another space in life

Internet is another space where we spend some of our life. At least it seems that way when you look at all the young people with their eyes focused on the iphone and their mind in some space where their body can´t follow. It is not only a space where we spend some of our private lifes. We spend more and more of our worktime in an online space.

Because of all the time we spend in an online space or room, it becomes important how the room is designed, what colors it has, what features (read furniture) it has and how you can work together with others in that space. Some might think that all you need for a meeting with great results is a room and some chairs. Some might think that all you need for an online meeting with great results is a computer with some kind of meeting software. And it might work and it might not work!

Working together online creates other challenges than working together in a usual office space. Not seeing the person  you are talking to, could create uncertainty about how your words are interpreted. You  might also be unsure of who can listen and who can read your thoughts. The technical solutions could be a barrier until you get used to the space where you work. The time is also a challenge. Not only different timezones but also long meetings with too many hours in front of the computer will be tiring.

In order to be creative, solve problems and work together with your colleagues, you need more than internet connection and a meeting software. You need a meeting process that stimulates creativity, problem solving, new thinking and real collaboration to get the results you need for successful development. You need somewhere to store the information and continue to work with it between meetings. You need a learning center where you easily can learn how to work in the online environment.

Right now we are doing the last tests before we launch a new collaborative way for co-creating in the online space. If you are a member of a widespread organization, network or business and need to find solutions to be successful in your area, this is for you! Come back soon to learn more!

You are invited to a unique workshop

Individual and Organizational Leadership

From Vulnerability through Courage to Innovation-Creativity-Change

A creative and transformational learnshop grounded in the Genuine Contact™ program,

Conscious Leadership Coaching and Outdoor Education

Learnshop August 20-24, 2012, Kroppefjäll Resort, Sweden

including Mentoring and Integration circle August 23-24, 2012

Are you ready to face ultimate success?

Are you ready to lead an organization in the unknown that comes

with moving beyond the comfort zone and into a successful future?

Choose to see the abundance in yourself and the world around you!

The existing paradigm uses a language of lack of resources and avoiding vulnerability at all costs. We say the world is a place of abundance and vulnerability is the birthplace of what humans seek on a personal level – joy, love, trust, faith, respect and more. On an organizational level it is the foundation for a climate or culture that supports innovation, creativity and change.

This workshop will provide you with experience and learning for leading an organization in a holistic and successful way through getting comfortable with leading in and from the unknown.

You will leave the workshop equipped with

• Tools to work at the individual and organization level and experience of how to bridge between them

• Experience of how to work in different rooms; outdoors, indoors and inside yourself.

• Experience and tools from a blended approach of the Genuine Contact™ program, Conscious Leadership Coaching and Outdoor Education to support high learning and great joy.

• A way to move forward in your own leadership

Each day will have a different theme: Abundance, Greatness, Passion and Exposure. We will look at assumptions, cleanse blockages and move on until we are comfortable with leading with vulnerability and an enhanced level of courage and energy.

Mentoring and Integration circle, August 23-24, 2012
If you can not join us for the whole week, you are most welcome to participate from Aug 23, 1pm until the closing of the workshop on Aug 24, 3pm. The mentoring circle begins outside at Lake Vänern and then we move indoors for dinner and evening session. The inside work starts next morning with learning and experiencing tools for integration and balance and ends with closing session after lunch.

Time & Date
Learnshop: Monday Aug 20, 10.30 am until Friday Aug 24, 3pm. The training program then runs from 9 am until 6.30 pm each day.
Mentoring and Integration circle: Thursday Aug 23, 1 pm until Friday Aug 24, 3 pm.

The venue
The rooms for eliciting the themes are consciously chosen for their special and different qualities. Kroppefjäll is known for its healing qualities and according to the Mayan calendar situated just on the edge between West and East. For outdoors we will use the shifting and beautiful surroundings of the hill, forest and of Lake Vänern, including lunch in the wild. For indoors we use the historic site of Kroppefjäll Resort. For inside work we access our inner rooms using tools in a cutting edge combination to be able to embrace the idea and experience of abundance and the usefulness of vulnerability. The geographic location is about one hours drive north of Gothenburg. You can reach the location by train from Gothenburg or Oslo.

Accomodation
The hotel Kroppefjäll Resort, www.kroppefjall.com, has different choices of accommodation from hostel rooms to regular hotel rooms. Hostel rooms can be with or without linen, cleaning and breakfast. Prices from SEK 295 – 825 per person and night depending on the level of comfort. Book your accommodation at Kroppefjäll Resort, info@kroppefjall.com or phone +46 530 41300. The hotel website is right now only available in Swedish but you can look at the beautiful pictures of the houses and the surrounding area.

