“Everything is not fine” – Grief in the Collective (Self-Study Program)
“We believe that change with its accompanying loss, grief work, and conflict is constant. Organizations that develop mastery in working with change can sustain optimal effectiveness. These leaders and organizations recognize that change cannot be managed, that energy spent trying to manage change is wasted energy, and that productive use of individual and organizational energy is achieved by working with change rather than against it.”
– one of five foundational beliefs of Genuine Contact.
How do you bring up a topic as heavy as grief in your collective circles (organizations, teams, groups, and communities)? Collectives, like individuals, also go through constant change – particularly in recent times. These changes could be positive or negative. It could be as small as a change in the cozy office setup or as big as a change in leadership or the end of a project, receiving a big grant, or a merger with another organization.
Covid has brought its own set of changes and challenges – working from home, loss of projects, laying off people, a shift in needs, changes in the external environment, reduced time horizons for planning and strategy, etc. These changes can impact the group as a whole, specific teams, specific locations, or specific groups of people across the organization.
In this workshop, we discuss what you, as part of a collective, could do to restore the vibrancy of your group over time. You will also learn how to create spaces within a group to explore what people are collectively grieving about at a point of time to allow for a sense of individual and collective awareness and offer an opportunity for a group to come together and create a greater will for forward movement.
You will leave this workshop with:
- Exploring the idea of “grief” in the context of groups caused by change and why it matters to have spaces to allow this to surface and be discussed
- Understanding leadership in a collective that is grieving – roles and responsibilities
- Experience using simple tools to support a collective awareness around grief in a life nurturing way
- Pitfalls to watch out for
- Leave with inspiration and ideas to explore this further in our own teams, communities, and organizations
How do we bring wholeness back to our collective endeavors? Working with grief in an organization can feel like an impossible task to take on. Somehow, working with, instead of against, grief allows a collective to move forward in surprising and beneficial ways.
Attending to Your Worldview: The Key to Making Change Successfully
Online Workshop | Oct 25, 2022 | 9 am – 12:30 pm EDT / 15:00 – 18:30 CEST (also available for self-study)
A worldview, simply defined, is a collection of values, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations that inform thoughts and actions. Your worldview is a big component of what shapes your reality. As a leader, you bring your worldview into your organizational development – shaping your organization according to your worldview too. The better you understand your worldview and the worldview of the people you work with, the more positive the outcomes of your work are likely to be.
- Explore common worldviews and how they can shape your leadership and your organization
- Develop a more clear understanding of your personal worldview so that you can begin aligning your leadership with your worldview…and experience more joy and ease
- Learn to use a simple tool to clarify the worldview of others you are working with and how you can find alignment for better working together from your unique perspectives
When you consciously understand your worldview and those of the people you work with, conflict is reduced, decision-making becomes easier to consciously set out a collective path to the future in your organization. Give yourself the gift of time to make conscious this (often) unconscious driving force in organizational life so that as you shift and change, you always this powerful orientation point.
Join us!
Board Governance the Genuine Contact Way (Self-Study Program)
In our work with Non-Profits, it’s common to witness well-intended people of a Board of Directors getting bogged down. Good people become exhausted and conform to a status quo of “this is how we always do it.” Parking lot discussions of “what we should really be doing” amongst a few replace discussions in the Board room. Frustration is high. Often apathy sets in. Good solutions from good people don’t make it to the Board for consideration.
It is possible to turn this around, even quickly. Learn how we use the Genuine Contact way as a holistic approach to support Boards of Directors to perform using the combined wisdom and energy that the members of the BOD bring. The Genuine Contact way provides guidance regarding the implementation of a culture of leadership at the BOD level. This involves the BOD shifting to operating with a leadership model of policy governance.
Key Areas To Be Covered:
- Board Governance/Risk Management
- Creativity, Innovation, Collaboration
- Decision Making
- Improving the Board Meeting
This workshop will support you in making the most of your Board’s contributions to your organization, to improve the vital work that only the BOD is positioned to do, and to do it well. By attending, you will pick up tips, techniques, and knowledge to renew, re-energize, and harvest ideas for working even better together.
Creating a Culture of Leadership in Communities (Self-Study Program)
What is needed to create a culture of leadership in a community, an association, or a network where people work voluntarily for a common interest? A culture of leadership is a culture where the leadership for taking initiatives and achieving results is shared among many, such as in neighborhood organizations, climate actions, sports clubs, or the church.
Voluntary organizations often engage a lot of people when they begin as a movement or as an answer to a need in the community. When the start-up phase is done, the organization is established and a steering committee is elected, it seems as if other members don´t think they are needed any longer. This leaves a small group of people to carry out the necessary tasks to keep the organization alive and so the members can still enjoy the benefits.
