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Group
Facilitating

Co-Leadership

Sharing Wisdom

Circles are timeless in human tradition. They are sacred spaces that are naturally inclusive, inviting intimacy and courage. They allow us to meet as equals for bringing new possibilities into being.

With circle-based learning, the relationships around you become mirrors in which you find daily your teachers and supporters, challengers and cheerleaders.

There is no more ‘guru’ when you start to view those around as both teacher and equal. Daily experience becomes your personalised tutor to all your growth and development.

For humankind and planet to thrive, these times demand new ways of leading that are inclusive and co-operative.  To meet with the complexities and urgencies, it is vital we bridge separation and individualism in order to co-create new solutions and systems that are healthy for self, each other and the planet.

The wisdom to do so comes from accessing different parts of who we are in different moments and contexts. This is where learning circles are incredible opportunities for learning and growth.

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

~ Helen Keller

Inter-Dependent Growth

Power of Collaboration

Some reasons for adopting a circle approach to growth and development for you and your team could be:

You operate in a leadership or other influential role in which conventional training by ‘experts’ alone no longer suits or enriches you.

You seek and welcome fresh perspectives, constructive feedback & healthy challenge.

You recognise you can grow, impact & influence far more by co-operation & co-creation.

You are curious about and/or value Peer Learning as a grounded, progressive & practical process for integrating ongoing learning & development.

You want to feel supported and enjoy yourself as you grow!


What’s Possible?


Developing the multiplier effect

higher engagement

deeper listening & observation through consistency & trust

mutual mirroring

watching out for each other’s blind spots with clear & compassionate feedback

‘live’ supervision

witnessing & accountability between peer learners

flexibility & presence

learning & adapting, more fluidly & in the moment, to the needs of oneself & others

challenging with kindness

courageously, consciously constellating tension & emotion

role modelling

embodying vulnerability & open communication to today’s emerging leaders

The value of authenticity
“Richard facilitates and leads as he lives – with a combination of deep humility, integrity and joyousness that shine through all the way. His natural ability is to be authentic, which is so invaluable in his work and in the world, with the reliability to deliver what’s needed.”

Dr Scilla Elworthy
Founder of Business Plan for Peace & The Mighty Heart, three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

Channelling energy into innovation
“Richard has an innate ability to manage the energy of the room and is able to probe issues that most would consider ‘untouchable’… Richard’s trust in himself and in the dialogue process exposed far more powerful and engaging ideas than would otherwise have been the case creating a highly valuable breeding ground for innovation and development of the ideas and people present.”

Owner-Manager, International Software House, (previously Senior Manager, Deloitte)

Presence & trust
“Richard has that very unusual highly intuitive quality which allows him to observe and listen in that way brings out the very best in people. The quality of his feedback is incisive and sensitive, allowing individuals to operate at their peak performance. He has a distinctive presence, which I can only sum up in the feedback I gave him at the time, ‘This is already the best programme I’ve run…and the reason is your presence allows me to trust being who I truly am'”

Simon Edwards
Founder of Serve On, Co-Founder of Mowgli Mentoring, Winston Churchill Fellow

 

 

 

 

Presence-Based

Facilitation
& Co-Leadership

The new paradigm that is birthing is seeded in self leadership; this is subsequently nurtured and disseminated into the world through co-leadership. It’s a both-and paradox of personal responsibility for oneself and mutual responsibility for the whole.

These are some reasons why circles are so vital for our communities and our leadership:.

  • more active listening and enquiry
  • reducing anxiety and isolation as a leader
  • being more present, even with discomfort
  • healthy vulnerability, building empathy and trust
  • channeling difference and disagreement into innovation
  • growing out of resistance and conflict into renewal
  • deeper, more honest, authentic relationships

Below are examples of programmes, directly or through trusted partnerships.


Who This Is For:

Overall Benefits & Outcomes:

A presence-based facilitator is a life long learner by practising, experimenting and reflecting. This programme will enable you and your team to reset and re-engage with challenge and tension, so that you can genuinely treat them as opportunities for transformation, starting and ending these efforts ‘well’, both in terms of what you achieve and how you feel in doing so.

Personal & Team Outcomes:

  • Being able to identify when you and your team are at your best & how to set yourselves up for sustainable, regenerative success
  • Unblocking flow and resolving current immediate issues – or at least having a clear, confident plan with shared commitment (’sacred agreements’) across your team
  • Greater personal and team confidence in yourselves and your ability to deal with future issues with enhanced awareness and capabilities, based on new or improved ways of working

Programme Structure:

  • 8 modules delivered face-to-face or online; with reflective practice between sessions
  • Developing small teams of facilitator-leaders in a presence-based approach to all development and delivery; to extract the ‘juice’ via participant-led content
  • A shorter introductory version can be customised to meet your needs

Overall Benefits & Outcomes:

The Mighty Heart Course for Organisations will show you and your team how to use conflict and crises successfully as a source for genuine transformation.

We listen to your challenges and bring forward the components of the course that will help you the most; whether that be decision-making, communication, well-being, values or purpose.

You and your team will learn how to shift your energy and the energy of the situations you face: from anger and anxiety to action and from fatigue to service, developing an overall safer and thriving, more sustainable and regenerative atmosphere at work.

We work with small leadership teams through to groups of more than 150 people.

We also offer The Mighty Heart Open Course, which develops and equips change makers (each individually and working with colleagues as they see fit) with the tools and approaches to transform conflict that may be internal, at family, organisational or even national level.

Programme Structure:

  • 10 modules over 10 weeks, including community-based practice and support
  • Delivered face-to-face or online
  • Developing small teams of leaders in a presence-based approach
  • Includes guided content from specialist contributors

Topics & skills include:

  • The skill of deep listening to transform the conflicts people are facing
  • Compassionate communication needed to prevent arguments escalating
  • A way to change your inner critic into a wise guide
  • The skill to use anger as a fuel for transformation
  • The sense of your own strong presence to call on in a crisis
  • A way to develop intuition as a wise guide in making decisions
  • Enlargement of your capacity to speak truth to power
  • The skill to take a stand on an issue you care about and be fully heard
  • The integrity to be in service to the world

Compassionate
Co-leadership

Shift the Paradigm

“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.”

~ Bob Kerrey

Facilitation and leadership are synonymous.  Like being human, leadership starts with being.  It is organic, changes and grows, according to the environment, context and need.

The most powerfully, positively influential and uplifting leaders are those who radiate an authenticity rooted in their own personal story.  This alignment consistently feeds and energises their vision with discipline, dedication and devotion.

The new paradigm that is birthing is seeded in self leadership; this is subsequently nurtured and disseminated into the world through co-leadership.

It’s a both-and paradox of personal responsibility for oneself and mutual responsibility for the whole.

This is integral to a style of leadership that is called for, emerging and gradually being acknowledged as foundational, relevant and necessary for this time.  It is a balance of inclusively receptive feminine and benevolently focused masculine.

It has a genuinely gentle and generous power that is both kind and determined, allowing and resolute, receptive and driven.  Like yin with yang, each in the other, as a whole.

These are reasons why truly collaborative circles are so vital for our communities.