Transition US, Ecology of Leadership/Regenerative Institute, and Daily Acts Organization - Trathen Heckman
Seven members from Transition US, Ecology of Leadership/Regenerative Institute, and Daily Acts Organization, will be ‘Invoking a Pause’ to create a ‘tool box’ of resources containing a book entitled “Reverence and Resilience”, a series of downloadable PDF’s focusing on ecology leadership qualities, webinar presentations to inspire engagement and create “on the ground community organizing”, workshops, and videos as resources for environmental social activists.
The Latest Dirt on Inner Transition by Christopher Kuntzsch
In preparation for our September ITP ‘pause’, the seven collaborators for “Inner Transition” have been heartily engaged in conference calls, individual check-ins and a ½ day meeting to deepen existing relationships and establish new ones. Given the size of our collaboration, at our recent half-day planning meeting we honed in on the vision for our retreat and thought through best strategies for our Retreat time together. One theme that emerged was in engaging the creative tension between both taking time to pause and see what emerges, while also honoring our desire to fulfill our near term objectives.
Our seven grant partners - hailing from organizations including Transition US, Daily Acts, and the Regenerative Design Institute’s Ecology of Leadership Program - are collaborating to develop a toolbox of resources for climate activists and eco-social changemakers comprised of a book entitled “Reverence and Resilience”, a series of downloadable PDF’s focusing on principles of regenerative leadership, webinar presentations to inspire in
dividual and grassroots community engagement, as well as community workshops and online videos. Our recent planning session gave us an opportunity to presence our selves to the greater context into which the pause will be placed. In the macro-sense, Bill McKibben’s recent piece on Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math in Rolling Stone magazine provides an excellent framework to reference where we are at. It both provided us with a healthy dose of urgency and a reminder of the importance of these types of collaborations that seek to inspire effective, heart-full action that spreads throughout communities around the world.
A couple of recent Pause-related activities from partnering organizations adding fuel to our shared efforts were the recent Train the Trainer Courses and Gathering hosted by Transition U.S. with attendees from around the U.S. and the largest DIY Greywater Workshop in the U.S. hosted by Daily Acts this last weekend with 60+ attendees and over 27 Greywater Systems being installed.In the context of on the ground skill-building and solutions, the team has enjoyed creating surface area to learn more about what key competencies, questions, and insights each member brings to the collaboration, and how to approach weaving these together into the specific offerings being developed.
Some emerging points of inquiry have been:
- What have we learned about how change happens?
- How do we inspire more significant change?
- Where does our respective work contribute to the process of change?
- What is the role of individual awakening and transformation in systemic change?
- What is the most fertile balance between developing hard skills and inner transformation - i.e. ‘outer’ vs. ‘inner’ leadership?
- What messaging are we most compelled and qualified to share?
- How will we translate our message to our target audience?
We are planning further strategy calls ahead of our ‘pause’ retreat in September to ruminate on these questions and build soil for our collaborative projects.
Find out more about the collaborators here:
www.transitionus.org
www.dailyacts.org
www.theecologyofleadership.org