In this workshop, we discuss what you, as part of a steering committee or board, could do to keep the vibrant life in a new organization over time. You will also learn how you can support a dormant organization to be the bustling meeting place it was in the beginning. The organization you support could be a political party, a sports association, an economic association, a choir, a parents’ group, or any other organization, that depends only on engaged people doing the work for the benefit of all members.
You will leave this self-study workshop with:
- Knowledge about a culture of leadership and how it can support engagement in voluntary organizations
- Key elements to work with
- Some first steps to re-create engagement and passion
- Pitfalls to watch out for
Leading an organization based only on voluntary work requires a somewhat different perspective than working with employed people. The main difference is that you can only count on their passion and spare time to get the work down, and this makes self-organization and shared responsibility keys to success.
Developing a Roadmap for Working with Ongoing Grief (Self-Study)
“People have emotions, also at work”
Grief is an inevitable part of life, it accompanies us whenever there is change, large or small, good or bad. It is part of our amazing human pallet of emotions that guide how humans navigate life. Often, people avoid talking or sharing about grief, especially in organizations. This relegates grief to the realm of the personal. By keeping it silent, it finds its way into other areas, pulling people away from genuine contact with themselves, with others, with their organizations, and with their communities. This is a shame since beyond grief is often new beginnings and new energy. By not working with grief, we also deny the opportunity for the transformation that follows.
During this workshop, we will offer you ways to learn about and work with grief by using the simple framework from the Genuine Contact Program. We will use it as a doorway into the varied world that grief inhabits so that it is possible to learn to work with it as the important gift that it is in living and working as a whole person.
During the workshop, we will
- Learn to use the grief cycle diagram to develop a multi-dimensional sense of grief and how it manifests
- Deepen your understanding of the varied ways grief can show up so that you can develop life-nurturing ways to work with it
- Recognize the varied expressions of each stage of grief in yourself, others and organizations
- Learn how to work with grief as an ally for change and transformation
In this self-study program, learn a new way to work with and speak about grief as an ally in the development of yourself and your organization.
Evaluating Impacts for Improved Results (Self-Study Program)
With this workshop, you as a leader and/or facilitator will get an understanding of how to evaluate impacts from change efforts such as trainings or workshops and how that improves results. We share a simple framework and tools for how to put it to practice in easy and life-nurturing ways.
In this workshop, you will
- Learn about the benefits of measuring impacts from development work in organizations
- Learn about the framework Kirkpatrick 4 levels and how it can be used the Genuine Contact way for measuring impacts of a development process
- Learn to use this approach in a holistic way – before, during, and after the intervention
- Understand how this practice increases the ROE (return on expectations)
- Hear stories of how we have successfully used the method in different organizations
- Get an opportunity to reflect on your next steps
I have used this approach to measure impacts in 100’s of development activities over the last 15 years. I find it contributes to clarity in preparations with my sponsor, great reflections, and learning with participants and sponsors both after a training/workshop as well as in follow up meetings later. It’s like getting a specified receipt when you buy something – you know what you got.
Sign up now and get started learning about measuring impacts to increase results!
From the Bored Room to the Board Room (Self-Study Program)
‘Change is the only constant’, is a familiar phrase. ‘Change Management’ is another common management term. After having literally grown up with these phrases, our entire worldview turned upside down when we learned from Birgitt Williams, ‘change cannot be managed, we can only learn to navigate through it’.
During this workshop, we will offer you ways to navigate through change by using the simple, yet profound framework from the Genuine Contact Program.
Through the journey of NIIT Foundation’s organization transformation phase as a case study, we will share the power of the Genuine Contact Tools, Whole Person Process Facilitation, and the Genuine Contact Principles. This Genuine Contact way of working enabled our 15+ years old not-for-profit organization first to successfully transform itself starting with a change in mission. And over the last 4 years, with the help of this awareness ‘change cannot be managed’, we have continued to build our capacities as a Genuine Contact Organization (GCO).
What helped us, an organization of around 400 team members, in creating a learning culture? How are we continuing to sustain this life-nourishing and genuine way of working within an organization?
Through this workshop, we intend to share the skills and capacities we developed using the Genuine Contact way of working to navigate through an ever-changing environment. It is our hope that all organizations (irrespective of size), professionals, and individuals can benefit through this transformation process.
Leading from a Place of Truth (Self-Study)
There seems to be something magical in all of us that inspires us to lead our life in our unique way and informs our choices. This special purpose and path that only we have, can become nectar to our soul and our communities – when we acknowledge, live and gift it wholeheartedly.
I unfortunately sometimes get overloaded with tasks, and as a result disconnect from my inner spark and while I might accomplish my to-dos I feel doubtful and exhausted.
Remembering one’s own leadership and purpose is heart and mind opening. Acknowledging our strength and talents and the contributions we are making heals our wounds and rejuvenates us. During the workshop, you will diagnose your personal leadership situation. You’ll (re-)connect to what is true for you – so you’ll lead even more from a place of truth – inspired and vitalized by your own leadership development.
