Resonance relationships built through trust -

Peer Leadership Practice is all about big heart stuff, abundance thinking and deeply trusting relationships with colleagues. Peer Leadership emphasizes specific methods of tapping into the power of individual & group resonance in order to quickly and harmoniously build a highly effective and collaborative team. Participants learn ways of leading using an equal partnership model rather than a traditional hierarchal structure. This unique approach elicits greater respect amongst the members for both the project and the unique gifts and strengths of each participant.

In order for individual and group resonance to occur a process must take place to develop a deep level of trust. This level of trust comes from each individual knowing her unique gifts so she feels enthused and confident to take responsibility for her area as well as her responsibility to the group and process as a whole.

When Peer Leadership is practiced it is both the project being honoured and each individual honoured who comes forth to work on the team. Each individual is aligned with her passion and purpose in a way that acknowledges her history, skills and competency. This model of leadership brings forth some of the best principles of mentorship by identifying areas of responsibility and calling forward a lead and co-lead for each of the identified areas.

In Peer Leadership Practice the lead/co-lead element ensures that there a contingency plan if one person becomes ill or encounters an unexpected life challenge and it also allows the lead/co-lead to learn with and from one another as they share their life experience, and the experience of working on this area of responsibility together. There is a dynamic synergy that is created with the team when Peer Leadership is practiced. It is the wonderful experience of always having someone ‘in your wings' and ‘at your back'.

Terrill that is a good question and it will be one of the key concepts of Peer Leadership Practice that we will be covering in the Women of Vision & Passion retreat in November. In brief, Peer leadership allows the leadership team to share their shadow side within a trusted environment & in a playful way, to get what they need from their team members when they become overstressed.

We are developing a workbook for Peer Leadership Practice and we will be offering virtual learning opportunities in the New Year. Individuals who would like to be contacted when these opportunities become available or who would like to know more about Peer Leadership Practices can email me at whitelightpromo@telus.net.

Hi All,

I know Brenda is going to be responding with comments about “shadow sides” and “stress” but wanted to jump in with a comment and share a personal experience of 2 different leadership models.

I have the wonderful opportunity to serve on a volunteer board (well actually a few volunteer boards :)) where the leadership changed mid way through my term.  This was a change in actual people and less consciously and transparently, a huge change in model of leadership.  The first individual used a “shared leadership/peer leadership” model, used intentionality, open hearted communication always and brought attention to our shared agreements during each meeting.  I found that there was a high degree of trust, open ness and sense of being valued as individuals as well as a dynamic sense of cohesion as a group.  I really enjoyed my time on the board during the first year.  With the leadership change, it felt we went back to an old, “command and control-military model” ie top down and heirarchical (?sp).  For me personally, the difference in my lived experience of the two models was huge.

During these current times of expansion and conscious evolution,  the natural world continues to provide time tested designs.  When I read the above words about peer leadership, I think of circles, webs, and spirals, of ever expanding networks, of co-creation and collaboration and my heart melts and expands.  Thank you so much for this conversation!

Zoey, how wonderful to hear from you and you have described the feeling of the peer leadership model so well! This is why we love it so much. The effect of having each individual feel so valued for what she is passionate about is paramount. Spending focused time on ensuring that each participant is contributing from what she values most enriches and strenghtens the team / community. How often have we had the experience of being on teams where others do not even know what our passions and skills are??

Hi Zoey,

Thank you for joining us! 

I'm reminded of the time, a couple of years ago now, when you were my coach during a time that I was experiencing both models of leadership within the same organization! 

Now that was an interesting dichotomy.

Our conference production team was functioning beautifully utilizing the Peer Leadership Practice, under a 'command and control' board of directors. 

Although it was a challenging dynamic, our team resonance held beautifully, especially onsite at the conference when things can truly become stressful.  

Several members of this original team will be at our Women of Vision and Passion retreat in November to share their personal experience of that journey.

So, what do you think are the foundational actions to promote the trust and bring out the resonance of a group?

Z

We generally begin by guiding the team through a process that explores their individual passions and purpose in life, moving that into an exploration of how those intersect with the project the team is aligning with.

The next step is to explore communication styles.  Our model uses a quadrant of director, presenter, strategist, and mediator. 

By the time we've gone through these processes, the team members already have a much deeper appreciation of what each individual cares about, and their leading/secondary communication styles.

We then form team agreements, an opportunity to explore the 'spirit' in which this team will choose to work with one another - creating a shared understanding of accountability and responsibility. 

We take the time to ensure that the terms we use are understood in the same way by all the team members.

As we move into the 'shadow' side of each team member's communication style, this is were we build upon the trust level.  I'm not going to say too much about this part of the Peer Leadership Process, because you truly have to experience it to appreciate the depth it brings to a team.

It really is my favourite part of PLP, and I eagerly anticipate this step with every team we've introduced PLP to. 

This is where we really become authentic with one another, in a fun way. 

A superb & well timed discussion - of a subject close to my heart - & presumably in resonance with the concepts of Nancy Kline ?

In the context of Terril's comment ….

Ideas and change only seem to become real once we have interwoven theory and practice many times. Each time we learn, relearn and revise. The learning is deeper, more profound and lasting when we do it in community with each other ….

and in consideration of ALL that IS BEING discussed about Peer Leadership Practice, I have tried to PULL TOGETHER a zBlog which will begin the process of establishing a roadmap for HOMO SAPIENS as we fast approach THE BIFURCATION POINT, which John Briggs and David Peat have so lucidly described in their epic Turbulent MIRROR.

To put it as simply as I can, the evolution, to date, of the individual mind-sets which comprise the species HOMO SAPIENS, have been predominately reductionist in the West and holist in the East, divided by a chasm of BIG PICTURE mis-understanding. The vocabulary used by proponents of both sides of the chasm will not always distinguish their positions and the multitude of issues dividing them will not always be clear - but in time this chasm will be bridged as the collective of HOMO SAPIENS embraces its limitations and acknowledges its dependencies.

Many have sought, from both East and West to bridge this chasm, Fritjof Capra, Robert Pirsig, The Dalai Lama, Douglas Harding et al, such that the growing struggle between an attitude of unrestrained reductionism and the attitude represented by the turbulent science of the universal, nay multiversal truth, WILL BE decided.

THAT WILL BE THE BIFURCATION POINT.

No better proponent of the need to accept this holistic reality … IS represented by THE MIND-SET that was … of the genetitist Barbara McClintock …
who said that “basically everything is one”.

Her biographer describes her ”access to the profound connectivity of all biological forms - of the cell, of the organism, of the ecosystem. The flip side of the coin is her conviction that, without an awareness of THE ONENESS of THINGS, science can give us only nature-in-pieces; more often it gives us only pieces of nature.

In McKlintock's view, too restricted a reliance on scientific methodology invariably leads us into difficulty. In her own words … We've been spoiling the environment just dreadfully and thinking we were fine, because we were using the techniques of science. Then it turns into technology, and it's slapping us back because we didn't think it through. We were making assumptions we had no right to make … ( an Air Traffic Controller ASSUMES NO THING ). From the point of view of how the WHOLE THING actually worked, we know how part of it worked … We didn't even inquire, didn't even see how the rest was going on.

ALL these things were happening and we didn't see it.

THE roadmap starts here !