I believe in the development of thriving groups, communities or teams in which problems are solved and decisions are made collectively.
This means that everyone is involved: leadership is shared and rotated and the full diversity of opinions is considered to ensure wise choices for a sustainable future.
In order to achieve this vision, I help groups determine and pursue their everyday goals, while at the same time exploring the possibility of psychological transformation and transcendence. As a facilitator, I work towards the following:
- all individuals are invited to participate and express themselves
- all opinions are considered and used to improve the quality of decisions
- the full range of human experience is considered valid and meaningful
- diversity in all its forms is respected and encouraged and individual interests are accommodated as far as possible
- creativity is unleashed because psychological blocks are explored and addressed
- individuals are encouraged to develop their leadership capacity through dialogue and self-reflection
- a continual evolution of the intellectual, emotional, social, ecological and spiritual intelligence of the group is encouraged
This vision is based on the following set of beliefs, values and assumptions:
- Many species on the planet (including us humans) are potentially under the threat of a mass extinction.
- In order to thrive in our environment, people have to co-operate in communities as we are no longer sufficiently geographically and systemically dispersed to operate in isolation, either as individuals or in small groups.
- Biodiversity and “psycho-diversity” are essential elements in thriving systems.
- Although formal, insightful and visionary leadership is as important as ever, group decision making processes based simply or only on the idea of a strong (charismatic) individual leader do not lead to effective implementable decisions as they do not include the wisdom of the whole group.
- Majority democracy loses the wisdom of minority voices and positions.
- Shared leadership is possible and necessary to develop thriving, sustainable communities.
- Psychodynamic or interpersonal processes such as miscommunication, power plays, defenses against anxiety, and scapegoating significantly hamper decision-making.
- There are tried-and-tested metaskills, skills, processes and techniques which help groups transcend unhelpful or constraining psychodynamics.
Over the years, a range of possible interventions have evolved that help groups and/or communities implement shared leadership. These interventions help communities to overcome the psychodynamics that hamper creativity, cause unresolved conflict and prevent effective decision-making and problem-solving. My aim is to implement these interventions as widely as possible and to help others to develop the skills to do so too.