Civic Leadership Lab

One of the worst consequences of modernity has been the fragmentation of civil society. Today, our greatest challenge is to learn to open our hearts to reconnect with others and coordinate our private interests with the interests of community. The Civic Leadership Learning Lab builds relationships and skills among leaders from the public, private, and social sectors to act as agents of community change at the municipal or regional level.

Benefits for Participants

As an organizational, governmental, or corporate leader, you will be challenged to expand your understanding of yourself as a civic leader with the influence, impact, and power to convene community initiatives. You will:

• Practice using frameworks, skills and tools that foster civic collaboration, including: stakeholder analysis, collaborative planning, facilitation, and crafting shared visions
• Explore the inner side of leadership, challenge personal barriers to learning, and identify tools and pathways to life-long learning
• Learn about opportunities for civic engagement and apply your skills to current civic issues and concerns
• Practice the basic skills of dialogue and learn about its uses
• Build deep, trusting relationships that will form the basis for an ongoing community of civic leaders

You will have begun this process as a leader within your organization or community, and will emerge invigorated, redirected, and prepared to lead, with others, broader initiatives that shoulder even deeper civic responsibilities.

Benefits for Your Community

By focusing on core competencies and practices, participants will acquire a common approach and language to effecting change that transcends barriers and renews civic life. A network of collaborative leaders within your community or region will serve as a powerful force for building bridges across traditional boundaries. You will share responsibility for the social, economic, and environmental well–being of your community in new and powerful ways.

Workshop Description

This fifteen day Learning Lab is offered in partnership with local convening organizations over a seven–month period. Topics for the monthly sessions include: * Introduce Participants to the Program and to Each Other * Transforming Experience: Outward Bound * Skill-Building for Facilitative Leadership * Building Community Partnerships and Collaborations: Applications for Facilitating Change * Designing and Facilitating Community Change * The Inner Side of Leadership: The Art of Dialogue * Commitment to Community Applications and the Practice of Facilitative Leadership