Recharge with these continuing education opportunities

Several colleagues and clients have asked about places to recharge, regroup and rejuvenate. Here's a list of continuing education opportunities for change agents, leaders, creatives and everyone coping with the complexities of life.

Systems Thinking Conference, Nov 17-19, 2008, Boston
Sponsored by Pegasus -- helping individuals, teams, and organizations thrive in an increasingly complex world.

NTL Institute provides management training programs that enhance listening skills, communication skills, diversity, organization development and group dynamics. In Alexandria, VA and Bethel, ME.

Shambhala Institute is a vibrant meeting-place of people, practices, and ideas engaged at the frontier of organizational and societal change. Upcoming workshop is Organizational Trust: Cultivating authenticity, commitment and collaboration, April 22–23, 2008 in Ottawa, Ontario. Next summer institute is Authentic Leadership in Action, June 22–28, 2008 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Robert Fritz, composer, filmmaker and organizational consultant, helps people and organizations create the results that matter to them. Public workshops in Newfane, VT include Your life as art, Creating for creators, Fundamentals of Structural Thinking.

Cape Cod Institute is a summer-long series of timely/lively week-long courses for mental health and management professionals, offered by master teachers in Greenwich, CT.

Omega Institute is a pioneer in exploring, teaching, and embracing new ideas, focusing on health and wellness, personal spiritual growth, and self-awareness. Summer programs in Rhinebeck, NY. Winter programs in Costa Rica, Northern California and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Sol — Society for Organizational Learning. Founded by Peter Senge, SoL discovers (research), integrates (capacity development) and implements (practice) theories and practices of organizational learning for the interdependent development of people and their institutions and communities. In Boston.

Appreciative Inquiry is a revolutionary approach to strategic change and sustainable growth for organizations. The Commons, an online resource, lists public workshops, conferences and certification programs available world-wide.

Executive Education at Case Western in Cleveland, OH offers programs in Appreciative Inquiry and emotional intelligence.

Action Design helps individuals and groups in organizations develop their capability for inquiry, choice, and action on their most difficult issues. Public workshops in Boston.

Taos Institute is a community of scholars and practitioners concerned with the social processes essential for the construction of reason, knowledge, and human value.

Interaction Associates offers workshops in facilitation, leadership, meeting management, change management, coaching, and trainer excellence. Public workshops are in San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Washington DC.

OD Network is a professional association of external consultants and professionals working within their organizations to promote healthy change. Next conference is Oct 19-22, 2008 in Austin, TX.

All of our continuing education bookmarks are at http://del.icio.us/unison/continuing-education.

Add to the list. Click on "Comments" below and add your favorite workshop, conference, "chill-out" retreat.

When culture gets stuck

"Classical music wasn't always 'classical,'" writes change agent Seth Godin.

Once something makes its way to the mass market, the mass market doesn't want it to change. And once it moves from that big hump in the middle of the market to become a classic, the market doesn't just want it to not change, they insist.

So classical music gets stuck because the new stuff isn't like the regular kind, the classics. French food got stuck, because no restaurant could risk its 3 stars to try something new. A convention can't change cities or formats. Schools can't start their curriculum over... the culture gets stuck because the masses want it be stuck.

Inside most fields, we see pitched battles between a few people who want serious change to reinvigorate the genre they love -- and the masses, who won't tolerate change of any kind.

Read more plus reader reactions in Seth's blog.

Laws of simplicity

Drowning in e-mail and other complexities of modern life?

John Maeda's new book explains 10 laws of simplicity, including principles of good design and how to tame complexity and reduce clutter in your life. At the book's heart is the Shinto belief in animism, the spirit in all objects. Nicholas Negroponte, one of Maeda's mentors, once told him to become a lightbulb, not a laser beam. This he has done; all this and more.

Go to the book's site.

Read the book review in the LA Times.

Dynamic lifecycle of a musician

Orchestra management consultant Drew McManus examines the impact Yale School of Music’s decision to go tuition-free for graduate students would have on the classical music business. Although Yale’s new policy won’t change the landscape of classical music all that much, it does draw attention to an undeniable fact: conservatories and schools of music are accepting and graduating more music majors than ever before. This trend will likely lead to increased competition for positions in professional orchestras and other groups. As a result, more musicians will need to find other outlets for their talents to generate income.

Systems Thinker columnist Bill Harris gives you a chance to try the associated model to explore these ideas further and to try out various approaches to stabilizing the lifecycle of the typical U.S. classical musician.

Read the article at Pegasus Communications.

Seeking ideas that disturb

”So much more is possible if we can be together and consciously look for the differences, those ideas and perspectives we find disturbing,” writes Margaret Wheatley.

Instead of sitting in a group and looking for confirmation, what is possible if we listen for disturbance? Instead of looking for safety in numbers and noting those who feel like allies or fellow travelers, what might we create if we seek to discover those whose insights are the most different from ours? What if, at least occasionally, we came together in order to change our mind?

Read the full article on the Berkana Institute web site.

Cultivating wisdom

Dawna Markova discusses her fascination with building capacity for cultivating collective wisdom in Pegasus' Leverage Points Issue 75.

Markova is the creator of SMARTWired and a renowned educator, researcher and author who has served as a thinking partner to several Fortune 50 CEOs. She is the author of I Will Not Die an Unlived Life and The SMART Parenting Revolution, and co-creator of Random Acts of Kindness.

I think that the fragmentation and disengagement we're experiencing now comes, in large part, from the fact that we're living in a culture that doesn't cultivate wisdom. We don't know how to honor questions, and therefore we're not accessing the part of our minds that creates meaning and coherence out of our lives. If you don't cultivate a garden, you don't get fruit.

Read Markova's interview with Leverage Points editor Vicky Schubert.