”
- “Convene a space where we can be curious together. Comes from a trust in me that something useful or delicious can arise out of that. One thought that’s stirring around in me is to challenge that notion that change is hard.”
- “It’s hard not to change. More about: how will you move through it, be with it?”
- “Sometimes we fear change because safety can be lost. More fun to explore change when it’s safe.”
- “Are we resistant to change because we fear that we will no longer belong?”
- “Change starts with me. To me, change is following my heart. And working for what my heart wants.”
- “Change is something that happens all the time – you cannot step in the same river twice. Differentiating between change and transformation is a fundamental change in worldview. Change is incremental innovation. Transformation is a whole new path.”
- “Change has a purpose.”
- “Everything is relationship. Relationship is change. Relationship produces change.”
Resources and Next Steps
Here are some Resources and Actions that will support you in taking this topic even deeper:
- Audio Recording of this Gathering
- Go through the small group breakout exercise questions listed above
3/6/24: “Facilitating Change: Your Role in Co-creating a Better World”
Todd Hoskins
“Believe in the creative capacity within yourself to transform
the world’s social and political relations by beginning to
transform your relationships with the individuals around you.”
~ Grace Lee Boggs.
How do you dance through life?
This was the central question we explored in our most recent Gathering for Change, led by our guest, Todd Hoskins.
Todd has been an organization and ecosystem designer and coach for ten years, at the forefront of business transformation and personal growth. His life and work center around two things … relationships and transformation. In 2009, he launched Canopy Gap – an organizational design firm – which brought together his graduate studies in psychology, interest in network science and ecology, and experience working with organizations and leaders on transformation initiatives. Organizational design is about working and relating more effectively as teams and networks.
As a facilitator, coach, entrepreneur, and gentle provocateur, Todd has helped launch a dozen companies over the last 15 years and worked with organizations from NASA to Microsoft to universities and nonprofits to become more resilient, connected, and fully alive.
Todd began by exploring our relationships with ourselves and each other: “Transforming the ways we move together… how we see ourselves individually and collectively. People show up as their full creative selves, working together on something greater than themselves.”
He discussed the nature of “the mess” of life: “We’re in a time of uncontrollable uncertainty—politically, economically, socially. It’s always been this way, we’re keenly aware of it. No judgment around this—it’s complex. We refer to the complexity as a mess—it’s wild, uncontrollable. We can’t escape the wild, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that all life is interrelated… we’re all impacted by one another and everything.”
Todd contrasted order and chaos: “Life exists at the edge of chaos. We want order, but to focus on order at the expense of chaos is NOT how life happens.”
Our first small group breakout explored the question: “In what ways do you feel the expectations to be like a machine?” Participants returned from their lively discussions with chat comments such as:
- “The dance…we have amazing human minds…so the “get things done” mode is useful sometimes, it’s just having the compassion for ourselves and others as to when to turn off the machine”
- “We try for control and predictability, but that’s not what being human is.”
- “Don’t we move between the ultimate poles of total control and total chaos on each end?”
- “For the first 40 years, I was a component in the machine. The more I follow my heart the greater freedom I feel.”
- “We have been taught to focus on what we don’t want instead of focusing on what we want more of.”
- “An expectation – I want your behavior to change to please me. That’s the same as Conformity, which is expecting my behavior to change to please others. When I have an expectation of someone, I am doing to them what I don’t like being done to me.”
- “All transformations are changes but not all changes are transformations!”
- “It also sounds like you are speaking about the difference between ‘trying to make something happen’ and ‘allowing the unfolding’.”
Todd then took us on a vivid journey to explore change, transformation, shifts and ultimately Facilitation with a Capital “F”. Facilitation is stepping into the center and working with all the partners. Great Facilitation requires that we be better regulated so that we’re not reactive and we can see what’s happening, what’s needed— a recognition that it’s about something bigger than ourselves.
Our second small group breakout posed the question: “What are you facilitating? What would you love to be facilitating?” Here are some of the answers we harvested together:
- “Peace literacy”
- “The passion, the commitment, to facilitate”
- “Reinvention of oneself. A reframing”
- “How human beings have a strong will to transform themselves!”
- “Facilitating the growth of a world that works for everyone—in harmony with nature”
- “Hearing the call to more heart-centered work”
- “Beginning with purpose – creating structures second to move forward with purpose – is how I understood it.”
- “Facilitation that supports and strengthens individual and collective voices.”
- “Tapping into my intuition”
- “I am facilitating (cause I do it like falling off a log) empowering and emergent conversations. I would like to be facilitating the same conversations in more settings where the… facilitators have more power to effect both positive AND empowering/emergent changes in the world.”
Suzanne Taylor shared a future-oriented essay contest she’s hosted called “How the World Got Saved.”
Rachelle Zola shared about her upcoming 754-mile walking pilgrimage from Chicago to Montgomery and her one-woman show called, “LATE: A Love Story”.
Amid comments of gratitude and nourishment, one comment seemed to sum up our experience together: “A coherent story is a massive gift. Appreciated.”
Resources and Next Steps
Here are some Resources and Actions that will support you in taking this topic even deeper:
- Todd’s Beautiful Presentation (PDF)
- Todd’s Website
- Living in a Mess (article)
- Todd invites anyone in the Gathering for Change community to book a conversation with him (this is not a public link)
2/7/24: Introducing our 2024 theme
“I alone cannot change the world,
but I can cast a stone across the waters
to create many ripples.
~ Mother Teresa
Our first Gathering call of 2024 was delightfully engaging, connective, and energizing. Welcome to our new year — our 12th year!
Let’s create some powerful ripples of purposeful change in 2024!
