Welcome to the CPL blog where we bring leading-edge thinking and stories of purpose in action. You can count on learnings and brilliance gleaned from our work with Purposeful Leaders around the globe. As authors of The Art of Convening™, we explore how convening brings your purpose alive.
Purpose Moment
/ Patricia NealToday we joined for our 97th Essential Conversation. This past week’s Essential Conversation was heavy, tearful, difficult, and necessary. This conversation continues a powerful sensing into the horrors of war and the heart it takes to find ways to heal.
Today marked our 98th Essential Conversations. We invited back our conversation starters from last week Tatiana Riabokin, DC and Katherine Curran to share more reflections. We gathered for the Hearth to slow down and go deeper into our conversation on the Ukrainian Crisis. We hold the people of Ukraine and all the refugees in our hearts today.
Today we joined for our 97th Essential Conversation. This past week’s Essential Conversation was heavy, tearful, difficult, and necessary. This conversation continues a powerful sensing into the horrors of war and the heart it takes to find ways to heal.
Today we joined for our 95th Essential Conversation. Following last weeks conversation we welcome back our guest conversation starter from Rwanda; Jeremy Solomons. Today we took time to breathe, reflect, slow down and dive deeper into our conversations.
As we reach the end of the current month highlighting Black History and Futures, we are met with a time of uncertainty and fear surrounding the growing turmoil between Russian and Ukrainian borders. For this reason we began this 94th Essential Conversation with “This Joy” by The Resistance Revival Choir, a reminder that joy is an act of resistance against the pain, hatred, and inhumanity we find plaguing our world. Upon convening, we examined as a group, “How do you bring peace, joy, and love in the midst of ongoing disruption?” The responses included small acts of personal preservation such as going outside, meditation and prayer, or receiving a hug.
Designing “ultimate virtual dinner party”... What would be your recipe? People are hungering for “courageous conversations.” Imagine a great dinner party: What questions would you create and people would you invite?
What if the questions are uncomfortable? What questions would you ask a family member and/or best friend that may be different verses meeting someone for the first time?
Why a dinner party? What better way to plan a great conversation. Why today? What better day to talk about purpose than on Valentine’s Day, the day of love! Anthony Douglas Williams reminds us, “Our purpose is simple… to love; to love each other, to love all life, and to love our Earth.” But let’s not stop there.
In the discussion we heard from several graduates of the Mastering Convening course about how their journey with The Art of Convening has shaped their work, life, and mindset. Their insight was both personal and profound, opening the conversation for small group discussions with the question, “What have you heard that resonated with you as a leader? In your life and/ or work.” The responses remind us of the power of the convening wheel which allow us to look inwards, practice living out love, authenticity, and looking for the good. When we give permission to ourselves we are able to see the same in others.
This week we gathered for the Hearth which is another expression of Essential Conversations. We welcomed back our allies Kelly Chatman, Yvette Trotman and Harry Waters Jr., who will continue to deepen our conversation from last week about justice and dreams of justice.
In continuation of the last week’s Great Reimagining of 2022 Part 1 (outlined in the image below), as we explore what it means to reimagine leadership as a community and as individuals Part 2 discussions centered around convening in organization and systems as well as the environment. After reflecting on last week’s discussions we were brought forth into a new discussion with a poem from the heart, mind and pen of Minx Boren in which she writes,
Today brings the history that connects us all because we are all in this moment together. The poem by Maya Angelou: Still I Rise brings us together in unexpected ways. Maya Angelou’s birthday is the day of Martin Luther King’s assassination. There are connections there that will forever keep us home. The home comes from a very deep place. Sometimes we don’t see it because we are caught up in our own mind, world, and how we think things should be - but we are here together. We are all the legacy of Martin Luther King.
Purpose Moment
/ Patricia Neal#PurposefulLeadership #Purpose #Leadership #Convening #ArtofConvening #Engagement
Today we joined for our 97th Essential Conversation. This past week’s Essential Conversation was heavy, tearful, difficult, and necessary. This conversation continues a powerful sensing into the horrors of war and the heart it takes to find ways to heal.
Today marked our 98th Essential Conversations. We invited back our conversation starters from last week Tatiana Riabokin, DC and Katherine Curran to share more reflections. We gathered for the Hearth to slow down and go deeper into our conversation on the Ukrainian Crisis. We hold the people of Ukraine and all the refugees in our hearts today.
