5-Day “GALE Leadership Intensive”
A first step toward a future that works for all life, for all time
Context
Our current state is very troubling: We are collectively experiencing a growing collective conviction that ‘business as usual’ will guarantee an ever-worsening future for humanity. We’re beginning to wake up to a most ‘inconvenient’ reality:
- Most all of our ‘greening activities’ can only incrementally slow our rate of environmental degradation, not turn things around.
- Our rate of socio-economic degradation seems to be increasing with no pragmatic overarching strategies emerging that could reverse that trend.
We’re at a choice point in our evolutionary journey.
To shift from business as usual (the Red/Orange/Yellow scenarios) to a more generative trajectory (Green/Blue scenarios) requires that we grow up, mature and become collectively responsible. This is a daunting challenge. It’s new territory. It involves consciously choosing to undertake what could become the greatest evolutionary leap since the invention of photosynthesis.
We suggest that you play with and study Our Next Evolutionary Leap model. Understanding this model and its embedded distinctions are foundational to describing our proposed first step on a pathway to a dramatically more promising future — one where all of our social systems find it in their self-interest to hold themselves responsible and accountable for their net contribution to the wellbeing of all life they affect.
The time has come to be bold and outrageous. We are proposing that we take a stand for ‘societal metamorphosis’ — an action-learning journey that ultimately involves everyone and affects all life — for all time. Societal metamorphosis is a process of ‘coming of age’ for our social systems — all of them — everywhere.
This initial description of our proposed ‘GALE Leadership Intensives (GLIs),’ can help us visualize a bootstrapping process for attracting and engaging a requisite variety and critical mass of pioneering leaders (both positional leaders and potential change practitioners).
By creating a transformational experience for such a community of leaders/practitioners, and equipping them to envision an ideal 2020 regional/city/organization’s future and a viable path forward, we can launch a movement that could become irreversible.
Purpose of the GALE Leadership Intensives
These abbreviated (5-day) ‘generative action-learning expeditions’ are intended to serve as an introductory transformational experience for all those who will be playing leadership/entrepreneurial roles in a lifelong journey to enable their regions/cities to develop their capacity to support the transformation of their various social systems (organizations, neighborhoods, communities, institutions, governments, etc.).
The intensives are designed to equip 18-24 leaders/practitioners to play pioneering roles in shaping and implementing a startup strategy for their region/city/organization’s transformational journey.
Intended Outcomes from GALE Leadership Intensives
GLIs will —
- Provide a paradigm-shifting experience — from traditional ways of seeing to the more generative ways implicit in all aspects of a regional metamorphosis journey.
- Engage the participants in growing a vision of both an ideal 2020 future for their region/city, and also a broad strategy for getting there.
- Support the participants in creating and evolving their personal and ‘systemic’ 10X commitments.
- Demonstrate the nature and efficacy of chrysalis work in the special work of regional/city metamorphosis.
- Introduce those lenses, language and practices that will ensure that this first step of the journey is truly generative for the players and the region. These shared ways of seeing and working together will do much to grow relationships across today’s boundaries.
- Produce a founding community of leaders and potential change agents who have a good grasp, excitement about, and commitment to this unique transformational journey. The boundary-crossing relationships, coupled with shared experience and high purpose, will be wonderfully integrative. We begin to see the region as a whole, consisting of interdependent wholes.
- Develop a cohort of regional leaders/change agents who have collectively experienced Blue Zone action-learning — who have the relationships and basic skills to support collaboration and innovation across our many boundaries.
- Produce several “products,” e.g.,
* An enhanced, shared, compelling web-based story for your region/city’s journey to an ideal 2020; including scenes from the intensive.
* GLI 2.0, an upgraded and streamlined version for general use in starting up new chrysalis teams.
- Set the stage for a multi-day Wisdom Accelerator-based gathering that would bring the “GLI grads” together with other key regional/city leaders —
* to bless/upgrade the ever-evolving regional/city vision
* to reboot individual 10X commitments* to explore potential generative alliances
* to decide on pioneering prototype “chrysalis teams”
* to lay the foundation for the 2013-20 Regional/City Capacity-Building Journey
Potential Design Features for these GALE Leadership Intensives
- Live-in for these prototype gatherings — preferable close to nature. Stack the deck for success.
- Design/lead in a way that maximizes ‘generative learning’ (self-managing/improving/evolving, energizing, multiplying benefits, constructive ripples, moving towards wholeness)
- Would utilize four distinct structural configurations:
* Total Community — Both as a community of practice/commitment during the day and as a Wisdom Council in the evenings.
* Co-creative Coaching Trios – These would be initiated early on and would be the primary on-going mechanism for supporting individual “Core Work.” These trios would be stable and meet multiple times during the week — and on-going thereafter
* Systemic Scouting Teams - These might be R&D exploratory teams or special work teams
* Individual Work
- The ‘trios’ and ‘scouting teams’ would be designed to be relatively autonomous. They would generally meet each day, sharing what they’re learning and vetting their emerging thinking.
- Part of the ‘Individual Work’ could include serving as champion/steward for some specific measure of community well-being, e.g., time consciousness, quality of listening
- Creating your lifeline and telling your story (probably in coaching trios; then highlight learnings in total community)
- The 10X commitment theme will be emphasized throughout the gathering
* Personal10X commitments will have two foci: Core Work and Systemic Work
* One’s personal systemic 10X should reflect one’s true work and relate to the regional/city metamorphosis initiative
* Systemic Scouting Teams committed to carry an initiative forward may also come forward with their team 10X commitment
- Each Scouting Team could provide a member to participate in brief ‘review and course correction sessions’ at the end of each day.
- We will provide web-based descriptions (GlobalGEA.net) of the key concepts and tools that will be used during the gathering.
- This event will lay a foundation for developing a culture of appreciation, co-creative collaboration and innovation essential for a successful regional capacity-building journey.
- The prototype GLI will focus on evolving the emerging vision for the What and How of their proposed journey. The Scouting Teams will be a primary means for this vetting/upgrading this vision.
- We could capture enough “footage” from this event to help us get traction in the next stage of this adventure.
What supports these GALE Leadership Intensives being seen as an attractive investment for potential funders?
- We will be laying the foundation for a regional/city infrastructure with the charter and the capacity to guide the region/city toward a future that works for all.
- Implementing this GLI proposal would produce a community of highly influential players committed to developing the region/city’s capacity to transform its systems in ways that benefit all. Our experience with this pool of players, and their experience with these pioneering beginnings, will serve the region well in evolving and implementing the next steps on our journey together.
- This would be a bold, high visibility initiative that would help attract both expertise and financial support from within and outside our region/city.
- Regional/city capacity for collaboration and innovation would be significantly enhanced through this investment alone.
- The experience will provide a solid foundation from which to envision, prototype and evolve the next phase of this pioneering journey.
- The week will be an extraordinarily potent leadership development experience independent of the future course of action followed by the region/city.
