A Spiritual Conspiracy

On the surface of the world right now there is
war and violence and things seem dark.
But calmly and quietly, at the same time,
something else is happening underground
An inner revolution is taking place
and certain individuals are being called to a higher light.
It is a silent revolution.
From the inside out. From the ground up.
This is a Global operation.
A Spiritual Conspiracy.
There are sleeper cells in every nation on the planet.
You wont see us on the T.V.
You wont read about us in the newspaper
You wont hear about us on the radio
We don't seek any glory
We don't wear any uniform
We come in all shapes and sizes, colors and styles
Most of us work anonymously
We are quietly working behind the scenes
in every country and culture of the world
Cities big and small, mountains and valleys,
in farms and villages, tribes and remote islands
You could pass by one of us on the street
and not even notice
We go undercover
We remain behind the scenes
It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit
But simply that the work gets done
Occasionally we spot each other in the street
We give a quiet nod and continue on our way
During the day many of us pretend we have normal jobs
But behind the false storefront at night
is where the real work takes a place
Some call us the Conscious Army
We are slowly creating a new world
with the power of our minds and hearts
We follow, with passion and joy
Our orders come from from the Central Spiritual Intelligence
We are dropping soft, secret love bombs when no one is looking
Poems ~ Hugs ~ Music ~ Photography ~ Movies ~ Kind words ~
Smiles ~ Meditation and prayer ~ Dance ~ Social activism ~ Websites
Blogs ~ Random acts of kindness...
We each express ourselves in our own unique ways
with our own unique gifts and talents
Be the change you want to see in the world
That is the motto that fills our hearts
We know it is the only way real transformation takes place
We know that quietly and humbly we have the
power of all the oceans combined
Our work is slow and meticulous
Like the formation of mountains
It is not even visible at first glance
And yet with it entire tectonic plates
shall be moved in the centuries to come
Love is the new religion of the 21st century
You don't have to be a highly educated person
Or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it
It comes from the intelligence of the heart
Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings
Be the change you want to see in the world
Nobody else can do it for you
We are now recruiting
Perhaps you will join us
Or already have.
All are welcome
The door is open

 ~ author unknown

Leadership is an Art

The art of leadership is about liberating people to do what is required of them in the most effective and humane way possible.

Leadership is an art, something to be learned over time, not simply by reading books. Leadership is more tribal than scientific, more a weaving of relationships than an amassing of information.

In our effort to understand corporate life, in addition to all of the ratios and goals and parameters and bottom lines, it is fundamental that leaders endorse a concept of persons. This begins with the understanding of the diversity of people's gifts and talents and skills.

Understanding and accepting diversity enables us to see that each of us is needed. It also enables us to begin to think about being abandoned to the strengths of others, of admitting that we cannot know and do everything.

The simple act of recognizing diversity in corporate life helps us connect the great variety of gifts that people bring to the work and service in the organization. Diversity allows each of us to contribute in a special way, to make our special gift a part of the corporate effort.

Source: Leadership is an Art, Max Depree

Web Articles on Communities of Practice

Suggested web articles for the weekend on Communities of Practice I hope you will enjoy as much as I did.


Emergent practices need practice, Harold Jarche

Working with online learning communities, Ken Allan

20 Ways to Evaluate Contributions to a Corporate Social Network, Dave Duarte

Characteristics of Emergent Communities, The Social Enterprise Blog

Organizational Health and Balance Workshop Series

The workshop is held in Val-David, Quebec, Canada from May 5-7, 2009

You can choose either our French or English workshops.
Pour cette annonce en français, cliquez ici.

This Organizational Health and Balance series of experiential workshops prepares participants to look holistically at the current state of balance of their organization and to initiate strategies to create a healthy work environment, strategies that are critical to success and viability. Participants will learn and apply simple and practical tools, frameworks and approaches that integrate ancient wisdom and leading edge practices. These tools have been used with great success around the world in developed and developing countries in all kinds of organizations, associations and communities.

Leaders today know that being a healthy organization is not optional. A healthy and dynamic working environment is the precondition for generating skills and knowledge, collaborative working relationships, change readiness, resilience, and innovation. Much has been written about WHAT needs to be done, but there is very little guidance as to HOW to get there. These workshops help to fill that gap.

We invite participants from corporate, non-profit, education, the arts, health care or other public sector organizations. If you are a leader, manager, consultant or anyone who needs to work with others to achieve results, this program offers new and practical paths to create the future of your organization.