Today we joined for our 97th Essential Conversation. This past week’s Essential Conversation was heavy, tearful, difficult, and necessary. This conversation continues a powerful sensing into the horrors of war and the heart it takes to find ways to heal.
Today we joined for our 95th Essential Conversation. Following last weeks conversation we welcome back our guest conversation starter from Rwanda; Jeremy Solomons. Today we took time to breathe, reflect, slow down and dive deeper into our conversations.
As we reach the end of the current month highlighting Black History and Futures, we are met with a time of uncertainty and fear surrounding the growing turmoil between Russian and Ukrainian borders. For this reason we began this 94th Essential Conversation with “This Joy” by The Resistance Revival Choir, a reminder that joy is an act of resistance against the pain, hatred, and inhumanity we find plaguing our world. Upon convening, we examined as a group, “How do you bring peace, joy, and love in the midst of ongoing disruption?” The responses included small acts of personal preservation such as going outside, meditation and prayer, or receiving a hug.
Designing “ultimate virtual dinner party”... What would be your recipe? People are hungering for “courageous conversations.” Imagine a great dinner party: What questions would you create and people would you invite?
What if the questions are uncomfortable? What questions would you ask a family member and/or best friend that may be different verses meeting someone for the first time?
Why a dinner party? What better way to plan a great conversation. Why today? What better day to talk about purpose than on Valentine’s Day, the day of love! Anthony Douglas Williams reminds us, “Our purpose is simple… to love; to love each other, to love all life, and to love our Earth.” But let’s not stop there.
In the discussion we heard from several graduates of the Mastering Convening course about how their journey with The Art of Convening has shaped their work, life, and mindset. Their insight was both personal and profound, opening the conversation for small group discussions with the question, “What have you heard that resonated with you as a leader? In your life and/ or work.” The responses remind us of the power of the convening wheel which allow us to look inwards, practice living out love, authenticity, and looking for the good. When we give permission to ourselves we are able to see the same in others.
This week we gathered for the Hearth which is another expression of Essential Conversations. We welcomed back our allies Kelly Chatman, Yvette Trotman and Harry Waters Jr., who will continue to deepen our conversation from last week about justice and dreams of justice.
Purpose Moment
/ Patricia Neal#PurposefulLeadership #Purpose #Leadership #Convening #ArtofConvening #Engagement
Purpose Moment
/ Patricia Neal#PurposefulLeadership #Purpose #Leadership #Convening #ArtofConvening #Engagement
Purpose Moment
/ Patricia Neal#PurposefulLeadership #Purpose #Leadership #Convening #ArtofConvening #Engagement
The Nature of Leadership, Engagement and The Art of Convening
/ Patricia Neal"Convening leaders create and manage the social space within which citizens get deeply engaged. Through this engagement, citizens discover that it is in their power to resolve something or at least move the action forward."
A blog interview with Bob Nordquist demonstrated the impact of convening when one is willing to take a big risk based on being in touch with core purpose. In Bob's case, it was the courage to risk his credibility by introducing a new business meeting design based on collaborative principles.
CPL friend and mentor, Peter Block speaks eloquently about the courageous nature of leader as convener in the piece below:
Leadership is Convening
The following is an excerpt from Community: The Structure of Belonging, by Peter Block, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, May 2008.
In communal transformation, leadership is about intention, convening, valuing relatedness, and presenting choices. It is not a personality characteristic or a matter of style, and therefore it requires nothing more than what all of us already have.
This means we can stop looking for leadership as though it were scarce or lost, or it had to be trained into us by experts. If our traditional form of leadership has been studied for so long, written about with such admiration, defined by so many, worshipped by so few, and the cause of so much disappointment, maybe doing more of all that is not productive. The search for great leadership is a prime example of how we too often take something that does not work and try harder at it. I have written elsewhere about reconstructing a leader as the social architect.
Not a leader as a special person, but a leader as a citizen willing to do those things that have the capacity to initiate something new in the world. In this way, leader belongs right up there with cook, carpenter, artist, and landscape designer. It is a capacity that can be learned by all of us, with a small amount of teaching and an agreement to practice. The ultimate do-it-yourself movement.
Community building requires a concept of the leader as one who creates experiences for others––experiences that in themselves are examples of our desired future. The experiences we create need to be designed in such a way that relatedness, accountability, and commitment are every moment available, experienced, and demonstrated. David Isaacs of the World Café calls this “relational leadership.”