As promised, we announced our new theme for 2024… and generated lots of conversations, ideas, and possibilities for co-creating irresistible topics, speakers, tools, and resources around our new theme.
So…. What is our Gathering theme for 2024?
After lots of contemplation, conversations, and check-ins with our trusted sources of guidance, we’re beyond excited to share a very timely and valuable exploration in store for you entitled:
“The Art of Agility: Navigating the Natural Rhythms of Change”
And… what does that mean?? Take a moment and let these words infuse you. What thoughts, feelings, desires, and challenges does this theme bring up for you? One thing we realized as we contemplated this as a potential theme, is that we… a long-standing Gathering for “Change Agents”, have never explicitly explored the concept, perspectives, or processes of “change”! Imagine!
Here are some of the conversation bits that came up on our call, along with some of the ideas that we generated as your hosting team:
- The idea of change can create both opportunity and dread — simultaneously!
- We yearn to experience a greater sense of flow with the natural rhythms of change; more ease and acceptance
- How can we become more agile in our dance with change and transformation?
- Practicing appreciation for what is + non-attachment to outcomes would help us to be more comfortable with change. How can we bring more of this along with our longing to create purposeful transformation?
- How can we trust the process and embody… even embrace change as a natural and inevitable aspect of nature?
- Let’s learn to “be adaptive, not reactive”
- How can we be more comfortable with the discomfort of change?
- Where do we lean in to change and how can we optimize that?
- Which aspects of change create resistance, overwhelm and “stuckness”?
Your Gathering Hosts
About Beth Scanzani
Beth Scanzani is a highly respected and multi-faceted transformational coach, teacher and speaker. A lifelong student and curious soul, she has enjoyed exploring and integrating a wealth of knowledge, resources, and strategies that draw upon a wide range of psychological, scientific, and spiritual teachings. Prior to her transition into teaching and coaching in support of evolving consciousness, Beth enjoyed a successful career as a human resources executive in the high tech and healthcare industries.
True to her nature, Beth’s studies encompass a purposeful blend of psychological, scientific, and spiritual perspectives. She has attained numerous coaching certifications including True Purpose Coach™, Belief Closet™ Practitioner, Master Career Coach, Dream Coach™, iPEC Empowerment Coach™, Energy Leadership Coach™ and Theoretical Foundations of Coaching with David Rock. In addition, she is a trained facilitator and teacher of the Voice Dialogue™ process.
Beth is deeply passionate about sharing knowledge and strategies that create meaningful and sustainable transformation in service to co-creating a world that works for everyone. Beth has co-developed and/or co-taught many tele-seminars for the True Purpose Institute ™, the Shift Network and others including Voice Dialogue Mastery, Inner Harmony Practitioner Training, Evolving Beyond Your Wounds, Shadow Quest, Purposeful Coach Training, Blessing Yourself, Divine Guidance on Purpose and Purposeful Marketing. Beth also serves as a valued guide for those who wish to explore deeper meaning, insight and guidance through their sleeping dreams and waking life stories. She co-developed and teaches Stories from the Night Shift, a NASW CEU eligible seminar for therapists, coaches and other practitioners who want to increase their competence and confidence in accessing the treasures buried in sleeping dreams.
People who work with Beth value her insightful, strategic, fun and results-oriented coaching which helps them to achieve breakthrough results on short-term goals while simultaneously creating fundamental shifts that build a strong foundation for ongoing success and fulfillment, personally and professionally. Her eclectic approach and natural agility enable her to customize her coaching style, strategies and processes to help clients create a clear vision, navigate their way out of uncertainty and restrained momentum, and successfully achieve their desired outcomes.
Through her work as a teacher and coach, Beth demonstrates her dedication to providing transformative courses, workshops and coaching in service to those who are ready to reclaim their inner wisdom, embrace their life purpose and true nature, and wholly offer their unique gifts to others…and to the world we all share.
About Andy Swindler
Andy Swindler’s brings hearts together. He envisions a world that embraces healthy tensions to nurture dignity and agency for every person. Andy’s Chicago-based practice, Lead From Love, empowers conscious leaders and inclusive organizations to shift the dominant narrative from fear to love through an embodied expression of purpose and values.
He began his entrepreneurial journey at age 24, which led to owning a boutique digital marketing & software development company for 14 years until exiting at the end of 2016. Andy’s journey of studying human interaction and shepherding human flourishing now culminates in FeelReal, which he has incubated and evolved since 2007.
Andy is a Certified True Purpose® Coach & Consultant, Barrett Values Centre® Practitioner, Collaborative Operating System Consultant and Voice Dialogue™ Practitioner. He co-hosts The Gathering For Change Agents each month and is the Strategic Partnerships Chair for Conscious Capitalism Chicago Chapter. Andy speaks and writes on issues of equity and inclusion. He developed The Metamodel framework to visualize the alignment between more than 100 different conscious leadership, business and dialogue frameworks.
About Susan Alexander
Susan Alexander, PCC, is an executive and life coach with an extensive business background. She created her company Rosebud Coaching and Consulting to specialize in helping individuals to create new possibilities for their personal & professional life to fulfill their most important goals and aspirations. Her work focuses on individuals connecting with confidence and clarity to what’s most important to them (their purpose) and removing barriers of beliefs and assumptions that stand in the way of their full and authentic expression. Susan helps individuals be extraordinary leaders in all aspects of their lives. She coaches executives, managers and individuals with a special emphasis on the power of self-perception and communications and their impact on job performance.
She is a certified True Purpose Individual and Organizational Consultant. She is also certified in numerous instruments including Enneagram, Myers Briggs, Gallup Strengthsfinder, Conversational Intelligence, EQi, Positive Intelligence.