What is an underlying question that gives form
to your work or interest in this field?
What is needed to engender wisdom in each of us and all
of us sufficient to a global life of balance, beauty and love?
What is your personal experience of collective
wisdom in groups?
Two experiences stand out – one is recent and the
other spans many years.
Recently I’ve worked with a small group of women
committed to understanding and amplifying the role of women leaders,
and the feminine, in the world at this time. See www.wisdomleadership.org
for our first articulation of the Wisdom Leadership Initiative.
We are all experiencing new potentialities emerging in
the feminine archetype, the feminine character of life. Women are speaking
of a deeper trust in their essential nature, the rightness and sufficiency
of themselves as women, as carriers of the feminine.
Women and men recognize the feminine is a source of wisdom
needed to solve some of the intractable problems we face. The Feminine
is inviting a new partnership with the Masculine. The feminine is amplifying
the power of our love and devotion to the long-term sustainability and
health of our planet and all life.
I experienced collective wisdom in a circle of women
that I invited to gather via telephone for 6 months to produce a forum
on The Wisdom and Power of Women Leaders. Most of them had never met
in person. We consciously balanced ritual, silence, personal sharing,
tracking and articulation of the emergent, with extraordinarily effective
accomplishment on a task of great importance to each of us.
Trust built quickly, collective intelligence steered
us through a number of potential potholes, and each woman reported her
own sense of wisdom and capacity to live from core grew and was amplified
because of the circle.
As an organizational consultant for 24 years collective
wisdom is an orienting compass. See www.communicore.biz for a description
of my consulting business. I look for, consciously build and amplify
the resonance between people and within systems. Resonance expresses
the natural patterns of vibratory presence, the state of being within
the doing, when the waves are synchronous and building on each other.
We all have experienced an organization so aligned with core purpose
that the resonance is palpable.
Resonance and its’ role in building collective
wisdom is important to talk about and understand now for two reasons:
One is that the entangled problems facing our world today will not easily
be solved by dissonance, or interactions that aren’t working together
toward resonance. Collective wisdom is greater than individual wisdom
and builds a resonance that amplifies the potentials, whether they be
life engendering or not. We need to build the coherence of our efforts
to counteract the laser like focus of many national and global efforts
that are not life engendering when looked at from the long term view.
The second is that each of us have an important
role to play, a gift that is ours to bring. As we experience resonance
internally our inner light shines, illuminating others. Our voices carry
more information that words simply convey; we exude a quality of assurance
and calm in the face of complexity and chaos. The inner state of resonance
increases the body of knowledge and information available through intuition
or direct knowing.
What is it about the work in this field that excites
you and connects you to your own deepest self?
I feel excited and connected to my own edges through
this phenomenal collective project. Blessings to all of you who have
guided the artistic and rigorous efforts so far.
All of your words and images reflect my edges of learning. I share with
you a love of well crafted questions and find that questions take me
further into the core of what matters to me:
If I assume that Wisdom that heals springs from an inner
core resonance, how can I be in a dynamic resonance (that includes fertile
dissonance) each moment and follow the path of wisdom from core into
conscious action through collective interactions?
What is the gift of the Feminine? What is her contribution
at this time? What is the relationship of the feminine to the wisdom
so desperately needed now? What do women leaders need to open this gift,
to manifest these new potentials? What do men leaders need to open this
gift, to manifest these new potentials?
Do all leaders have the potential to be wise? How can
we strengthen and amplify the contribution of all leaders who are wise?
What is the role of dissonance in collective wisdom?
How do we differentiate the constructive dissonance from the destructive
dissonance?
Is wisdom complete if it does not include what women
know to be wise, as well as what men know to be wise? How can conferences
on enlightenment still be planned and marketed with only men speakers
on the program?
How can we each access our essential wisdom and the determination of
our wills to create a world where the forces of the heart are balanced
with the drive for accomplishment, a world where we honor the unique
gifts and talents of individuals and weave them into coherent wise collective
efforts, a world where we hold the earth’s natural cycles in great
regard and work toward a peaceful and creative relationship among all
peoples, a world where beauty is revered?
Each day I refine my efforts as I ask: What needs
to be done and What is mine to do?
Please provide a brief storyline or snapshot of what brought
you to this work.
Many threads weave to make the garment I wear on my path.
Those who stand out at this moment:
Ms. Belgrade, high school English teacher, with a penchant for discussions
that “sing”.
Dr. Luketich, College program director, with a focus
on teaching teachers to be facilitators of genuine human interaction
and catalysts of planetary visions.
Mary Gelinas, Michael Doyle and David Straus, Interaction
Associates, with well developed architecture for running meetings that
awakened collective intelligence and for macro process planning that
increased the intelligence of interacting systems.
The Grandmothers and Grandfathers of Organization Development.
The Wild and Crazy edge-players in the early Organization
Transformation conferences.
Matthew Fox and Starhawk, Center for Creation Spirituality,
with a spirituality that spoke with the voice of the feminine and challenged
guilt based theology.
Nicolaas Brouw, whose catalytic system of perception
enabled me to awaken a deep trust in my own nature.
Juanita Brown with an attention to the power of the café.
Fred and Cheryl Mitouer for teaching my hands to look
for and build resonance in the body.
Willis Harman and Don Michael, global thinkers and provocateurs.
Mary, Cathy, Brenda, Marion, and Mary – my Women’s
Circle for 18 years.
How would you like to be available to others in
this field?
I am writing, speaking, facilitating, consulting on all
of this, as well as creating venues for deep inquiry and communication
of what is emerging and it’s relevance and usefulness today. I
welcome juicy insight, provocative questions, and powerful love directed
my way! Email works well. Come join me in the Wisdom Leadership Initiative
retreats and forums to contribute to the collective intelligence emerging
there. I am available to do the same in return and love thoughtful collaborations
that are keenly on purpose.