This concept of leadership means that in addition to embracing their own humanity, which is the work of every person, the core task of leaders is to create the conditions for civic or institutional engagement. They do this through the power they have to name the debate and design gatherings. We use the term gathering because the word has different associations from what we think of when we say “meeting.” Most people do not even like meetings, and for good reason. They are frequently designed to explain, defend, express opinions, persuade, set more goals, and define steps––the result of which is to produce more of what currently exists. These kinds of meetings either review the past or embody the belief that better planning, better managing, or more measurement and prediction can create an alternative future. So the word gathering is intended to distinguish what we are talking about here, something with more significance than the common sense of the meeting.
Engagement Is the Point
Leadership begins with understanding that every gathering is an opportunity to deepen accountability and commitment through engagement. It doesn’t matter what the stated purpose of the gathering is. Each gathering serves two functions: to address its stated purpose, its business issues; and to be an occasion for each person to decide to become engaged as an owner. The leader’s task is to structure the place and experience of these occasions to move the culture toward shared ownership.
This is very different from the conventional belief that the task of leadership is to set a vision, enroll others in it, and hold people accountable through measurements and reward. Consider how most current leadership trainings assert the following:
Leader and top are essential. They are role models who need to possess a special set of personal skills.
The task of the leader is to define the destination and the blueprint to get there.
The leader’s work is to bring others on board. Enroll, align, inspire.
Leaders provide the oversight, measurement, and training needed (as defined by leaders).
Each of these beliefs elevates leaders as an elite group, singularly worthy of special development, coaching, and incentives. All of these beliefs have face validity, and they have unintended consequences. When we are dissatisfied with a leader, we simply try harder to find a new one who will perform more perfectly in the very way that led to our last disappointment. This creates a level of isolation, entitlement, and passivity that our communities cannot afford to carry.
The world does not need leaders to better define issues or to orchestrate better planning or project management. What it needs is for the issues and the plans to have more of an impact, and that comes from citizen accountability and commitment. Engagement is the means through which there can be a shift in caring for the well-being of the whole, and the task of a leader as convener is to produce that engagement.
The Art of Convening
The shift is to believe that the task of leadership is to provide context and produce engagement, to tend to our social fabric. It is to see the leader as one whose function is to engage groups of people in a way that creates accountability and commitment. In this way of thinking we hold leadership to three tasks:
Create a context that nurtures an alternative future, one based on gifts, generosity, accountability, and commitment.
Initiate and convene conversations that shift people’s experience, which occurs through the way people are brought together and the nature of the questions used to engage them.
Listen and pay attention.
Convening leaders create and manage the social space within which citizens get deeply engaged. Through this engagement, citizens discover that it is in their power to resolve something or at least move the action forward.
Engagement and the accountability that grows out of it occurs when we ask people to be in charge of their own experience and act on the well-being of the whole. Leaders do this by naming a new context and convening people into new conversations through questions that demand personal investment. This is what triggers the choice to be accountable for those things over which we can have power, even though we may have no control.
In addition to convening and naming the question, we add listening to the critical role of leadership. Listening may be the single most powerful action the leader can take. Leaders will always be under pressure to speak, but if building social fabric is important, and sustained transformation is the goal, then listening becomes the greater service.
This kind of leadership––convening, naming the question, and listening––is restorative and produces energy rather than consumes it. It is leadership that creates accountability as it confronts people with their freedom. In this way, engagement-centered leaders bring kitchen table and street corner democracy into being.
Today we joined for our 97th Essential Conversation. This past week’s Essential Conversation was heavy, tearful, difficult, and necessary. This conversation continues a powerful sensing into the horrors of war and the heart it takes to find ways to heal.
Today marked our 98th Essential Conversations. We invited back our conversation starters from last week Tatiana Riabokin, DC and Katherine Curran to share more reflections. We gathered for the Hearth to slow down and go deeper into our conversation on the Ukrainian Crisis. We hold the people of Ukraine and all the refugees in our hearts today.
Today we joined for our 97th Essential Conversation. This past week’s Essential Conversation was heavy, tearful, difficult, and necessary. This conversation continues a powerful sensing into the horrors of war and the heart it takes to find ways to heal.
Today we joined for our 95th Essential Conversation. Following last weeks conversation we welcome back our guest conversation starter from Rwanda; Jeremy Solomons. Today we took time to breathe, reflect, slow down and dive deeper into our conversations.
