Program Calendar
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PROGRAM CALENDAR
DIALOGUE AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE:
A Four-Part Series
With Glenna Gerard and Robert Sarly

"SACRED LISTENING"
April 23 - 25, 2004

"FIERCE INTERDEPENDENCE"
June 11 - 13, 2004

"IMAGINATIVE WISDOM"
August 27 - 29, 2004

"INSPIRATIONAL LEADERSHIP"
October 29 - 31, 2004


Dialogue is a powerful spiritual practice. Many of our great spiritual traditions provide meaningful paths that flow toward greater self-awareness, deepening, and connection with 'the other' which lies at the heart of dialogic process. Dialogue literally means the flow of meaning.

Through dialogue we remember our essential wholeness. We practice listening sacredly, disagreeing respectfully, inquiring nonjudgmentally, and advocating with fierce and compassionate clarity which comes only from personal groundedness. Each weekend of this four-part series focuses on a core archetype--Healer, Protector, Liberator, & Teacher--and the shadow risks of each, as we learn to embrace the various roles and energies called for in courageous conversation.

Dialogue as a Spiritual Practice offers a set of skills that can be learned, taught, and applied to family, work, and spiritual community conversations where creating shared understanding of values and experiences is essential to the healing of separation and restoration of wholeness and peace.

The series as a whole is designed to allow you to join any combination of individual weekends that particularly interest you--though priority is given to those who register for the whole program. Attending the full program deepens your foundation and grounding for further practice on your own. Limited to 40. Early enrollment is recommended.

For more detailed information on sessions and on registration go to www.miriamswell.org and click on Glenna Gerard.
CHALLENGING CONVERSATIONS:
Navigational Skills for Staying Afloat
With Glenna Gerard

Feb. 21 & Mar. 13, 2004
Santa Fe, New Mexico*

All of us can give examples of conversations that make us uncomfortable, yet are very important to us. It may be the topic (assignment of responsibilities, commitment, expectations). Or the feelings that come into play (disappointment, anger, fear, strong attraction or aversion). Or the person involved (boss, business partner, family member, romantic partner). One thing all these conversations have in common is that we are often NOT at our best. These two days, plus an individual coaching session, will give you the conversational skills you need to positively change the way you engage the difficult issues, feelings, and people in your relationships. You'll be able to stay float in the rapids and create outcomes you feel good about.

For further details please see:
Challenging Conversations.pdf
or
Challenging Conversations.doc

*If you would like to see this program offered in your area please contact me at glenna49@earthlink.net.
APPRECIATIVE PARTNERSHIPS:
From Good to Great!
With Glenna Gerard

Mar. 27, April 5,12,17, 2004
Santa Fe, New Mexico*

Do any or all of the following describe your partnership?
  • You like each other and basically life together is pretty darn good! AND, you'd like to be able to:
    • Stoke the fires (of intimacy) and generate more aliveness
    • Deepen your capacity for authentic communication and understanding of one another
    • Move through life "transitions" and challenges, gracefully and without major stress
    • Learn to identify why and where you get stuck and how to get unstuck


For further details please see:
Appreciative Relationships.pdf
or
Appreciative Relationships.doc

*If you would like to see this program offered in your area please contact me at glenna49@earthlink.net.
THE AUTHENTIC SELF CONNECTING
With Glenna Gerard and Lynne Kaufman

May 23-28, 2004

This workshop offers a doorway into your most authentic and creative self and a way to connect from that place with others. If you want to invigorate your mind/body/spirit and bring your private and public self into closer harmony, this workshop provides the opportunity and the skills.

We will learn the art of opening ourselves to what comes towards us, acknowledging the gift and adding to it from our own unique self. This "yes-and" rather than "no-but" approach to life creates new connections and fosters aliveness and vitality. Energy flows, transformation happens, new ideas and possibilities unfold in an atmosphere of trust and expansiveness. We come fully alive. This week is about the shift from stress to depletion to vitality and joy.

We engage in guided conversations circle practicing the skills of dialogue(based on the work of David Bohm) - listening deeply, examining assumptions, engaging in inquiry and reflection to reach shared meaning. Awareness/improvisational exercises embody the talk with playfulness and spontaneity.

