2009 Year of Dancing

2009 was a year of dancing for school participants and volunteers alike. Like dancing, the first year of offerings of the School for Leadership required increased communication and coordinated action among all the participants and elements. It was a time to be light on one's feet, to be connected, to be collaborative, and to have fun. Dancing is, after all, a skillful and beautiful form of human expression through movement, rhythm, flexibility, and grace.

Below are some of our major accomplishments in 2009:

• Created and brought into existence an effective Coaching Program as one of the core elements of the three-year curriculum. Each participant in the school is assigned a coach for the academic year. Coaches work with participants, regularly supporting them in applying the distinctions of transformational leadership in their work.


• Developed a Practicum Guide as a structure for the participants to use in designing their individual practicums. A practicum provides a field of action on which participants can play with what they are learning in real conditions. They engage their world through the practicum as a way of engaging their true selves in what they need to deal with or learn as transformational leaders.


• Held the first Three-Day Leadership Clinics for the school participants in their local regions. These mid-year residential clinics are designed to reinforce the learnings of the Five-Day Fundamentals in Transformational Leadership and address how to deal with breakdowns in the field.


• Created and delivered the first Leadership Dialogue by three-hour, international conference call. An ongoing part of the curriculum, these calls are designed to deepen the ownership of and ability to think and act from the fundamental distinctions of the school.


• Fostered the development of the participants in Israel, Northern Ireland, and the United States from loosely affiliated groups to true Regional Learning Communities.


• Held the second five-day residential Fundamentals of Transformational Leadership in November for the 19 grassroots leaders in the first cohort, and for the first time included the teaching of daily Anusara Yoga and the development of greater presence and confidence through singing, as well as continued work on seeing the world through art.


• Designed and launched a new wiki with collaborative workspaces for both the school builders and participants in the school.


• Created a new production handbook for faculty and assisting teams to support them in producing and delivering School for Leadership and Mastery Foundation programs and courses.


• Developed guidelines and a process for participants who, because of an emergency, must miss a Five-Day or Three-Day program to make up their absence and continue with the school.


• Expanded participation in the school builders community with the addition of new faculty members, new coaches, and a new sponsor, and continued to gain facility in operating from a community model of organizing and getting work done.