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June 2009 Newsletter


Greetings!

Greetings to all as the warmth of summer begins to welcome us each morning.

In this issue, we are spotlighting PL's inagural foundation seminar at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Esalen was the birthplace, some 50 years ago, of the human potential movement in the US. Our presence there turned out to be an impactful re-affirmation of PL's ability to integrate many of the perspectives that were developed in the very seminar room that we had the privilege to enjoy.

We are also offering a new perspective on PL and leadership development as we connect PL to 'Theory U' developed by Otto Scharmer at MIT.

Of course, we continue with our "What on Earth" news from PL facilitators around the world and offer a sneak preview into March 2010 at Crestone, which will be our 10th anniversary!

We hope that you feel the newness of possibilities that we do as you read about the past few months and the "emerging field of the future."


The Perfect Match...
Personal Leadership at Esalen Institute, California!

by Nina Merrens

Synchronicity?

A “chance” meeting and discussion on the deck of the lodge at Esalen Institute, in March 2008, between Nancy Lunney, programs director of Esalen and Nina Merrens, fan of both Esalen and Personal Leadership, gave birth to the idea of bringing these two complementary worlds together.

Nina was on the way to Crestone, Colorado to attend the Personal Leadership facilitators training – having been convinced of its content at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication in Portland the previous summer. Based on her own experience as a former work scholar at Esalen, she felt strongly that the work scholars would benefit greatly from learning about Personal Leadership practices in a “living laboratory,” and that the CMD process would help scholars at Esalen to meaningfully integrate their experience and to provide a sustainable bridge between Esalen and re-entry into the outside world.

Nancy immediately took to the idea of Personal Leadership, and after several telephone conferences with Sheila and Nina, quickly agreed to put Personal Leadership into the regular workshop program at Esalen. The first workshop for external participants took place in May 2009 with Sheila, Gordon and Nina (and Barbara, thankfully close by, taking a painting workshop at Esalen!). Participants came from a wide variety of professional and cultural backgrounds. For example, from India (a charming Jesuit priest!), United Kingdom, Italy and the US. The door has now been opened to Esalen - further workshops and staff training are already being planned for Autumn 2009 and Spring 2010.

The Effect of Location

The debut Personal Leadership workshop, May 3-8, 2009 took place in one of the most sacred areas on the Esalen property, at the old Murphy Big House, nestled close to the canyon – the exact area where the Esalen Indians had formerly settled in Big Sur. The large windows of the seminar room looked out onto a dramatic Pacific ocean setting, the sound of the surf acted as a call to mindfulness and the occasional humming birds, a reminder of the secret of joy and creativity.


The spacious Esalen grounds with the wondrous meditation house above the creek, morning dance and yoga workshops, turquoise blue art barn, natural hot springs and Esalen massage overlooking the ocean all played a part in complementing the experience. A perfect living laboratory for skill practice was offered by experiences with, and reactions to(!), communal bathing and room sharing.

A Marriage of Minds, Body, and Soul

Many of the Personal Leadership practices, such as cultivating stillness, attending to physical sensation and emotion, have been familiar concepts at Esalen since the Institute was founded in the early sixties. However, Personal Leadership’s emphasis on regular PRACTICE, the INTERGRATION offered in all the six practices taken togtether and the insights as well as SHIFTS OF INTERNAL STATE possible with the CMD all offer structure to help participants apply learning in their everyday lives. Esalen and Personal Leadership do not remain simply an intense and beautiful memory but rather inspiration for a living and sustainable practice.

The spectacularly beautiful garden at Esalen provided a perfect opportunity for participants to become familiar with walking mediation, between the rows of brilliantly coloured flowers, scarlet ladybugs and emerald dragonflies. Participants were then encouraged to visualise a place in their everyday lives in order to keep this practice up in the outside world.