The Organizational Health and Balance workshops help to develop leaders and leadership. They are foundational to our leader development programs based on Genuine Contact™.

What Will I Learn At This Workshop?

Our teaching model is rooted in experience. The platform design for the model is Whole Person Process Facilitation. The reality of learning from experience is embedded in ancestral worldviews from which our model evolves.

May 5, 2009 Part 1: Path to Organizational Health and Balance provides a broad overview of the importance of organizational health and the steps required to achieve it.

May 6&7 Part 2: Achieving and Regenerating Organizational Health and Balance deepens the exploration of organizational health and its achievement and provides practical experience using the tools to develop an assessment and regeneration plan for your organization

You will leave these workshops equipped with:
• Key questions to ask to start your organization on a path to health and balance
• An understanding of the Medicine Wheel Tool© and other simple tools as holistic diagnostic frameworks for understanding your organization’s current state of health.
• A completed ‘diagnosis’ of the health of your organization, from your perspective (or from the perspective of your Management Team/Board if you attend together)
• A process for developing strategy and energizing collective action to move the strategy forward
• A customized practical, holistic framework for achieving and maintaining long-term organizational health that equips you to propel to higher levels of development and continually learn how to connect people, strategy and the bottom line.
• Knowledge of how to increase the capacity of your organization to work effectively in rapidly changing times to:
o Positively impact your bottom line,
o Improve the effectiveness of training programs,
o Enhance the effectiveness of customer service and quality assurance
o Promote health and well being of your employees, and
o Reduce the human and financial costs of stress.
• An understanding of the importance of relationships, that are based on genuine contact, to achieve results beyond your expectations
• An approach to Whole Systems Thinking – a holistic perspective and working with organizations as living systems

Each workshop includes a workbook to support ongoing learning. All participants have access to support and mentorship following the training through an international network of Genuine Contact™ professionals. For more information

Our Workshop Location
Nestled in the Laurentian Mountains 80 km north of Montreal is the beautiful town of Val David
and Prema Shanti, a tranquil inn on the shores of Lac Doré. Prema Shanti is home to our
workshops and provides an ideal retreat setting for a complete residential learning experience.
The inn offers beautifully appointed rooms, fine dining, spa services, and easy access to hiking
trails, swimming and canoeing. Dormitory housing is also available for those who are more
budget conscious. Special rates are available for all workshop participants including
accommodations, meals and use of the facilities. Please contact Prema Shanti for further details.

Our Facilitation Team

Michelle Cooper of Integral Visions Consulting Inc (Ancaster, ON), Donna Clark of Emergent Futures Consulting Inc (Halifax, NS) and Marquis Bureau of MBureau International Inc (Notre Dame de la Salette, QC) make up our facilitation team. They are authorized Genuine Contact™ Trainers and Co-Owners who have been working with the Program for a number of years. This partnership offers participants the opportunity to learn from Genuine Contact Professionals working across Canada and internationally in a variety of sectors. It also allows us to offer the Genuine Contact workshops both in English and French, providing participants with a unique and customized learning experience.

A limited number of scholarship positions are available. For more information, contact us.

Earth Day

Learn to Forgive

Prior to the current surge of interest in scientific research on the subject, the importance of practicing forgiveness was extolled in both religious and psychological traditions. Research has now confirmed the virtues of forgiveness in the promotion of psychological and physical health, as well as improving relationships. Forgiveness has been shown to reduce anger, hurt, depression, and stress - while leading to greater feelings towards optimism, hope, compassion, and even self-confidence. But most important - and this is the crucial message coming out of research - people can be taught to forgive, just as they can be taught to play the piano.

Forgiveness wipes away the reasons for us to be unkind. That is both the purpose and the goal of forgiveness. Forgiveness plucks that excuse away and says, "Now, it's not that this or that happened, it's that you no longer have any crutch to hold onto for your unkindness." That's the purpose of forgiveness. It's not to reconcile with people who have hurt you, and it's not necessarily to heal physical wounds - although it will because forgiveness has a healing quality as well. But its purpose is to nourish the whole. And it nourishes the whole by example and by reducing our readily available excuses for unkindness.

Source: Frederic Luskin, Ph.D
Photo

Webinar: Creating Healthy Organizations through Genuine Contact

We are pleased to invite you to join Michelle Cooper of Integral Visions Consulting on Friday, April 17 at 12:00pm EST for the webinar:
Creating Healthy Organizations through Genuine Contact

This unique 1-hour webinar is presented by Best Practice Institute and offers you the opportunity to learn more about how to create a healthy and productive environment in your organization.

