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The challenges that face us today require a new kind of leadership – leadership that serves with deep purpose, vulnerable trust, robust interdependence, a discerning moral compass, and nourishment to sustain the kind of change-making this world needs to see. This seasonal retreat cycle gathers a diverse cohort of people from multiple sectors who seek to live and lead with greater authenticity, effectiveness, and wellbeing, for the sake of the common good.
We warmly invite you to be among the select group of ChangeMakers who will help to launch this powerful initiative.
The program consists of three seasonal retreats (guided by the principles and practices of the Circles of Trust® approach developed by author/educator Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage and Renewal), monthly small-group sessions between retreats, and opportunities for individual consultation with program facilitator Dr. Chris Johnson. The October, February, and May retreats begin at 6:00 p.m. Thursday and conclude by 3:00 p.m. Saturday. Each will include ample time and space for solitude and silence, conversation and reflective writing, rest and recreation among the restorative landscapes of Prairie Oaks Institute, and illuminated by the wisdom of the seasons:
- Autumn (October 17 – 19): Seeds of Self, Calling, and Purpose
- Winter (February 20 – 22): Courage in the Depths
- Spring into Summer (May 21 – 23): Emergent Possibility
In large-group, small-group, and solitary settings, the program will be grounded in your own experience and fueled with insights from poets, scholars, artists, naturalists, musicians, filmmakers, scientists, and various wisdom traditions. Clearness Committees, peer action-learning circles, and other high-integrity and strictly confidential processes of discernment and mutually supportive accountability will be a key component.
You will be better equipped to reflect on deep questions of the meaning and purpose of your work and leadership, your capacity to make a difference in the lives of others, and the connections between the “inner and outer landscapes” of your personal and professional life. You will consider skills and qualities of “adaptive leadership” (and similar leadership models); your unique giftedness and opportunities to be of service in the world within and outside of your chosen career; the overall shape of a well-integrated life that balances work, family, and civic engagement; and self-identified challenges and opportunities you wish to address related to your particular contexts.
KEY OUTCOMES INCLUDE:
- Get in touch with your inner self to discover insights around your calling and deep purpose.
- Reconnect what you do with who you are and where you live.
- Gain deeper confidence in your ability to make effective, sustainable change in this world.
- Enhance your ability to understand complex and interdependent systems, cultivate expansive imagination, and treasure the wisdom of diverse perspectives
- Practice crucial skills, techniques, and capacities that are needed to address challenges you face every day.
- Be surrounded by a remarkable community of support, inspiration, and positive relationship.
- Replenish inner reservoirs of courage and resilience so you can live, work, and lead wherever you are, for the common good.
The Milkweed ChangeMaker Corps offers an extraordinary opportunity to reflect on your vocation and to grow your capacity to lead, both within the context of an extended personal and professional development experience with a diverse cohort of colleagues. The catalytic combination of vocational reflection and leadership development will strengthen your ability to lead “from within” on behalf of the public good. Together, we will create space to listen and be heard, be attentive to the callings within us, and hold one another accountable to be ChangeMakers and our most authentic selves. We will cultivate capacities to lead with greater courage, resilience, and inspiration, for the sake of a more just and humane world.
Some additional details:
The suggested investment of $1485 for the series includes overnight lodging (shared occupancy) in either “Harvest House” or “The Farmhouse” at POI, all meals, refreshments, materials, and small-group and individual coaching throughout duration of the program. (SAVE $135 if you register by August 15: just $1350 for the series.) If you like, you can spread out your payments, with 50% due when you register and the balance not until February 1, 2020. Some scholarship support is available; please contact Chris via email at cjohnso542@gmail.com to inquire.
Prairie Oaks Institute is a nonprofit education- and retreat center located on a 115-year-old farm campus on the edge of Belle Plaine, Minnesota on the southwest outskirts of the Twin Cities. POI’s mission is to be a catalyst of rejuvenation for people and the planet, and its work is to nourish expansive imagination, bold thinking, wise action, and cross-sector solutions to the unprecedented environmental and social challenges of our time. Please visit www.prairieoaksinstitute.org for more information.
Program design & leadership is by Dr. Chris Johnson founder and principal of the Milkweed Group, LLC, in partnership with Colleen Peterson, Kelli Remboldt, Nate McNab, and Kaitlyn Reed.
We look forward to having you with us – click HERE to REGISTER!