Spirit-Led Leadership: Contemplative Leadership for the 21st Century

Sunday, April 14, 2013 from 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM

Saint Paul, MN

There is a way of leading that trusts that an invisible force, much larger than our own will, is seeking to work through us individually and together. This force moves toward wholeness and is actively seeking to be in relationship with us. Through stillness, discernment, and reflective action it is possible to move in close connection with this force--in business, in social change, and personally. 

Many of us are drawn to this way of listening and leading in the midst of complex, diverse settings--and we hunger to do it with more integrity and in more connection with others on this path. 

We are inviting people who are drawn to the practice of spirit-led leadership to connect with each other, share stories, and learn ways of deepening our practices. We invite both people who have been on the path of spirit-led leadership for many years, and those who are curious about the idea. People and perspectives from all spiritual traditions are invited.

To start this workshop, Margaret Benefiel will draw from her books and experience to share stories and reflections about the practice of spirit-led leadership in a wide range of secular and religious settings. We'll then have opportunities in small and large groups to share our own stories and questions about spirit-led leadership. Michael Bischoff, who is committed to nurturing relationships among spirit-led leaders in Minnesota, will co-facilitate the workshop and will look for opportunities to continue supporting this network of relationships and practice after the workshop. 

Our hope is that you'll leave this workshop with inspiration, practical ideas, and new connections to move forward on your own path of spirit-led leadership. 

Suggested registration fee: $25 - $100. Pay as you are able. Your contributions will cover the costs of the workshop and support Margaret and Michael.

Online event registration for Spirit-Led Leadership: Contemplative Leadership for the 21st Century powered by Eventbrite

 

The workshop will be led by:

Margaret Benefiel, Ph.D., Executive Officer of Executive Soul, LLC, offers consulting, coaching, and spiritual direction for leaders and organizations. She is an adjunct faculty member at Andover Newton Theological School in Boston and a visiting lecturer at All Hallows College in Dublin, Ireland. Dr. Benefiel has served as Chair of the Academy of Management's Management, Spirituality, and Religion Group and has served in various leadership roles in Spiritual Directors International. Over 1,000 executives, managers, and other leaders have participated in her seminars and courses.

She is the author of Soul at Work (Seabury, 2005) and The Soul of a Leader (Crossroad, 2008), and co-editor of The Soul of Supervision (Morehouse, 2010). Dr. Benefiel has also written for The Leadership Quarterly, Management Communication Quarterly, Managerial Finance, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Organization, Personal Excellence, America, Presence, The Way, Studies in Spirituality, Radical Grace, and Faith at Work.

Margaret is a member of Beacon Hill Friends Meeting in Boston and lives in Boston with her husband. She enjoys hiking, cycling, reading novels, and scuba diving in her free time.

 

Michael Bischoff has spent the last four years experimenting with how personal and systemic transformation can be integrated in practical ways. During this period he initiated the Minnesota Presencing Community and the Social Innovation Lab. 

Michael is the Lead Consultant and Owner of Clarity Facilitation, an organizational development consulting business. Michael facilitates visioning, evaluation, and marketing with nonprofit, government, and religious organizations. He is a member of Twin Cities Friends (Quaker) Meeting. He was formerly the Director of Projects and Interim President at the Council on Crime and Justice, and the Executive Director at Friends for a Non-Violent World. Michael has a MA in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University. He lives in Minneapolis, where he enjoys biking, movie making, and playing with his two children. He's also crazy about God.

Community meeting spaces in the Twin Cities

I spend a lot of time looking for good, inexpensive places to have meetings and workshops in the Twin Cities. I'd like to let you know some of my favorite places to host community meetings. I'd love to know your favorites.

Libraries: Almost all libraries in the Twin Cities have free meeting space for nonprofit uses. My favorites are the Community Program Room at the Roseville Library (lots of natural light, seats 125 theater style, nice A/V setup), the Rondo Multipurpose Room in St. Paul (up to 80, nice light, pretty new), and the Meeting Room at the North Regional Library in Minneapolis (up to 108, using both sides of the room). There are lots of other good options. The hours are limited, and you can't charge money to participants for events held at the libraries.

St. Jane House: A beautiful, welcoming space for small meetings and retreats in North Minneapolis. Gatherings that fit with their mission can use the space in exchange for a donation.

Carondolet Retreat Center: Located next to St. Kate's University in St. Paul, Carondolet has many sizes of rooms for reasonable prices. I've had many events there and found them easy to work with and hospitable. If you have any food, you need to use their in-house catering company.

Neighborhood House/Wellstone Center: This community center on St. Paul's west side has many nice spaces for rent and is an active communtiy hub. It is a little more expensive than the Carondolet Center, but not much.

The Hill Ballroom at Macalester College: I've looked into many of the larger ballrooms in the Twin Cities, and found this one to be a great combination of affordability and good support. The ballroom is in the Kagin Commons building, in a beautiful room full of windows. For food, you need to use their catering company.

Common Roots Cafe: This restaurant in Minneapolis has a community room that is free for community use, if your meeting participants buy food there. There is space for up to 25 people. The cafe is open a lot, but the calendar for the room fills up quickly.

Black Bear Crossing: Free meeting space for nonprofits in Como Park, St. Paul. The rooms are connected with this cafe.

Urban Research and Outreach-Engaement Center (UROC): A U of M center in North Minneapolis that has 3 rooms available for community use.

Minneapolis Urban League: Their North Minneapolis center has 2 large meeting rooms that are often available for community meetings, at a reasonable cost.