Registration Terms and Conditions
Individual and Organizational Leadership learnshop August 20-24, 2012: SEK 9.800 ex VAT. The fee includes workshop facilitation, any training materials needed, compendium from the whole learnshop, all lunches, dinners and snacks.

Mentoring and Integration circle: SEK 1.500 ex VAT. The fee includes workshop facilitation, compendium of materials from the Mentoring circle, lunches, dinner and snacks.

Registration
Register before June 22, 2012 by sending an e-mail with your name, e-mail address and if required on the invoice, business name and postal address to Gateway Creation Tools: eiwor@gatewayc.com, anders@friluften.se or jw@gallerihafors.se.

Please notify us if you have dietary needs, allergies, special needs or handicap so we can see to that your needs are met. Your confirmation will include your invoice to be paid in advance.
NB. Limited number of participants.

Refund Policy
Time of Cancellation/Refund
At least 30 days prior to workshop/ 90 %
30-15 days prior to workshop / 50 %
Less than 15 days prior to workshop / No refund given but you have the right to send a substitute after communication with the workshop leaders. Confirmed participants who do not cancel and do not attend are liable for the entire fee unless we are notified in advance.

Learnshop Leadership
The leaders are all Certified Genuine Contact™ Trainers and have long experience from working with education, coaching and facilitation. They bring in their special competencies and blend them together in a cutting edge combination to support people to find and use their greatness.

Eiwor Backelund is an experienced facilitator, mentor and adult educator. She loves nature and uses it as a great resource in her transformation and balance work with individuals and organizations. She was one of the first certified GC Trainers and has taught the workshops and authorized people in the GC program since 2002. She knows that the wisdom is in people and what is needed to reveal and use it is to clear the clutter and create an open and life nurturing climate around us.

Johanna Wallin is a conscious coach and artist, with a deep interest in raising the level of engagement, leadership and potential in people, created by the enriching contact with yourself, the group and the bigger collective. The key elements in this work are vulnerability, courage, passion and a willingness to move beyond your blockages. This is what Johanna does every time she meets the white canvas, both literally with her brush and in people.

Anders Johansson is a skilled and experienced outdoor educator, working as a single entrepreneur and as a teacher at Linköping University. He teaches outdoor education to teachers, facilitators and other interested people and uses the method in his work with groups from many different organizations. He sees himself as a catalyst in his work as leader and educator. The metaphor of being a catalyst describes how the knowledge, energy and creativity in the group are used for development. He uses “trust the process” as a keyword for success.

Language - how important are words?

Had a most interesting discussion with some of my colleagues this morning. We all work with the Genuine Contact program, which is a holistic approach for development of organizations. It contains different tools, some of them meeting methods. You know, if you facilitate for example a board meeting around large tables, it tells the participants one thing and if you facilitate it in a circle of chairs with no table, it says something else. What process you choose has a big impact on the results. What we offer are processes that creates a life nurturing climate in the organization or meeting and by that creates far better results than you ever expected. Short explanation of something that is better experienced than talked about.
This morning we discussed the name of the program and the name of one of the meeting methods, Whole Person Process and what it means to use English words in Sweden. We talked about how you can translate names, if it is even possible. Do we need to have the names in our own language and why? Some people said it was almost impossible to market or discuss the program because of the difficult English name. Is that really so or is there something else that stops us from talking about these great tools we use? Do we think that we can not speak from our hearts in a business environment but have to conform to what we believe this environment wants? Or is it something else that prevents us from naming the tools we work with?
Is it the same with other tools you have in your toolbox? Or is it maybe because the GC program works also on the spiritual and energetic level, and I assume many tools facilitators use are working on these levels.
Thinking about working at a spiritual and energetic level - I think it is essential to discuss the foundation and values of a program or tool, because every tool or process you use, also when you are leading a regular board meeting, has its underpinning values. Those meetings I call regular board meetings, around a big table, with a chairmen and a list of speakers, are based on how men speak. In this kind of meeting, the decisions are actually made somewhere else, in a small group of people or by one person and then presented for the board to make the formal decision. Very rarely are the participants protesting against what is presented to them. Very interesting that we seldom think about that this kind of meeting was designed in the industrial era when men were in charge of the business and political environment.
So why do we need to adjust our conversation and words to that kind of environment? I believe we need more heart and spirit in business.

If you have not yet learnt about the program you can read more on www.genuinecontact.net or in Swedish on my website www.gatewayc.com

"En droppe droppad i livets älv
har ingen kraft till att flyta själv
Det ställs ett krav på varenda droppe:
Hjälp till att hålla de andra oppe!”

("A drop in the river of life, does not have strength on its own to float

So there is a demand on each of the others: Support everyone to stay on top". My try to translate the content of  a qoute from Tage Danielsson, who was a wonderful deep thinking Swedish poet. )