The art barn, perched on the edge of the ocean with its treasure trove of materials, played a revolutionary role in the potentials of PL. The participants were encouraged to allow their vision to “emerge”, guided by the right brain and use of colour, collage, natural symbols and textures. Following this success,
a similar process was used for the CMC exercise:
The participants actually expressed their “something’s up” topic using paint and art barn materials and then, more intuitively, applied the CMD questions in dialogue with their visual creation. This process led to many spontaneous insights into challenges the participants had been facing.

The Dance of Creativity and Co-creation

This was only a beginning, the first few days of a relationship between Esalen and Personal Leadership, which will continue into the future to be mutually supportive and inspiring. (“Mother Esalen allows” being one of the early Esalen mottos). The creative possibilities here are many — just a few that come to mind include integration of expressive arts such as dance, music and movement into the PL process, integrating more space and time to allow the full power of the mindful state to emerge, incorporating more silence into the program in order to “hear” more with daily walking mediation sessions to fully integrate this practice, singing in community to recognise one’s own individual note, moonlight meditation sessions with the didgeridoo at the hot tubs to tap into archetypal symbols....the list and unfolding continues...

Those who would like to read more about Esalen might enjoy
The Upstart Spring: Esalen and the Human Potential Movement: The First Twenty Years, by Walter Truett Anderson.



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Personal Leadership and Theory U

by Margaret Hosmer Martens

“Leadership is, at root, about understanding and managing our own internal experience.”[1]

“The essence of leadership is to shift the inner place from which we operate individually and collectively.”[2]

I had just finished a course given by Otto Scharmer on Theory U when I went to Crestone for PL’s Facilitation program. Thus the theory and methodology were fresh in my mind and I was struck by the many similarities between the two approaches. For instance both PL and Theory U speak of the importance of the state of being from which we operate. While PL talks about “choosing our internal state of being" and disentangling internal stae from external realities, in Theory U, Scharmer introduces us to the “Blind Spot”, the structure and source of our attention, the inner place or state from which we operate. This concerns the relationship between observer and observed as well as the quality of how we attend to the world. That quality differs depending on the place or position from which our attention originates...”[3] PL offers the Critical Moment Dialogue (CMD) to bring us to a new awareness of the social field and Scharmer identifies four levels of listening which give rise to a different structure of attention.

Scharmer’s levels of listening differ in the place from which attention originates: habits, open mind, open heart, and open will. Every action by a person, a leader, a group, an organization, or a community can be enacted in these four different ways.

  • The first type of listening is “downloading:” listening by reconfirming habitual judgments.

  • The second type of listening is “factual:” listening by paying attention to facts and novel data. We focus on what differs from what we already know.

  • The third, yet deeper, level of listening is “empathic” listening. When we are engaged in real dialogue, we can, when paying attention, become aware of a profound shift in the place from which our listening originates. When we remain at the first two levels—habitual ways of thinking or factually focused, we cannot experience this shift. It occurs when the heart is open and we have the empathic capacity to connect directly with another person or living system.
    PL also introduces us to this shift: the PL Shift is the shift from entanglement into disentanglement, from attachment into witness, from righteousness into curiosity and flexibility.

  • Finally, the fourth level of listening Scharmer calls “generative” listening, or the feeling of “being connected to something larger than myself.” This is when we can listen from the emerging field of the future. It requires us to access both our open heart and open will, our capacity to connect to the highest future possibility that wants to emerge. At this level we are connected to a deeper source, to the source of who we really are and to a sense of why we are here. This is clearly the point in PL’s Critical Moment Dialogue which links with vision and frees up the next step to right action.

    • As can be seen there are many connections and complementary assumptions between Theory U and PL. One of the most helpful to the practitioner is the use of theory along with methodology and stories to illustrate application. In this way both approaches are highly user-friendly.

    Afternote: In May, Sheila was facilitating a week-long network meeting of the UN Secretariat in New York, City. Guess who was the only featured guest speaker? Otto Scharmer! They had several conversations about mutual interests; he now has a copy of the PL book.