What other good communtiy meeting spots do you know about?

My vision for the next 10 years. Where can we collaborate?

In this political season, I have frequently been caught up in the political horse races, sometimes with despair and sometimes with excitement. I definintely did last night while watching the debate. I can also easily get lost in eager preparation for an event or project I'm facilitating. In these times of short-term, narrow focus, I can lose sight of any long-term vision and intentions that I want to guide me. This summer, as part of a training about Human Systems Dynamics, I was asked to make a video about my vision for the next 10 years. I found this to be a very useful exercise in envisioning what is important to me with my family, work, and communities. I had fun developing part of the vision together with my kids.

I'd like to show you that video, as a way of asking for your collaboration in the next 10 years. I'd love to know and support your vision, and collaborate in the areas where our visions meet. 

Dangers of following what emerges

One of the primary orientations in my work is listening for what seems to be naturally emerging in organizations and communities and supporting groups to follow the path that is emerging. While I deeply value this approach, it has its shadow sides.  Here is a story of one of those shadows.

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Earlier this year, I worked with others to initiate a new Social Innovation Lab in Minnesota. There was a lot of momentum going into the lab, and many people and organizations were excited to be a part of it. The lab was successful on many levels. The registration for the first gathering of the lab filled up quickly. About 250 of us gathered in May, and there was a lot of excitement and energy. In preparing for the lab, I had followed where doors opened, what glimmered. Volunteers, co-sponsors, projects to work with, and other connections arose easily and abundantly. I put in many more hours than I had planned on, but I found it energizing and compelling. 

A few weeks before the lab event, I went on a retreat by myself and spent the weekend in the woods. In that quiet, I was surprised by what I found. It became clear that under the excitement and dedication I was putting into the lab, I felt a strong insecurity and grasping. On the retreat, I noticed how much my work with the lab was motivated by the belief that if enough people came to the event and if it was viewed as successful, then (and only then) would I be OK. With this grasping motivation, I had overworked and attracted lots of people that look and think like me. I had created an overrepresentation of white, liberal, nonprofit, middle class, artsy, do gooders. I like those people. I am one of those people. But my over functioning crowded out space for other partners on the team and other intentions and priorities. For this event, we were seeking to maximize the diversity of perspectives involved, as a way to increase chances for innovation. The way I followed opportunities as they arose also quickly brought in many people in ways that were confusing. I often skipped over the preparation of clarifying our purpose and building our team. All of this contributed to a higher level of anxiety in the event and planning and became overwhelming for me.

Thankfully, I am working on this project with an amazing team, and they were able to challenge and redirect the patterns I was starting and strengthening. As a team, we then corrected course to be more intentional about how we were inviting people and clarified our goals. The excitement, anxiety, confusion and inspiring sense of possibility were all mixed together in our May gathering of the innovation lab.   

The process was a reminder to me that my intention is not just following what is easiest and what seems to be emerging naturally. There are other layers in following what is emerging and ways to ground that practice in wisdom and thoughtfulness. As I'm now preparing for the next large gathering of the innovation lab, I'm seeking to pay more attention to the motivations and energy I'm bringing to the team. I'm stopping myself from always rushing ahead when opportunities arise to make more space for our team to build common goals and for us each to take our own kinds of leadership. I don't want to beat myself up about the mistakes I made in the last round, but to notice and learn from this experience and pay attention in a different way next time.

I see many of us dancing between intentional choices about what we want to do, while also responding to opportunities as they arise. I'm very interested in your stories and lessons from doing this dance. I'm grateful to be working with many of you as we experiment with this in our organizations. 

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You're Invited

Sept. 12, 8:00 am - noon, St. Paul. I'd like to invite you to join us for the second Social Innovation Lab, which will focus on how we see and cultivate synergy between different social innovation projects. The lab is a place for community change makers to get new thinking and connections to advance their work. You can find out more and register online here.  

Join us for the first Social Innovation Lab

I see most most systems in our society hitting walls as we try to solve new problems with old tools. From how we provide health care to how we do politics, we are in need of lots of innovation to find new ways of meeting community needs. In the past six months, I've organized a series of gatherings about Presencing, which is a way of paying attention to the future that is seeking to emerge.  I've been delighted by all the connections and learning that I've found in this work. One outgrowth of the work I've been doing with Presencing, is that I'm now partnering with InCommons, Wendy Morris, and many others to start a Social Innovation Lab in Minnesota. The first gathering of this lab will be on May 22 from 8:30 to noon in St. Paul. I'd like to invite you to join us, and help shape this resource and community. 

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The Social Innovation Lab is a quarterly, half-day gathering that brings together tools, projects, and networking to increase capacity for social innovation, for the purpose of building sustainable and inclusive communities in Minnesota. 

The inaugural lab on the morning of May 22 will focus on identifying and working with leverage points for change in complex systems. For instance, what are the most effective points of intervention for increasing the health of systems that provide education, food, health care, and public safety? Glenda Eoyang, from the Human Systems Dynamics Institute, will be one of the trainers, and help us find tools for change in complex systems. Several people who are leading systems change initiatives will join us, as we experiment with how the tools that Glenda introduces us to can be applied to the challenges in these initiatives. For example, people who are working to remove barriers for money transfers from Minnesota to Somalia will engage us in this challenge. Many other groups, including people working on health care reform and green affordable housing, will also be inviting us to learn with them about how tools for systems change can be applied those issues. Read more here.