Description of Conference Happenings

Spiritual Weightlifting for the Integral Leader (Cindy Wigglesworth)

Our individual INTERIOR affects our EXTERIOR behaviors.  Specifically our stage of development, which is interconnected with our lines of intelligence (Cindy will show you how), impacts how we see the world and how we formulate options for interacting with it.  We often complain about a lack of leadership - in business, in politics, and even in the Integral movement itself.  But what can we do about it?  Cindy's basic premise is that we have to lead ourselves first - from the inside out - and model what we hope to see.  We know about ILP and its value. What Cindy adds is the "SQ" or spiritual intelligence schema so we can assess and develop and live from our own leadership potential.  Cindy will skim quickly over the basics and then dive into a multiple intelligence approach to leadership and personal growth that is guided by SQ development. This will be followed by some interactive exercises to engage us in the polarity of ascending and descending forms of spirituality.

Experience the vMemes: Natural Design in Action (Don Beck)

The core question is "HOW should WHO lead/manage/motivate/inspire WHOM to do WHAT with WHICH people living WHERE?" Move from theory to practice in this powerful LineUP exercise. We might have a cognitive understanding of the vMemes (colors / stages and their corresponding life conditions) of the Gravesian model - but what does that mean in terms of organization? In this session there will be a very short introduction followed by an exercise using the context of a consulting engagement in Norway (an energy company). You will be up on your feet and moving around so that you can embody the stages and natural design process and see why some organizations fit various life conditions. There will be a wall - a "windows wall" of internal and external issues and variables. The Question: How do you as a leader manage in this context? What are the problems of existence here? What kind of structure is needed? What will you do to demonstrate flex/flow leadership? These are the questions answered by the master code of the Natural Design process.

Leadership at the Edge: Insights from Late-stage Leaders on How to Design and Engage in Complex Change Initiatives (Barrett Brown)

What happens at the intersection of complex consciousness and complex leadership issues? What do leaders and change agents who have access to post-post conventional ways of making-meaning actually do when they design and engage in sustainability initiatives? What does late-stage leadership look like in action, and what can we do to accelerate the development of our own consciousness? In this presentation, Barrett will offer insight into these questions based upon his research on sustainability leaders and change agents who were assessed at the very latest stages of meaning-making that science can measure. Ken Wilber calls this work "a timely, important, significant, and very telling empirical study of some of the highest stages of human development.”

Tapping Into the Infinity Factor (Bert Parlee, Allison Conte and Dana Carman)

Amidst unity, interdependent pairs dance, intersect and resolve themselves into one another in an endless embrace, where creative destructive gives birth to novel emergence. Our ability to recognize and innovatively invent with dialectics, polarities and opposites is a hallmark of generative play and productivity. Indeed, there are respectively different polarities that want to be reconciled at successive stages of development. This will be a participatory, experiential presentation where you will be invited into explorations of your inner complexity, discovering the simplicity on its other side.

Conscious Change Leadership: A Successful Framework for Bringing an Integral Message to Corporations and Tier One Leaders (Dean Anderson)

Bringing integral to consciously aware leaders or small teams is one thing. Helping it come alive in large corporations with Tier One leaders is quite another. How do you frame the message, make it meaningful so it connects, and deliver substance that produces substantial results leaders seek, all while waking up the people and transforming the culture? In this session we will explore Conscious Change Leadership, an integrated solution of consulting, training, coaching, and change methodology that Being First has been offering Fortune 500 leaders and internal change consultants for three decades. We will overview its Six Foundations and we will peek into each of these foundations experientially in an embodied way. In this context of exploration, Dean will make overt the messaging and methods we deliver to clients so you can see how we might frame consciousness for business leaders in a way that works for them and their non-integral systems. Dean’s intent is for participants to leave this session with an introductory understanding of Conscious Change Leadership and pivotal new insights into how they can be even more successful delivering their integral work in traditional business settings.