To register or for an Esalen catalogue go to www.esalen.org.
Dialogue: Peacemaking through Sacred Conversation
With Glenna Gerard

April 29 - May 2, 2004
Mandala Center, New Mexico*

Dialogue is a powerful spiritual practice for peace. This weekend offers an opportunity to engage first hand in the work of peacemaking. Rumi wrote, "Out beyond all wrong doing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Stepping into Rumi's "field," we are able to recognize the sacred in one another. In this program you will learn skills that enable you to more reliably step into this field, touching the sacred in yourself, your loved ones and even your "enemies".

The practice of dialogue embodies and weaves essential principles and methodologies from our great spiritual traditions. Specifically, this program provides practices of listening and speaking that will help you transform disruption to peace, fear and anger to compassion and forgiveness, confusion to clarity, information and knowledge to wisdom. You will come away with a set of skills that can be applied to family, work, and community conversations where creating shared understanding of values and experiences is essential to the healing of separation and restoration of wholeness and peace. You will also leave with greater self-knowledge, a deeper sense of gratitude for the gift of your life and relationships, and a renewed sense of wonder and commitment to your personal spiritual journey.

For more information on the Mandala Center and to register please go to www.mandalacenter.org.

*If you would like to see this program offered in your area please contact me at glenna49@earthlink.net.
BRIDGING ORGANIZATION CULTURES:
DIALOGUE IN MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
With Glenna Gerard

Sept. 7-10, 2004
Innsbruck, Austria*

If you are, or expect to be, a leader involved in a merger and acquisition, you are almost certainly about to face one of the greatest adaptive dilemmas that can arise within any organization. An adaptive dilemma is a set of circumstances and dynamics that together present a challenge where the tried and true responses that may have worked in the past are no longer sufficient to ensure that your organization will thrive in the marketplace.

Mergers and acquisitions are highly challenging because they involve the bridging of organizational cultures. To accomplish this in a way that calls forth the BEST from ALL involved rather than the worst, requires specific skills. Mergers and acquisitions require the formation of a new identity. People must give up some ways of thinking and doing and embrace, even create, others. For this to be successful, you as leader will need to create certain conditions that allow for a collaborative attitude and strategic thinking among employees about what is best for the whole, versus one part (culture) or the other.

Dialogue is an invaluable methodology for this work. Dialogue gives people a behavioral foundation for conversation that dissolves judgements and seeks shared meaning, while appreciating differences. As common ground expands, a "new" culture built from the best of what is present can emerge. In Dialogue people are able to speak more authentically and listen more openly and willingly. Thinking becomes clarified and more strategic and innovative choices become possible.

This program-workshop has three objectives:
  • To provide you with a practical framework for bridging the cultures in your "new" organization in a way that creates a coherent whole, greater than the sum of the parts (versus a fragmented, chaotic mess).
  • To give you a tool box of skills to successfully work/implement the framework.
  • To provide a forum for actually doing some creative and potentially breakthrough thinking with others about what is essential in leading a successful merger and acquisition.
USA Contact: glenna49@earthlink.net
International Contact: tino.albrecht@aon.at

*If you would like to see this program offered in your area please contact me at glenna49@earthlink.net.
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE WORKPLACE:
A DIALOGUE
With Glenna Gerard

Sept. 17-19, 2004
Weinheim-Ritschweier, Germany*

What differences exist? What implications do they have for the people and the organization? Is gender an intercultural conversation? What would a "third" culture that honors and appreciates our differences look like? How can dialogue as a methodology help us expand and deepen our understanding of this topic/issue/challenge?

This weekend is designed to introduce participants to the conversational practice of dialogue, to provide a practice field for the skills involved and to generate useful and insightful inquiry into topic of Gender Differences in the Workplace.

If you are involved in intercultural work, in diversity work, in gender mainstreaming, in ensuring that our educational systems both develop and tap into the gifts of gender differences... this program will give you:

  • An introduction to the methodology of dialogue and an experience of its application to gender diversity.
  • A practice field for the skills specific to dialogue and of use in creating the conditions for collaborative and strategic collective thinking.
  • A forum for inquiry into the challenges and opportunities of gender difference in the workplace.
Contacts: USA, glenna49@earthlink.net

Kontact: Dr. Stephen Holmes
Adj. Prof. of Intercultural Communication at Pepperdine University and the Dept. of International Business, Berufsakademie Mannheim
  Tel: 0049-6221-800016
  Email: stevejackie@gmx.de

*If you would like to see this program offered in your area please contact me at glenna49@earthlink.net.