Rather than try to avoid surprise, leaders can see their work as a form of craft that invites surprise, embraces uncertainty and instructs us in how to be open to and learn from the unexpected and to engage a larger unknown.
Michael Jones — The Soul of Place
Michael Jones is an evocative speaker, storyteller, writer, pianist/composer and catalyst for community and organizational engagement and change.
He recognizes that to engage the soul of place we need to reawaken the soul through collaborative processes that build capacity for adaptability, self-awareness, reflective practices, deep empathy, comfort with ambiguity, and the courage to imagine and act upon creative possibilities.
Michael’s work has been supported by the Fetzer Institute, The MIT Dialogue Project, The international Leadership Association, The James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, Tamrack Institute for Community Engagement, The Executive Education Programs at the Center for Leadership and Transformation University of Texas, San Antonio and many others.
Contact Michael at: michael@thesoulofplace.com
Community Builders Awards: Remembering Michael Jones and his influence on the culture of Orillia
This year’s legacy award recipient was a talented and creative leader.
Michael Jones was a talented musician, published author and creative leader who invested much of his time contributing to Orillia’s cultural growth.
He was known as being soft-spoken and quiet in nature, but his intelligence and leadership abilities spoke volumes.
His wife of 47 years, Judy Archer, was touched to hear about Michael’s Community Builders Award honour and shared a few words about who he was as a person.
To read more please click here.
Re-imagining the Future of Leadership; Management – Issues
We need to re- imagine our places not as static, but as living systems inspired by nature, art, community and our deepening humanity together
Michael is a regular columnist writing on the future work of leadership with Management – Issues, one of the top trend setting business and leadership publications on the web. Management – Issues is followed by over 70,000 mid to senior level executives world-wide. To follow Michael’s columns please visit http://www.management-issues.com/michael-jones/
Collaborative Leadership: Creating Neighbourhoods The Workplace
Every voice matters. In this time of expansion, we need many eyes on the world to create the future we want.
To lead in times of uncertainty and unexpected change, leaders will need to act collaboratively. They can do so by building networks and relationships together in the workplace that recognize a second bottom line which is to further the enterprise of humanity. To read more please read: Business: The Enterprise of Humanity
Community Engagement: Creative Conversations on Strengthening the Fabric of Community
The enchantment of nature, the beauty of art, and the gathering together in community serve as the three braids of place, the weave of which can form an unbreakable bond that will bring and hold the world together.
As a social catalyst Michael engages community members and stakeholders around issues and opportunities related to cultural initiatives and community well-being. To learn more please watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaIqVcqBU-U
All Our Relations: Dialogues for a New Partnership
If we are to create a more sustainable future we will need to think indigenously again
Dialogues for a New Partnership involves bringing together First Nation, Métis and non-First Nation Leaders to re-imagine a new narrative for the future rooted in our stories and shared sense of place and place–making together.
This year’s Dialogues for a New Partnership will be the fourth in a series of forums on the soul of place and creative place making. These forums have been supported by the Banff Centre for Leadership Development, The Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement, The Breuninger Foundation and Muskoka Chautauqua.
Building Creative Economies Through Stories of Place
Too often our places remain placeless because they don’t include our stories.
Stories of place create a platform for creative tourism and building a destination economy through recognizing that visitors seek an interaction with a place through authentic experiences that inspire and inform. Michael has worked with communities and organizations to re-imagine their future through connecting with the rich legacy from their past.
Solarium: The Art and Practice of Re-generative Leadership
Even tomato plants and the tallest trees send down roots as they rise towards the light. Yet the metaphors for our lives see mainly the upward part of organic motion.
— James Hillman
The Solarium is a creative space – an incubator – where leaders become stewards of the roots and soil through facilitating generative inquiry and transformative conversations.
Through 2016 and 2017 Michael and his colleagues will be convening local Solariums through community workshops and conversations in order to develop capacities for regenerating local living place-based economies.
To learn more please read Soil, Growth and the Art of Conversation
Living Systems Theory and the Practice of Stewarding Change — Michael Jones and Michelle Holliday, Spanda Journal, 2015