Embodying Radiance: Integral Femininity at its Core (Willow Dea and Mukti)

Being in the presence of the Feminine is nothing short of Grace. While our lives are filled with outward action, the potency from which these actions arise is of prime importance. Leadership is an expression of our deepest commitments, enacted as coherently as we are capable of being. In service of our leadership, we will come together to return to the Source of Feminine potency, to rest in the Fullness together. In doing so, we understand that any movement that arises is intimately sourced in the Mystery that animates each breath. Drawing from the coherence of our breath, body, mind and heart, we'll know the Radiant Feminine and enjoy Her. Guided meditation, embodied practice, and discussion will comprise this session.

Integral Emergence in Current Events (Jeff Salzman)

The Integral stage of development is arising in the world under its own power.  Part of our job as evolutionaries is to notice, and to take heart.  In this session, Jeff looks at the real-time emergence of integral consciousness in current events: politics, economics, culture and spirituality.  Using examples from the headlines, he will lead us on an exploration of what Emergence may be up to in the world.  Integral theory is a powerful lens through which to view the amazing 4-quadrant reality we live in, revealing greater patterns and deeper textures, much like the slide on the Google map.  What we see is a world unfolding into ever-greater expressions of goodness, truth and beauty, albeit often through flawed and tragic vehicles. How do we make sense of it?  How do we make friends with it?  How do we give our best, yet also relax and ride the updraft?  Join Jeff for a stimulating look at these issues.

The Leadership Rosetta Stone: Simplicity on the Other Side of Complexity (Brett Thomas)

Once fully fleshed out and field-tested, integral approaches offer the possibility of simplicity on the other side of complexity. Yet it takes thousands of hours to objectify, synthesize, integrate, and test integral approaches to reach this point. Now, after a decade-long, multi-million-dollar experiment in developing and teaching Integral Leadership practices and tools to CEOs and executives, Brett believes we have crossed the threshold. In this presentation, he will discuss his personal experience from over 10,000 hours of teaching Integral Leadership and coaching CEOs and executives on the practice. He will share failures and key breakthroughs along the way, along with what he believes to be the most crucial insights of Integral Leadership. He will explain what he sees as the most common misconceptions and mistakes made by practitioners. And he will reveal for the first time how to "bake in" Robert Kegan’s “Subject-Object Move” (the primary mechanism of vertical development) into the practice of Integral Leadership, which dramatically increases the possibility and velocity of transformation to more complex stages of development.

Integral Optimism: How to Approach Our Epic Global Challenges with Informed Hope and Faith (Bert Parlee)

Global warming, nuclear proliferation, transcontinental pandemics, economic meltdown, weapons of mass destruction, over population, extinctions, ethnic cleansing and genocide, poverty and starvation, ecological disasters—the nightmare list seems never-ending. Everyone seems to agree: something bad, and possibly catastrophic, is happening as we speak. We do well to question assumptions behind both alarmist and naively idealistic responses to our global crisis. This presentation explores how we can move toward a more balanced and authentic sense of optimism by cultivating our highest spiritual awareness. How can we best show up as we most fundamentally are: as One, as Self, as All-Pervading Spirit? How do we re-author the narrative of our times, providing reason to feel hopeful about the prospects of life — not only surviving, but even thriving in more advanced forms in the time ahead. Join us and find out!

Excellence Training at EnlightenNext: How Collective Awakening Changes Everything (Jeff Carreira)

For 25 years EnlightenNext has been exploring and developing methods that unleash the power of collective intention by bringing individuals together beyond the self-center motives of the ego. In the Excellence Training Program EnlightenNext director of education Jeff Carreira works with successful and influential individuals who want to develop the ability to come together beyond the limited perspective of the ego and facilitate others to do the same. In this presentation Jeff Carreira will share what he has identified as the fundamental skills and attitudes that must be adopted to facilitate this miraculous shift in perspective and the methods he is using to train political and business leaders to put them into practice.

