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.
Part 1 of a 2-part series:
“… The ability to transform your company and your personal opportunities is life changing … and world changing.”
Part 2: The Exciting Possibilities of Changing Workplace Demographics (2 Converging Trends)
Part 1 of a 2-part series:
“… The ability to transform your company and your personal opportunities is life changing … and world changing.”
Part 2: The Exciting Possibilities of Changing Workplace Demographics (2 Converging Trends)
We love connecting in a variety of ways. That includes connecting on various platforms as well as connecting you to other leaders that, like you, care deeply about the impact created, and legacy being built.
Read MoreWarren Buffet says “no” to the non-essentials. For Steve Jobs it was “saying yes to the few things that truly matter”. Getting to the heart of the matter is essential to a successful life/work.
Read MoreHave you been trapped in a boring Q&A session? There is another way!
One that takes as much time, maybe even less and addresses what most people are thinking and want to hear about.
What if the focus of this podcast were: How to make your meetings amazing again! (or for the first time?)
…the most important thing that every leader should be asking: What is at the heart of the matter? (purpose) … Why should this meeting even happen?
The phrase “actions speak louder than words” guides human interaction in the real world. Virtually, our actions and words combine. … efforts within any virtual sphere should be held with the same reverence as a real-world interaction.
Read MoreThe question the author asks is: “How does an aspirational purpose stand up to the demands of daily business? For many firms, the answer is not very well.”
An intriguing and timely inquiry.
Read More
We are sad to say goodbye to Anna Patterson, our marketing and social media intern for the past year.
Anna has expanded our social media game, while keeping an eye on our marketing. Together, we have discovered the delights of using Craig’s beautiful sunrises/sunsets to connect in new ways via Instagram. Along with this, Anna has influenced our Linkedin, Facebook, and Instagram presences and beyond!
Anna just completed her degree in Strategic Communication and Political Science and is on her way to Chicago to work for Coyote Logistics. We wish her the best of luck!
We are excited to welcome a new intern to the CPL team! This summer, Olivia Bretzman will be joining our marketing team. Olivia just finished her freshman year at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. While there, she participates in volunteer programs and club figure skating as well as intense academics as she works towards her BA in English and a Spanish minor.
She is excited to begin her time here at the Center for Purposeful Leadership. Olivia’s passion for leadership and genuine connection fuel intention into her abilities in writing, social media, technology, and marketing.
Welcome back to Sarah Flores, a summer marketing and web redesign intern.
After graduating from Henry B. Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa, with a B.B.A in Marketing Management with an interest in sustainability, as well as working in Denver for a year, we’re thrilled to have Sarah for the summer before she finds her next work in the Twin Cities.
During the summer Sarah will be actively looking in the job market for various positions in marketing - agency or departmental, business development programs as well as account executive positions.
We also welcome Charlie Francois to be point on our web redesign, working with integrating the various platforms we use.
We have a lot of ground to cover this summer! With these gifted people, we can continue to adjust to the rapidly evolving online world, and serve you in the best way possible!
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
[repost from 2019] This is Thanksgiving holiday week In the US. November is also Native American Heritage Month. Family, friends and neighbors may be gathering. This week, we invite you to practice the art of deep listening, as a way to connect or reconnect in new ways. We offer 3 practices and 2 exercises. Let us know how it goes!
Finding your inner climate leadership
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Through the magic of Zoom rooms*, you can self-select to choose the focus that interests you for a "deeper dive" conversation.
In the back reaches of our professional mind, we know the people and relational aspects of business life have perplexed and stymied managers and leaders alike.
In our upcoming book, "Touchy Feely: The Soft Stuff is the Hard Stuff," we reveal the powerful and liberating truth that empathy and compassion along with vulnerability are not the weaknesses we've hoodwinked ourselves into believing, but are core strengths of successful leadership.
Below is an excerpt from an article from our friends at Korn Ferry that stimulated some related ideas. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.
October 16, 2017 | DANIEL GOLEMAN, Contributor, Korn Ferry Institute
We all know empathy matters in our personal relationships, but how does empathy matter for business? You need empathy to work effectively with other people, especially in sales and client management, on teams, and in leadership. Empathy is the core of the competencies in the relationship management domain of Emotional Intelligence, the basis for more complex relationship management skills, including influencing other people or having a positive impact, mentoring other people, managing conflict, inspiring them as a leader, and teamwork. Read more…
We are just beginning to understand why knowing your purpose is key to good leadership. So why is it surprising that empathy is a crucial business skill?
Through empathy your purpose comes alive because you can see best where to serve. When we realize that our success is tied to others’ success and that interdependence (empathy) is not a personal liability but strength, then watch and experience miracles to happen.
Our book, The Art of Convening offers a roadmap of how purpose shared can get you there.
#purpose #PurposefulLeadership #leadership #RichardLeider #ThePowerofPurpose #TheArtofConvening
Hard to believe it’s been a year since The Waters Senior Living hosted a Launch Reception for CPL! On November 1 we celebrated with Richard Leider, our Associates Team, the leadership of The Waters and other Twin Cities colleagues. It was a snowy night; we were so pleased so many made the trek! Thanks again for Katherine Todd’s introduction to her Leadership Team.