You’ll be introduced to the Four Fold Way by Dr. Angeles Arrien – a holistic perspective on leadership, along with other tools from the Genuine Contact program.
You’ll leave this workshop with:
- a refreshed sense of purpose
- a clear vision of what supports you in your own leadership development
- ideas how to nurture yourself so you can be of service to others
- fresh thoughts to ponder about that spark your curiosity and excitement
- revitalized sense of leadership
The Four Fold Way
Combining four archetypes with principles:
- Show up, or choose to be present. Being present allows us to access the human resources of power, presence, and communication. This is the way of the Warrior.
- Pay attention to what has heart and meaning. Paying attention opens us to the human resources of love, gratitude, acknowledgment, and validation. This is the way of the Healer.
- Tell the truth without blame or judgment. Nonjudgmental truthfulness remains our authenticity and develops our inner vision and intuition. This is the way of the Visionary.
- Be open to outcome, not attached to outcome. Openness and non-attachment helps us to recover the human resources of wisdom and objectivity. This is the way of the Teacher.
~ Dr. Angeles Arrien, The Four Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary
Leading so People will Lead (Self-Study Program)
Supporting you in developing your leadership for leading so people will lead
Gone are the days when leading so people will follow is sufficient. As organizations need to become more agile, innovative, collaborative, and perform well within the background of constant change, leaders are learning how to lead in the new leadership paradigm “Lead so People will Lead”.
This may make logical sense to you. A question lingers that this specialty workshop is designed to help you answer. The question that lingers is “am I ready to lead so people will lead?” This question is directly linked to “am I ready to let go of the control I have when I lead for people to follow?”
By participating in Leading so People will Lead, you will increase your capacity to meet the expanded leadership accountability needed in today’s performance environment of constant change. This workshop offers an important step forward in supporting leaders and their organizations to develop in a way to:
- maintain a constant state of adaptability and flexibility
- ensure gender equality
- maintain organization-wide impeccable ethics
- pay attention to economic, social and environmental good while thriving financially
During this workshop, you will be guided to:
- discern the difference between leading so people will follow and leading so people will lead
- develop clarity about your readiness to lead so people will lead and to coach/mentor others in being able to do so
- determine your engagement with pioneering in the new leadership paradigm and what this means to your life and your business
- construct a plan for yourself to assist you in your personal and business transformation
- identify your next best step to guide you in implementation
- create a mechanism for monitoring and adjusting your progress
Join us!
More Than One Story (Self-Study Program)
Come join and experience sharing stories with an award-winning card game while experiencing the power of using a Whole Person Process facilitated container for your favorite group facilitation methods.
In this online workshop, you will learn how to use an online version of the famous, More Than One Story (MTOS). We ‘learn by doing’ so you will be invited to listen to stories from others and share some of your life stories. MTOS is useful in many situations in your work or private life – to build relations and deeper understanding between individuals in a group. It can be used both online and in person.
You will learn:
- The card game More Than One Story.
- How to use the meeting container Whole Person Process Facilitation (WPPF) to play the game in small or large groups.
- How and when you can use MTOS in your own organization or private context.
MTOS has received the Council of Europe’s Democracy Innovation Award, among others. It has been used around the world for more than a decade. It has been translated into 20 languages and more than 70,000 card decks have been spread around the world.
In 2020, your workshop facilitator, Thomas Herrmann, collaborated with the originator in the municipality of Simrishamn, Sweden to create a website so this game can be used online. Together, they also discovered the value of adding a facilitated meeting container to create more safety, presence and to harvest results. Whole Person Process Facilitation, the preferred meeting container, is one of the methods taught in The Genuine Contact™ program.
If you’re already familiar with Whole Person Process Facilitation, in this workshop you’ll experience how Thomas uses a WPPF container to support working with MTOS…and perhaps be inspired to consider how you can use WPPF to support the value of some of your favorite methods and techniques for participatory conversations. If you’re new to WPPF, you’ll have the opportunity to experience it in action, all while learning about a fun and engaging card game that builds relationships amongst communities of people…and maybe be inspired to learn to facilitate using Whole Person Process Facilitation too.
With MTOS you create space to look again. When you listen to more than one story about a phenomenon it creates more diverse, wide, and deep perspectives.
You will have many opportunities to use this game both professionally and with friends. It can be part of building a common culture in your organization, increasing relations, or ’just’ making better friends.
Thomas has decades of experience as a Genuine Contact trainer and facilitator. He discovered MTOS in 2015 and introduced it to several organizations. One example is an NGO in his hometown that supported newly arrived refugees. MTOS was successfully used for years and helped us to get to know each other and build trust and understanding.
Join this workshop and use your learnings in the future. Together we create a better world!
Facilitator: Thomas Herrmann