    [1]: Schaetti, B.F., Ramsey, S.R., Watanbe, G.C. 2008. Making a World of Difference. Personal Leadership: A Methodology of Two Principles and Six Practices. Flying Kite Publications, Seattle, WA.
    [2]: Scharmer, C. Otto. 2007. Theory U. Leading From the Future As It Emerges. Cambridge: Sol. Pg. 11
    [3]: Scharmer, ibid pg. 6

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    Update: Reinventing PLSeminars

    The community dialogue hosted in Crestone this past March was full of opportunity. Lots of work lays ahead of us, but more importantly a lot of work is underway.

    Three of those who attended initiated the reinvention process with a vision statement. A technology team has been working to find a mechanism to better share ideas, support each other's personal and professional development, and collaborate on exciting new initiatives.

    Many more transformations are ahead. We will keep you appraised as they unfold. If you want to get "into the mix," please email us your interest(s).

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    2010 Crestone Extravaganza

    Look carefully.. something new is coming for our 10th anniversary.

    This is our first announcement and more details will follow. Please note the dates and the new seminar following the Training-of-Facilitators!!

    FOUNDATIONS
    Wednesday, March 10 beginning with lunch and completing Saturday, March 13 with dinner (3.5 days)

    TRAINING of FACILITATORS
    Wednesday, March 10 beginning at 9am and completing Sunday, March 14 after a morning debrief (4.5 days)

    INTEGRATED ADVANCED PROGRAM:
    FOR PRACTITIONERS AND FACILITATORS
    Monday, March 15 beginning at 10am and completing Thursday, March 18 with dinner (4 days)

    Registration materials and specific program information is still under development. Email us with your interest to stay atop the latest news for this event or view our schedule for a listing of additional seminars.



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    What On Earth... are they up to now?

    With our second edition of "what on earth" are our PLSeminars facilitators "up to now" we feature five individuals in very different places - both mentally/spiritually and geographically. From their own words (respectively):

    Maureen Lancaster, Denver, USA

    I've had the fun and pleasure of offering my first PL Introductory workshops in May to the teachers of an alternative high school, to my administrative colleagues at Metropolitan State College of Denver and to a local church through their adult education program. My colleagues have asked for a longer workshop that is planned for June.

    MOST IMPORTANTLY, I want to thank the PL community for all the help that made it possible. First to everyone for the rich, deep learning in Crestone, and then to Jan, Adair and Megumi who all had a hand in reviewing the design, talking it through with me, and offering ideas, suggestions, and encouragement. A community of practice in action!! Thank you!! Community works!!

    Sreemathi Ramnath, Channai, India

    Pranams to all!

    Though I have been silent on the forum- believe you me- I have been 'listening' to the PL group- intently.

    That is perhaps why I took the opportunity that the recessionary environment provided (in the form of several canceled training days!) to continue seek the path that PL set for me. I along with my family decided to 'invest' a week of our life recently to further improve the quality of our existence.

    Let me share some of my observations and experiences with you all:

    We set out to be initiated in to the practice of "Inner Engineering" (the underlying belief is that the core or ‘atma’ is the seat of your happiness and well being and it is in your hands to keep it healthy by using a practice).

    Let me quote a few lines from Isha Yoga:

    "Yoga is both a philosophy and a science. It is the path towards the union of our bounded self with our ultimate nature. This union results in self-realization - Mukti or Nirvana. Yoga is not something one does; it is the medium of one becoming the crucible of self-transformation. It is not a practice, but a certain way to be. Yoga deepens, broadens and strengthens the visionary power of the mind. It opens the door of that realm of sensing beyond the five senses."

    We went to the Isha Yoga Center, located on 150 acres of lush land at the foothills of the Velliangiri Mountains. Surrounded by thick forests, it is a part of the Nilgiri Biosphere, a reserve forest with abundant wildlife. Created as a powerful sthana (a center for inner growth), this popular destination attracts people from all parts of the world and is unique in its offering of all the four major paths of yoga - gnana(knowledge), karma (action), kriya (energy), and bhakthi (devotion).

    This place is incredibly charged with highest energy (the participants exchanged notes every day at breakfast on the weird dreams that kept them awake!!- does that not happen every time you are at Crestone hills?). What I experienced there was something indescribable and very very deeply cleansing- as though I had a cold shower inside!