1 year later, as we what has become core to our work and daily practices is this how convening and purpose are integral to purposeful leadership. Convening creates a structure to connect to your purpose and be in authentic relationship with others, a core practice for purposeful leadership.
Scroll down for a livestream of remarks from CPL, The Waters leadership, and Richard Leider.
This past Wednesday, Center for Purposeful Leadership hosted its first reception welcoming over 45 colleagues. Our purpose was not only to convene and reconnect with colleagues but to introduce the CPL Team.
We were honored to have purpose leader Richard Leider speak on the Purpose Movement and Purpose Research and pleased to connect and convene with others to spread the voice of what Center for Purposeful Leadership stands for.
The Waters leadership embodies purposeful leadership. Thank you to Kyle Didier, Lynn Carlson Schell, Katherine Todd and The Waters for hosting, and to those who attended.
Gathering with so many thought leaders from the Twin Cities truly shows the great direction purposeful leadership is headed. CPL is honored and excited to have you on this journey with us!
#purpose #PurposefulLeadership #leadership #RichardLeider #ThePowerofPurpose #TheArtofConvening
#PurposefulLeadership #Purpose #Leadership #Convening #ArtofConvening #AuthenticEngagement #RichardLeider
Photo Credit: Craig Neal
"Virtual collaboration is fast becoming the norm. Are you ready?" (Harvard Business Review, 04/24/18)
14 years ago, sick and tired of attending meetings where I left feeling, at best, depleted and others moaning about, yet another meeting, "that didn't go anywhere"; I invited 12 leaders to join me in the 1st Art of Convening Teletraining. It was an early virtual laboratory or "skunkworks" project to explore what the components of what makes for a transformational meeting, gathering or even conversation. Now, 14 years later, we've learned a thing or two.
Here are 5 bedrock steps to improve your "Webside Manner" in any virtual meeting or conversation...
These simple 5 steps can go a long way in improving clarity, buy-in, and alignment in any virtual meeting. Check out our next Convening Powerful Virtual Meetings Training!
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Finding your inner climate leadership
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Through the magic of Zoom rooms*, you can self-select to choose the focus that interests you for a "deeper dive" conversation.
"Virtual collaboration is fast becoming the norm. Are you ready?" (Harvard Business Review, 04/24/18).
Whether you are leading a virtual collaboration or a weekly team meeting, an Art of Convening Training adds a powerful skill set to any facilitation or gathering.
Explore the art, science and application of convening and purpose practices to transform the way people meet and gather.
CONVENING POWERFUL VIRTUAL MEETINGS
CORE ART OF CONVENING TRAINING
Jul 11, 25, Aug 8, 22, Sep 5 Sep 12, 28, Oct 10, 24, Nov 7, 21, Dec 5
8:00am-9:30am Central US 7:00pm-9:00pm Central US
$199 by 5/15/18 $595 early bird by 7/15/18
2 payments of $100 6 payments of $100
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
[repost from 2019] This is Thanksgiving holiday week In the US. November is also Native American Heritage Month. Family, friends and neighbors may be gathering. This week, we invite you to practice the art of deep listening, as a way to connect or reconnect in new ways. We offer 3 practices and 2 exercises. Let us know how it goes!
Finding your inner climate leadership
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Through the magic of Zoom rooms*, you can self-select to choose the focus that interests you for a "deeper dive" conversation.
![[Click to Watch Full Interview]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58a4e3be9de4bb98b066fd6f/1532290970455-S34X4ZIPHPR69KWZG2SJ/Craig+and+Ren)
[Click to Watch Full Interview]
Ren Wei is a family man, OD consultant and convener sharing his purpose on a global level. I have the good fortune to work closely with Ren Wei, along with five of his fellow Chinese colleagues, in the current Art of Convening training. This brief yet inspirational interview captures the commitment he has for being an active catalyst for societal and global transformation.
#PurposefulLeadership #Purpose #Leadership #Convening #ArtofConvening #Engagement
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
[repost from 2019] This is Thanksgiving holiday week In the US. November is also Native American Heritage Month. Family, friends and neighbors may be gathering. This week, we invite you to practice the art of deep listening, as a way to connect or reconnect in new ways. We offer 3 practices and 2 exercises. Let us know how it goes!
Finding your inner climate leadership
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Through the magic of Zoom rooms*, you can self-select to choose the focus that interests you for a "deeper dive" conversation.
Photo Credit: Fusion2conference.com
Exciting news!
Craig Neal will be leading a Learning Lab @ the Fusion 2.0 Conference
The Art of Purposeful Leadership: The Future Leader
Wednesday
11/7/2018, 11:20 a.m.-12:35 p.m.
Get registered to join him! group rates are now available. Bring your teams. For the best rate, register now while the preview rate is still in effect.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
[repost from 2019] This is Thanksgiving holiday week In the US. November is also Native American Heritage Month. Family, friends and neighbors may be gathering. This week, we invite you to practice the art of deep listening, as a way to connect or reconnect in new ways. We offer 3 practices and 2 exercises. Let us know how it goes!
