“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.
Coaching the Genuine Contact Way (Self-Study Program)
Genuine Contact offers a holistic container that can strengthen your coaching processes and outcomes no matter what coaching methods you prefer to use. In this half-day online workshop, you will learn 3 simple tools for:
- Co-creating a coaching container that already empowers the client to take leadership in their work with you.
- Customizing your coaching program to best support the client in achieving their development goal with the Six Level Evolutionary Spiral.
- Regaining and regenerating personal balance through the four dimensions of personal wellbeing.
Whether you are new to coaching or have been a coach for some time, you will be able to begin using these tools immediately in your coaching processes. The tools are beneficial for use in coaching whether coaching is your profession or you are a leader within an organization coaching employees in achieving their goals.
Conscious Project Design using the Medicine Wheel Tool (Self-Study Program)
Starting a new project – whether in life or business – is always exciting. There’s something about the idea of transforming thoughts into reality that makes us want to do things differently, more effectively than we have done in projects before. I’ve learned that using the Medicine Wheel Tool is pivotal in getting ready for what’s on the way. And the more conscious you are about what you truly want to achieve, the easier it is to plan ahead.
You’ll leave this workshop, originally recorded in January 2020, with:
- a clear sense of what your intention is for your project that is starting and why knowing the difference between the purpose for your project and your intention for the purpose of this project can make all the difference in feeling successful
- a simple and profound holistic framework for your project that will ensure you’ve considered it from every angle
- a workbook that will allow you to replicate the experience for any other project
This workshop, based on the Genuine Contact Program can be used for your own work and also, in helping others design their own projects in a conscious and holistic way.
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!
Five to Fold Decision Making (Self-Study Program)
This workshop gives you a profound experience as well as the information you need to start using Five to Fold decision making (5toFold) right away.
5toFold is a collaborative decision making process, specifically suitable for purpose-centered organizations and teams. It ensures high quality conversations with all voices being heard. At the same time it is clearly structured and efficient. The result is real commitment by those participating in a decision. At times it may result in well-founded disagreement, which allows for the reworking of proposals until they are in alignment with the group’s purpose.
5toFold is an effective and powerful way for both: major, complex decisions as well as fast day-to-day voting. 5toFold fosters the development of trust and individual responsibility. With each decision being made, alignment with both individual and organizational purpose is strengthened.
5toFold is chosen by organizations that are conscious of themselves as living entities. The process honors each individual as a keeper of the organizational purpose, and fosters a culture of leadership. 5toFold invites participants to engage fully in each decision, and provides the organization with in-depth information that improves the implementation of each decision.
In this workshop you will
- Learn: “What is 5toFold and what does it provide that other decision making processes don’t?”
- Understand the voting process of 5toFold, the meaning of each alternative vote: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Fold, and the benefit of these distinctions.
- Learn how to use 5toFold via theoretical and experiential learning: We will go through a full 5toFold process during the workshop (real time participation recommended).
- Identify key benefits of using the method, including when to use it and when not to use it.
- Understand how this practice ensures that decisions are actually executed upon and supported by a whole team.
- Clarify your own values of decision making.
- Hear stories of how we have successfully used the method in different organizations.
- Get an opportunity to reflect on your next steps with 5toFold.
This is a highly experiential workshop. You will actually be guided through a real decision-making process and come out with a plan for your next steps. We know 5toFold can be of great service to humanity and we are dedicated to making it widely accessible.
Friends of GC Membership (Orange)
Friends of Genuine Contact are a core group of members who want to learn more about and move into closer connection to the Genuine Contact way of working. Their support allows us to continue growing a strong community with meaningful engagement. Friends of GC represent the diverse global community in which we live and work.
Annual Benefits:
- Participation in our international email discussion forum to meet others and learn more about how they are working with Genuine Contact
- Subscription to our newsletter with articles and special event invitations
- Access to introductory resources about Genuine Contact
- Invitation to our open meetings
- Recognition on our Members Directory
- access to a digital library for Learning About Genuine Contact
- 10% members discount on many Genuine Contact program modules and specialized education offered by our members for working Genuine Contact Way
- Member Badge to display on your website and marketing materials
Friends of Genuine Contact have taken at least 1 Genuine Contact program module and their first year of membership is included as part of their workshop registration*.
* A free year of membership is included when you take your first Genuine Contact program module. Ask your Trainer for details.
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.
GC Ambassador Membership (Blue)
Ambassador members can be proud of the contribution they make to the dreams and aspirations of Genuine Contact. They are deeply connected to and engaged in the Genuine Contact way of working. Often more active in their working contributions, Ambassador members want to be a part of the development of Genuine Contact and to use their participation in the work of the Genuine Contact Organization to continue their learning and capacity development.
Annual Benefits:
- 10% members discount on many Genuine Contact program modules and specialized education offered by our members for working with Genuine Contact
- Member Badge to display on your website and marketing materials
- Access to a digital library of resources for working with Genuine Contact
- Promotion of your profile as a member of Genuine Contact on our social media channels
- Robust profile in our Member Directory and featured in our newsletter at least once per year
- Share up to 12 stories per year on our website, social media, and newsletter featuring your work and experiences of the Genuine Contact way of working
- Trainers Toolkit to support workshop facilitation including curated resources, workshop facilitation samples, and more.
- Participation in the GC Trainers discussion forum for ongoing mentoring on workshop facilitation (authorized GC Trainers only)
- Promotion of your workshops (Genuine Contact program and those rooted in Genuine Contact) on our website, newsletter, and social media
Ambassador members have taken at least 5 Genuine Contact program modules to support their ongoing and deepening work the Genuine Contact way.