Library: Our First Three Seasons of Irresistible Growth

AN UNIMAGINABLE FIRST YEAR October 2000 - September 2001 Just over a year ago a diverse group of 30 people met on Whidbey Island in the United States to launch an initiative called From the Four Directions: People Everywhere Leading the Way. Berkana Institute and the initiative's two other founding partners, PeerSpirit, and New Stories convened the gathering. This group dreamed that if leaders everywhere were supported to convene local circles of conversation, and those conversations were connected globally, people everywhere would develop greater courage, capacity and commitment to step forward as 'life-affirming' leaders. With our faith in human goodness, our reliance on diversity, and an understanding of emergence, we expected that, over time, all hope would break loose. In December 2000, the first circle practicum was held in the south of England. Thirty leaders from 21 countries gathered to learn how to start circles in their local communities. In March 2001, a second practicum in the United States brought together another 30 leaders from 9 countries. The third practicum, held in South Africa in May 2001, brought the total number of circle hosts to more than 80, and the number of countries involved to 35. From the Four Directions Leadership circles have begun in about 30 countries, and now we are beginning to connect circles to each other via the Internet. And the dream of all hope breaking loose is shared by hundreds of people everywhere. After the South Africa practicum in May, the Leadership Council engaged in a careful examination of what had occurred, what we had learned, and what wants to happen next. Phone interviews were held with most Circle hosts and others who have been participating in this initiative. We learned a great deal from these interviews. We learned of a growing number of leaders who are moving their clarity and courage into action. Here are just a few examples: In the U.K., a Leadership Centre will offer a broad and wholistic series of offerings to support leaders in England and Europe. In Senegal, a new NGO, Synapse, will serve as an incubator for new social and business ventures, plus offer leadership training. In Zimbabwe, a leadership center will serve as both a training center and incubator. An "Ambassador Coach" program will be developed that would bring coaching techniques to many different countries. A range of training programs are being developed and offered to the network, for example: social entrepreneurship, finding oneâs life work, how to run a self-sufficient NGO. We also learned: Circle truly is indigenous to the human species. The PeerSpirit circle process works very well cross-culturally. It enables people to engage in meaningful conversations where they can explore deep issues. Circle hosts are modifying the process to fit their culture, discovering how to gradually introduce different elements of the process as they learn what works best in their context. People experience happiness when they meet the global family. People everywhere long to share, to listen, to connect around shared ideals and work. We all are longing to be part of a global network. Diversity is essential and rewarding. We learn an amazing amount when we are in conversation with people from different cultures and life experiences. More and more people are moving their hopes into actions. And we need each other if we are to take bold actions in our communities and organizations. People have benefited greatly from being part of a circle or network that supports them to take courageous actions. As people move into action and begin organizing, they don't always know what to do. We donât want to repeat old ways and errors, yet oftentimes we only know hierarchy, bureaucracy, and traditional Western management tools. Or our access to new methods and models is extremely limited and random, depending on who we meet. Yet at the same time, there are wonderful innovations and new methods being developed everywhere. These important experiments and successes need to be better publicized so that others can learn from them. These are some of our learnings. We'll others with you on other parts of the web site as well. From the conversations held with circle hosts, and from these learnings, we feel confident that we have begun life-changing work. There is great energy, longing and commitment that, as we link together, can facilitate the emergence of a global force of life-affirming leadership practices. We are also seeing evidence that the initiative can become more self-organizing and self-sustaining. We believe we will need to offer more resources, but less leadership to organize things. This is the direction we will be supporting from here on. The specifics of what this means will become known as we experiment together. Here are a few decisions weâve made: The first year's Leadership Council is now standing aside and looks forward to the emergence of new leadership. Everyone on the Council is still very much engaged in this work, developing resources that will be available to everyone and working on creating an infrastructure to support many more leaders. Some of us are developing a richer and more versatile From the Four Directions website. We want this site to be a space where people can:    - get resources and direction for starting local conversation circles, including downloading a simple "Circle Handbook"    - find circles in your local area    - share stories and experiences among circles    - access a library of learning resources, articles, and people    - support on-line conversations on topics and issues that are common among the different circles We are beginning to connect circles across continents. Many of you are eager for these connections and we want to respond to you early this Autumn. The Berkana Institute, itself, is beginning a major growth effort, developing new capacity to support life-affirming leaders around the planet with tools, processes, materials, ideas, and relationships. You can find out more about this on The Berkana Institute website. We want to encourage others to step forward into leadership of From the Four Directions. Members of the initial Leadership Council will continue to help as we are able. We ask that each of you who has been involved look to see how you might like to lead here. As you feel a stirring here, please let Tenneson know (tenneson@berkana.org). Who knows what the future shall bring? We believe it will be exciting and that this work will continue, supporting leaders everywhere leading the way!   Return to From the Four Directions