I enjoy collaborative leadership, and prefer working with leaders who truly value teamwork. I’ve been fortunate to have had several opportunities to use open space technology for strategic forums within corporate, non-profit and school settings – and have yet to see the participants leave without a meaningful experience!

More recently, I have attempted to influence organizers of BIG ISSUE conferences – e.g., how to end homelessness, how to deal with large-scale cumulative environmental/social impact – to utilize an open space approach in order to tap into the collective wisdom of the conference participants. My influence so far has been limited – the open space sessions have run in parallel with the traditional conference.

Most of my corporate work is in the realm of “high performance teamwork” where a model of shared leadership has often been adopted at some level. For me, self-organization and shared leadership go hand-in-hand – and find each other through the invitation of passion plus personal responsibility.

When you think about leadership in a self-organizing world, what questions are cooking you?

 How fast can we accelerate acceptance of the paradigm that we live in a self-organizing world?  What might we do collectively to demonstrate the power of self-organization in tackling some or one BIG issue facing the continent or the world today?  What have people done to transform their organization or community into one where self-organization has become the dominant paradigm? What do you hope to learn at this gathering?

 I hope to learn that Harrison Owen is in attendance – I look forward to extending my personal acknowledgement for his unknowing contribution to my life.  I suspect there will be others in the room who want to change the world, and I look forward to learn from and be inspired by what they are doing.

http://www.calgarycoaches.com/Content/Members/MemberPublicProfile.aspx?pageId=262056&memberId=898753