Human Development Cluster
An invitation
““Between an event and our response, there is a space. In that space lies our power to choose our response. And in our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
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Changing the story of development for people and planet.
This is an invitation to join a project that sets out to change the ‘business-as-usual’ story of human development to meet the needs of our times.
For a long time, development was based on growth, unhealthy forms of competition and a culture of consumption and separation. Today, more and more people recognise that this ‘dominant’ paradigm is harmful to social and ecological systems. But how do learning and education inform and continue to drive this dominant paradigm? What is it that keeps us hooked to a destructive way of working? Isn’t now the moment to change not only systems, but also the cultures of learning and development that brought us here?
Through this project, we seek to bring together people who are capable of transforming not only the means and methods of human development, but also the very paradigm of what we call leadership and organisational development. We are looking for people who are courageously breaking boundaries in their work and in the stories that define progress and growth. We are also seeking to work with people who are placing the wellbeing of people and all of our planet at the heart of development.
An ecosystem for change
The mission of the Bio-Leadership Project is to connect and support an ecosystem of people and projects capable of changing not only systems, but the paradigm of leadership itself. For 6 months (as at April 2020) we had been preparing a programme to address leadership and organisational development in the context of planetary emergency. And then, the coronavirus pandemic presented itself - a moment where economic and social pain points of our systems rose to the surface.
Now, we see this work as more valid and necessary than ever. This is a ‘sliding doors’ moment in time, in which humanity has the challenge - and the opportunity - to rewrite the rules of collective progress. This work is about shifting how we organise ourselves as people to meet the needs of our times and our planet.
The invitation
Our invitation is to participate in the inquiry on how we can learn and influence the system and paradigm of human development together. We will work in two steps and, for now, hope you say ‘yes’ on participating in the first.
Step 1: An interview. Firstly, participating in a one-hour interview conversation in which we ask you about your stories and ideas on shifting the paradigm of leadership. How do you see this moment in time? What are hopeful stories from your own practice? What are the questions you are struggling with?
Step 2: Learning together. Later in the year, we hope to explore and learn together in a series of experiences and experiments. For example, by hosting round table conversations to deepen the themes from the first round of interviews or by coming together to experience. But also, by starting an Action Research process - inviting groups to share learning questions and mutually support each other through cycles of action, experimentation and reflection. With the aim to support each other to make a positive impact and showcase new ways of human development.
In 2021 we are then we hope to host a gathering to work together through deeper, experiential means - time out in nature, fires, and work across three Bio-Leadership threads’: 1) Tools and models; 2) Ways of being and 3) Ways of connecting as a collaborative field.
We are seeking to invite an international group of 20 to 30 people who work in human development to be part of this ‘cluster’. Each of these people will be doing something inspiring in their own work, and together we hope to enhance our capacity to influence the wider field.
To end
We are curious to hear your thoughts and reflections and hope you want to participate in the first round of interviews. We hope to start as soon as possible with these initial conversations.
To register your interest in participating on this ‘cluster’ please send us an email connect@bio-leadership.com.
Guides
Andres Roberts
is a guide dedicated to a new kind of progress, fit for a positive future for all.
His work combines renewed ideas about learning and change, reconnection to Nature, and the wisdom of ancient cultures to help more positive, and more systemic, change happen. Building on twenty years of experience in learning and leadership, Andres has studied with respected elders from across the world, helping to make ancient wisdom and Nature-based practices more accessible in the modern world.
Andres is co-founder of Way of Nature UK and founding partner of The Bio-Leadership Project.
Din van Helden
Learning, co-designing, facilitating and consulting for the last 20 years in the field of Organisational Development.
Elicits levels of connectedness – at the individual level, as well as in the quality of relationships between people, in order to create a positive impact on the systems we are participating in. Nature is at the heart of this transformative change.
Din wants to see a human regeneration of and in organisations.
Joeri Kabalt
Joeri has ten years of experience in Organisational Development at Kessels & Smit, The Learning Company and specifically with Appreciative Inquiry as a change philosophy that centres participation and possibilities.
She is intrigued by how we can live our lives with a sense of wonder. And passionate about enabling meaningful and deep connections and encounters with ourselves, each other and nature.
Joeri hopes organisations can become places of wonder that care for our planet.
If you want to register or have any questions regarding this Human Development cluster, please drop us an email: connect@bio-leadership.org or use the form below - we’d love to hear from you!