As our gift to you, we would like to invite you to join us for this call for free (regular value $59) by logging and entering the promo code MICHBPI1.

Program Description

Imagine if you, as a leader, could create a work environment that’s consistently healthy and productive and allows all members of your team to excel!

Now you can.

Leaders today know that being a healthy organization is not optional. A healthy and dynamic working environment is the precondition for generating skills and knowledge, collaborative working relationships, change readiness, resilience, innovation and a healthy bottom line. Much has been written about what needs to be done, but there is very little guidance as to how to get there. This presentation will introduce participants to a holistic approach to how that integrates ancient wisdom and leading edge practices. The Genuine Contact™ program and approach uses simple and practical tools and approaches that that has a proven track record of success around the world.

Create the kind of organization that you want to work in!

What You Will Learn

Participants in this interactive session will:
•Understand why attending to health and balance is important to success
•Recognize the factors that lead to a healthy organization
•Learn key questions that will help you start on the path to health and balance
•Have an introduction to the Medicine Wheel Tool© as holistic framework for understanding your organization’s current state of health and for creating strategies for achieving and maintaining a healthy work environment
•Identify resources and approaches that can help you build an operating system that promote health and balance for organizations and the individuals within them.
Who Should Participate

This presentation is for you if you are a leader, manager, consultant or anyone who needs to work with others to achieve results.

Walking the Labyrinth

During a labyrinth walk, the left and right hemispheres of the brain are balanced, leading to a perfect state for accessing intuition and creativity. Walking into a labyrinth is a going inward that stimulates and activates the right side of the brain. This is generally thought of as the more feminine, intuitive side of our being. The walk out is a carrying forward into life of the jewels of intuitive knowing that come from the feminine, with an intention to act on what we have discovered. This engages the masculine aspect of our essential nature. The walk is facilitated by a perfect combination of breath and movement. Walking the labyrinth also gives access to the universal energy field the artistic pattern expressed through the labyrinth's sacred geometry.

Everything is related to everything and the geometry of a spiral such as the labyrinth makes this both visually and kinesthetically clear. As you walk a labyrinth, the spiral pattern is soothing because it is familiar to our consciousness all the way down to a cellular level.

Source
Photo: Chartres Cathedral Labyrinth

Workshop in May

Giving Thanks

A sure way to live in love is to give thanks. We can each give thanks at any time. We can give thanks especially during crises. The ray of thankfulness connects us immediately back to our souls, and ultimately to the heart of love. When we are faced with challenging situations, we can always give thanks that we are right where we are. Thankfulness is the alchemical mystery that transforms the dross of life into the gold of love.

Source Jeanne House and Dawson Church
Photo

Happy Easter - Happy Spring

You're a springtime kind of person,
and there's sunshine in your smile.
There's warmth in all the gladness you impart.
And here's the special reason
you're so like this lovely season--
It's the springtime that you keep within your heart.
Happy Easter Happy Spring

Organizational Health and Balance Workshop Series

Register today for this exciting workshop opportunity. Early Bird Registration: 600$ before April 7, 2009.

May 5-7, 2009
You can choose either our French or English workshops.
Pour cette annonce en français, cliquez ici.

This Organizational Health and Balance series of experiential workshops prepares participants to look holistically at the current state of balance of their organization and to initiate strategies to create a healthy work environment, strategies that are critical to success and viability. Participants will learn and apply simple and practical tools, frameworks and approaches that integrate ancient wisdom and leading edge practices. These tools have been used with great success around the world in developed and developing countries in all kinds of organizations, associations and communities.

Leaders today know that being a healthy organization is not optional. A healthy and dynamic working environment is the precondition for generating skills and knowledge, collaborative working relationships, change readiness, resilience, and innovation. Much has been written about WHAT needs to be done, but there is very little guidance as to HOW to get there. These workshops help to fill that gap.

We invite participants from corporate, non-profit, education, the arts, health care or other public sector organizations. If you are a leader, manager, consultant or anyone who needs to work with others to achieve results, this program offers new and practical paths to create the future of your organization.

The Organizational Health and Balance workshops help to develop leaders and leadership. They are foundational to our leader development programs based on Genuine Contact™.

What Will I Learn At This Workshop?

Our teaching model is rooted in experience. The platform design for the model is Whole Person Process Facilitation. The reality of learning from experience is embedded in ancestral worldviews from which our model evolves.

