Author: Tenneson Woolf

Three weeks ago I was in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at a leadership conference. I was asked to be a theme-weaver. One of the things that I loved is that the conference planning team recognized the need to evolve the large conference format. To more interactive, active sense-making. Theme-weaving was part of that.

What we created, that I offered at plenary level, was three parts in a short 45 minute period, just before the conference closed.

First, some dialogue poetry. These dialogue poems are a kind of art form I learned from / with my friends / colleagues Tim Merry in Nova Scotia, Chris Corrigan in British Columbia, and a few other lovely artists and wordsmiths along the way. The poems are words and phrases that I caught as I listened to keynote speakers (Margaret Wheatley, Scott Ginsberg, Daniel Pink, Chief Elijah Harper & Chief Guy Lonechild — Daniel Pink, Chiefs Harper and Lonechild are here) and those introducing speakers. Fun to play with and offer. Those poems are below, in audio file and with links to the text.

Second, a couple of views of themes from the conference. The overarching theme of the conference was “conversational leadership.” The intent was for people to learn and experience everything from the practical to the emerging new ideas. I worked with a team  to come up with themes that had significant energy. The intent was not a list of everything (though everything on that list would have been important). The intent was to notice and name themes that emerged with particular energy. I offered a narrative that included the underlaying context that organizations are living systems that self-organize. Again, fun to offer this basis that many of us have been working with for some time.

Third, the opportunity to turn to one another. This is a basic that I use often, from the title of one of Meg Wheatley’s books. The invitation was to have the audience turn together in pairs to witness a bit of what they could see — a practice of conversational leadership, a first next step, a killer question that gave focus to their experience from the conference. It is good to hear offerings of themes. And, the intent here was to have people source their insights back to themselves, to offer and receive a bit of witnessing before leaving.

Really a fantastic conference. A treat to be a part of.

Welcome (2:07) —
Karen Hayward, Margaret Wheatley (Text)

 

Hero to Host (3:37) —
Margaret Wheatley (Text)

 

Approachable Leadership (2:23) —
Scott Ginsberg (Text)

•  Cool to be human. It is about the work. And for me, it can’t not be about the underlaying story of reality revolution.
• Returning now from England and focus on intuition, alchemy, and hosting. Alchemy as lower consciousness to higher, conductivity.
• Intuition waters intention, which creates reality — manifesting as core compentency in these times. http://bit.ly/mPsGLJ
• Layover in Amsterdam. On my way to Bristol, England to further my learning and practice with intuition, alchemy, and hosting.

I am learning vast amounts about intuition, from a lovely home in Sturminster Newton, the home of my teachers and friends, Jeraldene Lovell and Clive Cole. I arrived here on the 11th. The days have been deliciously spacious. The learning and profound ahas feels like a masterpiece of music — crescendo, followed by another, followed by another.

Below is a bit I wrote in response to an email thread with some other colleagues, participants from the Ottawa area Art of Hosting community (that stretches to other places — Saskatchewan to Ireland). It begins to share some of what is taking shape in my consciousness, and thus, what I can work with.

“Juicy. Again.

To intuition, it is my learning that intuition is part of the reality revolution that we are living. What came to me today is that “Intuition waters and feeds intention (it helps us align with the natural light or energy we feel). Intention creates reality (we have capacity to invoke it into presence through the discipline of observation).

Yah, but what about projects, etc? For me, yup, it is still about leadership, change, and dialogue. Or even participatory leadership. Art of Hosting provides practice and ways to live into that. And underneath lies the part that captures my heart and interest. The one in which manifesting is a core capacity.

Last time at Galilee Centre, we spoke of the intention to tap the intelligence of the group and of the field. The wizarding that we touched then, is one of moving from that tapping (in an of itself an extremely useful practice) to manifesting.

Ah, a few stirrings that I offer to the center. In the spirit, practice, and yearning to touch the essence in this time of upgrading — kind of cool to be human. It is about the work. And for me, it can’t not be about the underlaying story of reality revolution.

Worth some time together — anyone, anyone.

Tenneson”

Appreciating this Wordle (www.worldle.net) created by Jean-Francios Hivon, from Leadership Conference 2011. Wordle lets you enter text (in this case, tweets received, which it then uses to create an image showing frequency of word use. The larger the word, the more it was used in the whole of the tweets.

I love seeing “create leader conversation and meaning” to the left. I love remembering how much the distinction of hero and host was made, particularly by opening keynote, Margaret Wheatley.

Here is another, created by my friend Trevor Maber to represent the twitter feed from the first day.