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The Bay Area SoL Community (BASoL) is made up of a diverse group of practitioners, consultants and researchers dedicated to improving our knowledge and effectiveness in practicing organizational and societal learning.

Our meetings are open to all, and are held at Saybrook University (www.saybrook.edu).

747 Front Street in San Francisco - a short walk from the Embarcadero Bart station and the Ferry Building.  Saybrook is wheelchair accessible. 

A $20 donation for meeting attendance is requested from those who are not dues paying members of SoL/BASoL.  

Synergic Inquiry—Enhancing Cross-Cultural & Collective Capability
Nancy Southern & Bernice Moore
Friday, Sep 17, 2010


Using our differences to create greater organizational performance is a critical success factor for leaders and organizations in the global economy. Often the differences between people, different ways of working, and different cultural backgrounds create conflicts and barriers to success rather than enhancing collective capability. By inquiring into the nature of our differences, exploring what they are and how they affect us, synergic inquiry releases the energy of conflicts and differences and channels that energy into positive, collective action.

In this workshop, practitioners will have an experience of synergic inquiry, a process developed by Yongming Tang, Ph.D. The inquiry entails a four-stage process. The first stage is self-knowing, when one reflects on a personal situation or experience, surfacing one’s assumptions and beliefs about the experience. The second stage is other-knowing, when we learn about someone who is different from us, and through deep listening and by reflecting back the other person’s story, we gain the ability to understand another’s experience with empathy. The third stage is differences holding, when we learn to value our own experience and another’s as equally valuable and relevant experiences. This enlarged perspective is gained by embodying and reliving both our story and another’s as if we were inside the experience. The final stage of synergic inquiry is differences-transcending, in which limiting patterns and beliefs are transcended and we create new approaches to dealing with challenges and dilemmas, approaches that are free from limiting patterns and assumptions. New meanings and ways of being emerge and differences are transformed into positive action.

Nancy Southern's work is dedicated to creating communities of learning and practice that seek to understand complexity, appreciate difference, and promote responsible action toward a sustainable world. She teaches graduate students in the Organizational Systems programs at Saybrook University who are interested in applying systems thinking and design to complex problems, using inquiry and dialogue as a way to support transformative learning and change.  As a consultant, she works with executives and management teams to build cultures of collaboration, through systemic organizational assessments, retreat design and facilitation, change management and organizational learning strategies, and leadership development.
Bernice Moore-Valdez's work is dedicated to creating communities of learning and practice that seek to understand complexity, appreciate difference, and promote responsible action toward a sustainable world. She teaches graduate students in the Organizational Systems programs at Saybrook University who are interested in applying systems thinking and design to complex problems, using inquiry and dialogue as a way to support transformative learning and change.  As a consultant, she works with executives and management teams to build cultures of collaboration, through systemic organizational assessments, retreat design and facilitation, change management and organizational learning strategies, and leadership development.

How Do I RSVP? 

Please RSVP to solrsvp@worklore.com.

  

Survey on Presence-Centered Evolutionary Leadership
Conducted by Alain Gauthier & the Global Transforming Ensemble. Please complete your response by Sep 15!

On November 5 from 10 PM to 3 PM, Alain Gauthier will lead an interactive session on “Presence-Centered Evolutionary Leadership” during which he will present The Global Transforming Ensemble’s preliminary research results about the quality of leadership in vibrant communities.

We invite you to participate in this research by taking a 20 minute survey on line for one or two groups or communities that you are part of – use the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/85LRC5X.

One of the groups you choose could be Bay Area Sol – if you have participated in its activities a number of times – another one could be your current organization or an organization that you closely work with. In order for your input to be taken into account for the November 5th session, please take the survey no later than September 15. Your individual information will be treated confidentially.

Thank you in advance for sharing your reflections!

How Do I Take the Survey?
Go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/85LRC5X.

 

Stewards Circle:

Elizabeth Doty, Alain Gauthier, Bernice Moore, Ken Homer, Nancy Southern, Sally Stewart, Jim Martin,  

Contact Elizabeth to join the mailing list.

RSVP to martin@linway.org

BASoL is now blogging! Please visit us.

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