May 5, 2009 Part 1: Path to Organizational Health and Balance provides a broad overview of the importance of organizational health and the steps required to achieve it.

May 6&7 Part 2: Achieving and Regenerating Organizational Health and Balance deepens the exploration of organizational health and its achievement and provides practical experience using the tools to develop an assessment and regeneration plan for your organization

You will leave these workshops equipped with:
• Key questions to ask to start your organization on a path to health and balance
• An understanding of the Medicine Wheel Tool© and other simple tools as holistic diagnostic frameworks for understanding your organization’s current state of health.
• A completed ‘diagnosis’ of the health of your organization, from your perspective (or from the perspective of your Management Team/Board if you attend together)
• A process for developing strategy and energizing collective action to move the strategy forward
• A customized practical, holistic framework for achieving and maintaining long-term organizational health that equips you to propel to higher levels of development and continually learn how to connect people, strategy and the bottom line.
• Knowledge of how to increase the capacity of your organization to work effectively in rapidly changing times to:
o Positively impact your bottom line,
o Improve the effectiveness of training programs,
o Enhance the effectiveness of customer service and quality assurance
o Promote health and well being of your employees, and
o Reduce the human and financial costs of stress.
• An understanding of the importance of relationships, that are based on genuine contact, to achieve results beyond your expectations
• An approach to Whole Systems Thinking – a holistic perspective and working with organizations as living systems

Each workshop includes a workbook to support ongoing learning. All participants have access to support and mentorship following the training through an international network of Genuine Contact™ professionals. For more information

Our Workshop Location
Nestled in the Laurentian Mountains 80 km north of Montreal is the beautiful town of Val David
and Prema Shanti, a tranquil inn on the shores of Lac Doré. Prema Shanti is home to our
workshops and provides an ideal retreat setting for a complete residential learning experience.
The inn offers beautifully appointed rooms, fine dining, spa services, and easy access to hiking
trails, swimming and canoeing. Dormitory housing is also available for those who are more
budget conscious. Special rates are available for all workshop participants including
accommodations, meals and use of the facilities. Please contact Prema Shanti for further details.

Our Facilitation Team

Michelle Cooper of Integral Visions Consulting Inc (Ancaster, ON), Donna Clark of Emergent Futures Consulting Inc (Halifax, NS) and Marquis Bureau of MBureau International Inc (Notre Dame de la Salette, QC) make up our facilitation team. They are authorized Genuine Contact™ Trainers and Co-Owners who have been working with the Program for a number of years. This partnership offers participants the opportunity to learn from Genuine Contact Professionals working across Canada and internationally in a variety of sectors. It also allows us to offer the Genuine Contact workshops both in English and French, providing participants with a unique and customized learning experience.

A limited number of scholarship positions are available. For more information, contact us.

Contest: Moments of Happiness

What do you do to reduce your stress?
What helps you and makes you feel energetic again?
When you have the blues, what do you do to get back on track?

CONTEST

Led by CAP Santé Outaouais and organized for the Canadian Mental Health Week

You can participate once a day from April 6 to May 9.

The Courage to Live Passionately

It takes courage to live passionately. The choice to live with passion is the choice to open yourself fully to each moment and to each situation. You give everything. You hold nothing back.

Living with passion means sometimes living on the edge of our comfort zone. We are awake. We are alive. We are feeling - everything. We meet the circumstances and challenges of our life boldly. It's not that we don't feel doubt or fear - it's that we learn to make our passion for growth and truth stronger than our fear.

This kind of courage isn't the same as physical bravery. It is emotional courage. Emotional courage allows you to participate 100% in whatever you are doing and wherever you are going. It allows you to see beyond that which is the way to your dreams, your desires, your destiny, and to go forward with enthusiasm. You aren't saving some of your passion for a time in the future when you will be absolutely certain about how things will turn out. You are offering all of who you are to life right now.

Emotional courage helps you venture out of your safe harbors into open and exciting seas, to do the things you want to do so you do not end your life with regret.

Opening up to passion means becoming open to the mysterious, the unexpected, the subtle, and allowing that which is out of the ordinary to reveal itself. This means being willing to let go of control, and adventure into new pathways of feeling, of perception, of experience, pathways that will lead you to more joy and wonder than you knew was possible.


Barbara De Angelis

Photo: Marquis Bureau, St. Lucia, 2009

Next workshop: Organizational Health and Balance