NEWS

News and Project Highlights for Fall 2010

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost - The Road Less Traveled

If there is one theme that ties the work together this fall it has been helping leaders shift their orientation from adapting past knowledge to meet current challenges to learning from the future as it emerges. This involves a shift from making the visible actionable to making the invisible, visible. Too often business becomes confused with 'busyness'To meet the future we need to pause, reflect, and make a place around us where we can hold presence with the unknown. Ultimately it may be taking this road less traveled that will make all the difference to the future we create for ourselves and others.

     Projects -

The Powers of Place

Michael is currently writing an outline for a forthcoming essay supported in part by the Fetzer Institute on Place Based Leadership - Towards an Ecological Worldview.

This essay is also supported by The Powers of Place Initiative where Michael is a steward. In this capacity he has augmented his writing with keynote talks and facilitated forums on the power of place and place - based leadership. These include The Celebrating Communities Conference in Atlantic Canada, The Authentic Leadership in Action Conference (ALIA) in Halifax NS, The Banff Centre and The International Leadership Association Annual Conference.

Leading Artfully

Michael also continues to facilitate seminars, retreats and give keynote presentations guiding leaders on the inner journey towards fulfilling their own deeper calling and finding their voice as leaders. Following the footprint of his book Artful Leadership, Michael has offered these transformational learning experiences for The Creative Education Foundation, The Global Innovations Group at Proctor and Gamble, The Leading for Innovation Program at the Banff Centre and other groups. He will be offering this program for Executive MBA students at the College of Business, University of Texas, San Antonio, TX and perhaps St Edward's University in Austin, TX early in 2011.

Connecting to Our Future

Throughout 2010 Michael has been part of a small team facilitating a unique transformational change project with Quaker Foods. Based on the premise that creating our future involves a shift from a reductive and industrial to a more imaginative and ecological worldview, this program involves introducing conversational and arts based processes that enable leaders at all levels to connect with their legacy, their gifts, their collective wisdom and their aspirations for the future.

To see work in progress follow Michael's Leading Artfully blogs.

     Publications

Michael has two essays due for publication in the next few months;
Transforming Leadership and the Power of the Imagination
Building Leadership Bridges- Leadership for Transformation Jossey Bass and The International Leadership Association. Publ. date January 2011

The Marriage of Logos and Mythos: Transforming Leadership
The Journal of Leadership Studies - Wiley Periodicals Publ. date January 2011

To read both please visit the publications page.

     Public Speaking and Workshops

October 4 - Montreal, Canada Arts Smarts National Learning Exchange
Michael was the opening keynote speaker setting the tone for the conference- (click here for Michaels blog) Setting the Tone-Putting the 'Music' back into Keynote Presentations and speaking on the theme The Power of Story; Learning From the Emerging Future. His presentation was followed later in the day with an experiential process Dialoging with Our Future in which conference participated in conversations exploring aspirations for creating their possible future through a set of inquiry questions. www.artssmarts.ca/exchange.aspx

October 26 to 30 Boston Mass International Leadership Association
Carrying the theme of learning from the emerging future through the language of the arts, Michael was a session leader for four workshops at the ILA conference this year- three on learning from the future through the language of the poetry, story and imagry and a fourth on leading from a sense of place. These conference dialogues have become a 'wonderful tradition ' at the ILA and people really appreciate the space. The legacy started with the Leadership for transformation series of dialogues at the Fetzer Institute and was introduced into the ILA Conferences, for which Fetzer has served as a funding partner, - The Banff Ctr. through conferences in Vancouver Los Angeles, Prague, Boston this year and London next October.
Michael was also a guest performer for all of the plenary sessions featuring such speakers as; Karen Armstrong. Howard Gardner, Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jeff Swartz the president of Timberland. www.ila-net.org/conferences/

November 29 to December 3 Banff Center

Leading for Innovation

Leading for Innovation is The Banff Center's flagship program on leadership, artistry and innovation. It is a unique program in that it offers a full immersion in models, frameworks and practices for innovative leadership and also develops the inner qualities of the mind and heart of the innovator. In this respect it is based on the notion that it is not enough to innovate - we also need to be conscious of where we innovate from.

As one participant said following the program -

Coming to Banff was not only about who I am, but about who I want to be. It is never too late! I have taken other nationally known leadership programs, but I needed this one to get me to the next level in both my career and personal life. The title of the program could almost be changed to Inspiring 'Creative Leadership and Life'!
Robert Vander Wees - Concentra Financial
LIO is offered twice a year at Banff - to learn more please visit -
www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=169

Thanks for visiting this page - there will be another update early next year.