The American poet Robert Frost observed that our ideas are like seeds. “To flourish, when we harvest, we must not consume them all but turn some back to the earth to be transformed to compost in order to further enrich the soil. Out of one idea grows another…and that also is turned under. The seeds that are finally offered is the result of a patient waiting upon the gift – and it grows in response to the months of patient turning and building of the soil.” (From Robert Frost; A Life. (Jay Parini)
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Placebased Leadership
A new leadership renaissance?
As we move into a new year, we are also moving from seeing our world as a machine to seeing it as a garden – a living ecosystem. And that’s a shift of mindset that will bring with it a new leadership renaissance. This will be an age of aliveness and promise – a time of discovering a new harmony within ourselves and with life. As this renaissance unfolds we may see several patterns emerge…
To read more visit the management-issues website at: http://www.management-issues.com/opinion/6997/a-new-leadership-renaissance/
Business: The Enterprise of Humanity
Business isn’t an exercise in numbers; it is an enterprise of humanity that is an inalienable part of life. So if we focus on taking care of the people in our enterprise and harness our intuitive capacity to co-create together, business will take care of itself.
In this context even the language of teams and teamwork may inadvertently conjure up associations with the competitive language of battle and sports so perhaps we look toward the language of neighborhood, to fellowship and to being in community together instead
To read more visit the management-issues website at: http://www.management-issues.com/opinion/6957/business-the-enterprise-of-humanity/
Videos on Place and Placemaking
Listen to Michael in the following videos on the Power of Place and Placemaking. Continue reading
The Roots of Aliveness: The Art of Regenerative Leadership
We are like islands separated on the surface
but connected in the deepWilliam Blake
It has often been said that our span of awareness is a mile wide and an inch deep. The quality of our deeper life is frequently overlooked in our efforts to cope the daily demands and expectations of our outer life. One enabling metaphor that helps us look at this is the ecology of a tree. The outer life is symbolized by the leaves and branches – they correspond to a life of reactivity and busyness – of action plans, performance goals, desired outcomes and results. Continue reading
Creating Communities of Belonging: Re-imagining Leaders as Place-makers
If what a tree of a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
From the Poem Lost, David Wagoner
Think of a place where you experienced the greatest sense of aliveness, vitality and belonging ? How has this connection to a place inspired how you think of how you belong to your community now? Continue reading
Where is Home? Leadership and the Soul of Placemaking
Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place. Your bright gaze will kindle this old shadow world to Blaze up once again with the fire of faith.
— Rumi, One Song
We are shifting from the industrial age and the age of information and technology to the biological age where we are asking how do we create spaces for life to happen and align our thinking with how nature thinks. In my new book The Soul of Place I explore how our relationship with place in nature, art and community deepens our connection with the core energetic patterns that form the undercurrents of life and living systems.