Leading the New Meta Organization (Sean Esbjörn-Hargens)

For the last two years Sean Esbjörn-Hargens has been building MetaIntegral. a new kind of integral organization. MetaIntegral is an inter-organizational ecosystem comprised of three distinct companies: a training academy, a consulting firm, and grant giving foundation. Currently the academy is launching a three year embodied practitioner program; the firm is creating a dream team of global integral consultants, and the foundation is raising $100 million for the Integral Planet Endowment. The core purpose of MetaIntegral is to help cultivate a more ethical, sustainable, and psychologically mature humanity. In this session, Sean will provide a brief overview of MetaIntegral and then within this context he will explore with participants the role of matching one's interior complexity with the exterior complexity of organizational structure. He will inspire you to consider the relationship between your own planet-centric awareness and your integral action. In addition, you will be part of an inquiry into the role integral design can play with fostering post-formal awareness and meta-systemic behavior. So if you want to get a glimpse of where Integral is headed join Sean for this inspiring session.

What is Integral Leadership? (Brett Thomas, T Poling and Michael McElhenie)

Join Brett, T and Michael as they lead and engage one another in a multi-perspective conversation on the characteristics, meaning and value of “Integral Leadership” in an awakening world. They will call on their own coaching and consulting work with leaders from a variety of organizations. They will also facilitate several thought experiments and small group conversations wherein participants will reflect on their own understanding of integral leadership and explore the ways they might foster a more integrally-informed and integrally-inclined approach to leading themselves and those around them.

From Training to Transforming Leaders and Organizations: A Transformational Methodology (Gilles Brouillette)

For integral coaches, trainers and facilitators, it is becoming increasingly evident that one of the most powerful strategies for leadership development is the transformation of consciousness. However, although many practitioners are aware of this, we still do not have many concrete, simple and powerful methodologies to do it within the context of leadership development in the workplace. This presentation will therefore introduce you to a practical transformational methodology to generate leadership and organizational transformation. We will explore consciousness through the lenses of mental models and we will look at how consciousness emerges and evolves, how it shapes the way we think and act, what role it plays in determining heroic and reactive leadership styles, and how we can consciously shift it to a post heroic level in order to develop and sustain higher levels of leadership effectiveness. Beyond the theory, you will have the opportunity to experiment in shifting your own consciousness and develop an important integral leadership competency: Transformational Agility™.

Raising Consciousness Through Film & Media (Michael Richardson-Borne)

In this session, Michael will introduce The Renaissance Project, a global invitation to cultural leaders and filmmakers to document the worldwide renaissance in the age of new media. He will help participants explore and discover the new ways in which media can be used as an intentional consciousness-raising tool in the world. Michael will also share a special example of his filmmaking approach during the Community Event on Friday evening.

Integral Consultant Development: Stories from Australia to Russia … with Love (Dana Carman, Danielle Conroy & Jesse McKay)

Dana, Danielle and Jesse will share their learnings regarding what has been most powerful and transferrable about Integral across cultural & geographic boundaries, and what they have learned about the practical application of Integral theory and practices in their own consulting work. Participants will be invited to reconnect with their own experiences and share best-practices as an expression of evolutions commitment to next-level integral praxis.

The Emerging Narrative in the Middle East: A New Birth in Bethlehem (Don Beck and Elza Maalouf)

This brief presentation will report on the results of the Summit on the Future of Palestine in 2008, and what it has to offer to the rest of the world. Don Beck, from Texas, and Elza Maalouf from Lebanon, along with their Palestinian colleagues, designed an innovative and far-reaching initiative that offers a fresh and dynamic approach to large scale systems transformation. This event was based on decades of research and years of applications and experiences in trouble spots around the world, coupled with an in-depth understanding of Arab-based points of view as well as Israeli contributions and needs. You will see both images and hear audios from the event, as 700 Palestinians gathered to design their own future. This will represent the most sophisticated application of the "Integral perspective," in a realistic setting , with a specific focus on the historic work of Professor Clare W. Graves, the contemporary and field-tested wisdom from Spiral Dynamics, and the newest insights from our emerging Quest for the Master Code.

The Emerging Integral at Integral Life (David Riordan)

Stay tuned. More information to be provided on this exciting session over the next several weeks.

Integral Life Practice Morning Session (Adam B. Leonard)

Prepare your body, mind, shadow, and spirit each morning of the conference for the rich experiences of the day ahead. Flex and stretch the muscles of your gross body. Expand the flow of energy in your subtle body, and release into the vast still spaciousness of your causal body. Join Adam, as he offers a series of facilitated practices based on the book, Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening, that he co-authored with Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, and Marco Morelli.