    What also amazed me is how similar the practice of PL is to Yoga. Haven’t they always said: “Truth is only one and hence the same everywhere?”

    I am reminded of what Adair quoted about the next Buddha being born not as a person but in the form of a whole community and hope that we can soon introduce PL in India in a big way.

    PS: I am planning to present at the SIETAR Conference on PL-Yoga connection. I just felt compelled to share this experience with you all.

    Megumi Sugihara, Seattle, USA

    I learned in my college research course that, two events happening together does not mean one is causing the other. OK, so perhaps I did not cause lots of snow to fall in Seattle this winter, but some seemed to believe so when I arrived Seattle on a snowy day in December, 2008. Barbara Schaetti, who welcomed me in my new neighborhood, jokingly said that she wanted to send me back if it kept on snowing much longer. Oh I am so happy that she did not resort to that action!

    Well, that was my 23rd move in my lifetime so far. I now stay in Seattle most of the time and go to Japan 5 times a year, instead of being based in Tokyo going to US 7 time a year.

    Here in Seattle, my life is focused on my doctoral study in human development that weaves through Personal Leadership. In my first major paper, I explained how practicing Personal Leadership facilitated my life’s journey going beyond encapsulated cultural marginality. For my research design practicum, I designed action research that would lead to a creation of a PL learning community.

    In Japan, my work continues to provide me opportunities to share PL with others. In mid June, I am conducting a PL seminar for a corporate client for the 4th time. I am thrilled that the majority of the participants this time are taking PL seminar for the second time. We can really be creative in deepening their PL practice at work.

    A move to a different country may appear to be a big change. My busy yet private life in a big city was replaced by a quiet life with a dog, a cat, and a housemate with whom I laugh a lot. Yes, a lot has changed and not much has changed. Life is good wherever I go, as long as I journey with my home within.

    Adair Nagata, Tokyo, Japan

    Over the past year I have been incorporating Personal Leadership in classes, conference presentations, and workshops in Japan, the US, Spain. I have received great encouragement by the interest and responsiveness of people who have been introduced to PL even in abbreviated ways. My current project is editing a book tentatively entitled Being and Doing: Personal Leadership in Contexts that will include the contributions of PL practitioners working in diverse settings and ways. We want to create a book that extends knowledge of Personal Leadership and accelerates it’s use in the world. Please contact me if you are interested in submitting a chapter.

    Claudia Zysk, Germany [in route to Seattle, USA]

    My colleague Kendra and I finished our first business concept and website for Lotus Consulting Group. (feedback welcome!!)

    We submitted a proposal for the Conversation Cafe of the Transformative Learning Conference in Bermuda this November and got accepted. We will present 'Mindful Leadership', an integration of PL, IDI, yoga and intercultural coaching.

    It is a transformative learning approach we developed to empower global leaders to navigate ambiguity, stress and interpersonal differences successfully. It begins with measuring the level of intercultural competence with the IDI, recognizing the potential for creativity and growth of leveraging differences, engaging in self-reflection through the CMD, and then sustaining it through practices that strengthen mindfulness for informed, non-reactive decision-making.

    If you are interested in more information about our work, please contact me.



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    An Enlightened Leadership Workshop at
    The Movement Center

    We wrote to you about this a couple of weeks ago, but thought we'd mention it again since they extended the registration deadline.

    The Movement Center in Portland, Oregon, USA. The Movement Center is a spiritual community and center for meditation and yoga practice based in Portland, Oregon, with additional centers in the U.S. and Europe.

    Through the powerful collaboration between TMC and two of Personal Leadership Seminar's Founders, Gordon Watanabe and Barbara Schaetti, this workshop offers the tools to enable you to reach your highest potential as a leader, benefiting society, organizations, teams and self. Our fundamental premise is that leadership begins with the capacity to lead oneself. Personal Leadership involves taking charge of all of your resources - heart, body, mind, and awareness of creative energy. Learn more and register!

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