As we reach the end of the current month highlighting Black History and Futures, we are met with a time of uncertainty and fear surrounding the growing turmoil between Russian and Ukrainian borders. For this reason we began this 94th Essential Conversation with “This Joy” by The Resistance Revival Choir, a reminder that joy is an act of resistance against the pain, hatred, and inhumanity we find plaguing our world. Upon convening, we examined as a group, “How do you bring peace, joy, and love in the midst of ongoing disruption?” The responses included small acts of personal preservation such as going outside, meditation and prayer, or receiving a hug.
Designing “ultimate virtual dinner party”... What would be your recipe? People are hungering for “courageous conversations.” Imagine a great dinner party: What questions would you create and people would you invite?
What if the questions are uncomfortable? What questions would you ask a family member and/or best friend that may be different verses meeting someone for the first time?
Why a dinner party? What better way to plan a great conversation. Why today? What better day to talk about purpose than on Valentine’s Day, the day of love! Anthony Douglas Williams reminds us, “Our purpose is simple… to love; to love each other, to love all life, and to love our Earth.” But let’s not stop there.
In the discussion we heard from several graduates of the Mastering Convening course about how their journey with The Art of Convening has shaped their work, life, and mindset. Their insight was both personal and profound, opening the conversation for small group discussions with the question, “What have you heard that resonated with you as a leader? In your life and/ or work.” The responses remind us of the power of the convening wheel which allow us to look inwards, practice living out love, authenticity, and looking for the good. When we give permission to ourselves we are able to see the same in others.
This week we gathered for the Hearth which is another expression of Essential Conversations. We welcomed back our allies Kelly Chatman, Yvette Trotman and Harry Waters Jr., who will continue to deepen our conversation from last week about justice and dreams of justice.
Purpose Moment
/ Patricia Neal#PurposefulLeadership #Purpose #Leadership #Convening #ArtofConvening #RichardLeider
Purpose Moment
/ Patricia NealToday we joined for our 97th Essential Conversation. This past week’s Essential Conversation was heavy, tearful, difficult, and necessary. This conversation continues a powerful sensing into the horrors of war and the heart it takes to find ways to heal.
Today marked our 98th Essential Conversations. We invited back our conversation starters from last week Tatiana Riabokin, DC and Katherine Curran to share more reflections. We gathered for the Hearth to slow down and go deeper into our conversation on the Ukrainian Crisis. We hold the people of Ukraine and all the refugees in our hearts today.
Today we joined for our 97th Essential Conversation. This past week’s Essential Conversation was heavy, tearful, difficult, and necessary. This conversation continues a powerful sensing into the horrors of war and the heart it takes to find ways to heal.
Today we joined for our 95th Essential Conversation. Following last weeks conversation we welcome back our guest conversation starter from Rwanda; Jeremy Solomons. Today we took time to breathe, reflect, slow down and dive deeper into our conversations.
As we reach the end of the current month highlighting Black History and Futures, we are met with a time of uncertainty and fear surrounding the growing turmoil between Russian and Ukrainian borders. For this reason we began this 94th Essential Conversation with “This Joy” by The Resistance Revival Choir, a reminder that joy is an act of resistance against the pain, hatred, and inhumanity we find plaguing our world. Upon convening, we examined as a group, “How do you bring peace, joy, and love in the midst of ongoing disruption?” The responses included small acts of personal preservation such as going outside, meditation and prayer, or receiving a hug.
Designing “ultimate virtual dinner party”... What would be your recipe? People are hungering for “courageous conversations.” Imagine a great dinner party: What questions would you create and people would you invite?
What if the questions are uncomfortable? What questions would you ask a family member and/or best friend that may be different verses meeting someone for the first time?
Why a dinner party? What better way to plan a great conversation. Why today? What better day to talk about purpose than on Valentine’s Day, the day of love! Anthony Douglas Williams reminds us, “Our purpose is simple… to love; to love each other, to love all life, and to love our Earth.” But let’s not stop there.
In the discussion we heard from several graduates of the Mastering Convening course about how their journey with The Art of Convening has shaped their work, life, and mindset. Their insight was both personal and profound, opening the conversation for small group discussions with the question, “What have you heard that resonated with you as a leader? In your life and/ or work.” The responses remind us of the power of the convening wheel which allow us to look inwards, practice living out love, authenticity, and looking for the good. When we give permission to ourselves we are able to see the same in others.
This week we gathered for the Hearth which is another expression of Essential Conversations. We welcomed back our allies Kelly Chatman, Yvette Trotman and Harry Waters Jr., who will continue to deepen our conversation from last week about justice and dreams of justice.