Finding your inner climate leadership
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Through the magic of Zoom rooms*, you can self-select to choose the focus that interests you for a "deeper dive" conversation.
Peter Block became a foundational mentor when we founded Heartland/CPL 22 years ago. His writing and thought leadership was invaluable.
'The Answer to How is Yes' and 'Community: The Structure of Belonging' were both primary texts for the early Art of Convening Training's. The essay below states the case for purpose shared as convening, and convening as a foundational characteristic of an on-purpose leader.
Leadership is Convening
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, worshiped 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 leader as social architect.
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.
Subscribe to this blog now to get your 2x/week spark of purpose
#PurposefulLeadership #Purpose #Leadership #Convening #ArtofConvening #Engagement
Cindy Kent was the lead Conversation Starter at our 20th Anniversary Conference in 2016. As a thought and purposeful leader, her values are central to all she does and how she does it.
Making Happy
In nearly five decades of life, and too-many-experiences-to-count later, I have come to realize how misguided the notion of finding happiness is. You don’t really find happy, in truth, we make happy. Finding Happy is an ill-conceived notion, that inherently implies that happiness is some illusive by-product of luck or fortune or even, some edenic destination—a wistful, ideologue of a reward at the end of one’s diligent pursuit. Instead, I believe, we make happy—one decision, one choice, at a time.
The very idea that we make happy can be hard for some people to accept. Why? Because if we accept that we make our own happy, then it places the responsibility of our happiness squarely on our own shoulders. As such, it puts an end once and for all to the infamous “blame game” and the convenient opportunity to blame someone, anyone, for our failing to achieve the love, success and happiness that we desire. It would mean that the years we’ve spent blaming friends, parents, spouses, partners and employers for failing to make us happy were in fact, a bad use of our good and precious time. It does not mean that these individuals are abdicated from any wrong-doing, but it does suggest that we maintain absolute control over the effect that we allow their actions to have on our emotional and mental well-being. Fundamentally, happiness is much more about our reactions than it is about the actions themselves—reactions, which are completely within our own control. At some point we must make the choice to let go of the pain and hurt inflicted by others and choose to forgive them, let it go and MOVE ON. In fact today, or better yet right NOW, you can choose to let this very moment be the last bit of hurt that you ascribe to any event of your past. As you take deep cleansing breaths, you are releasing the bitterness of yesterday and taking in all the joy and hope that tomorrow brings. If you choose to wait, to have one final pity party or to savor the familiarity of pain’s bitterness one last time, then tomorrow will never come. So start tomorrow, right now. Welcome to the first few seconds of your bright, beautiful future.
So what is happiness? Happiness is the deepest level of contentment that you can possibly imagine, a sense of fullness that envelopes every fiber of your being. It is soul joy—a knowing that you are where you’re supposed to be, doing what you’re supposed to be doing at this very moment in time. It is not a feeling, for feelings are fleeting, but instead it is a sense of wholeness and being completely at peace in the moment. Happiness is inextricably tied to purpose. Walking in purpose and living life on purpose, by its very nature is a higher order of livelihood. Unfortunately, the sad reality is that many people go through their entire lives having never experienced the depth of peace that comes from a life truly lived.
After years of “ordinary-ness,” the human spirit that is purposed for greatness will eventually take one of two paths. It will either grow dull and bitter, having convinced itself that ‘this is as good as it gets’ or two, the intensity of frustration will fuel the yearning to find ‘something more.’ It is at this point that one becomes increasingly aware that what you’re doing now, or even what you’ve spent the last twenty or thirty years doing is not fulfilling. This can be a frightening and overwhelming experience fraught with questions and self-doubt. What will I do instead? I don’t have the training or education to do what I really want to do. Will I be able to meet my financial obligations? I have a thriving career; people will think I’m crazy to leave this great job. Be assured that these feelings and questions are normal—and necessary—milestones as one endeavors to make happy.
Cindy (Smith) Kent
Innovative Healthcare Executive. Focused Operational Growth Leader. Visionary Change Champion. Public Speaker.
President & General Manager, 3M Infection Prevention Division
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/making-happy-cindy-kent/
Subscribe to this blog now to get your 2x/week spark of purpose
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
[repost from 2019] This is Thanksgiving holiday week In the US. November is also Native American Heritage Month. Family, friends and neighbors may be gathering. This week, we invite you to practice the art of deep listening, as a way to connect or reconnect in new ways. We offer 3 practices and 2 exercises. Let us know how it goes!
Finding your inner climate leadership
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.
Through the magic of Zoom rooms*, you can self-select to choose the focus that interests you for a "deeper dive" conversation.
#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.
![[Hearth] Voices from Ukraine: Part 2](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58a4e3be9de4bb98b066fd6f/1647955546471-VUGA4FCGFEUYJ29TEQVA/sunforest-mix-sunflower-types-1586794598.jpeg)
…this idea of worthiness, that struggle we go through as a nation, happens all the time.
Edward Dugger III, president of Reinventure Capital and an early pioneer in impact investing, explores the intersection between the venture capital community and racial equity.