LOPN NewsFlash April 2009 & News from SoL

[Sheila Damodaran]

Dear all,

Please find enclosed the LOPN NewsFlash for April 2009 here: http://www.lopn.net/NewsFlash.html

We hope you enjoy this series.  This is the second in this series.

Also see a message from Sherry Immediato of SoL below.

Warmly
Sheila Damodaran
Email: dm...@pacific.net.sg
Singapore:  +65-94790526
Botswana:  +267-74780886
LOPN Homepage: http://www.lopn.net
My Homepage: http://www.loatwork.com/aboutme.html
LOPN eGroup: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/LOPN/
Botswana eGroup: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/BotswanaLO/
India eGroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndiaLO/
Vietnam eGroup: http://groups.google.com/group/lopnvietnam
Asia LO Practitioners:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsianLearningOrganizationPractitioners/
CafeAsia eGroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cafeasia/

----- Forwarded message from imme...@solonline.org -----
    Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 21:18:28 -0400
    From: Sherry Immediato <imme...@solonline.org>
Reply-To: imme...@solonline.org
Subject: Join Peter Senge in Leading & Learning for Sustainability - Discounts available through April 10, 2009
      To: Sheila Damodaran <dm...@pacific.net.sg>

Dear Sheila,

I'm sure you've quoted these words yourself or heard them at one time or another:

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

Dorothy Gale (to her dog upon finding herself in Oz) in The Wizard of Oz

When I'm feeling a little unnerved by the degree of change and uncertainty these days, I'm reminded of this favorite childhood story. For me, Dorothy's journey from Kansas to the land of Oz and back was simultaneously a terrifying and empowering adventure, best negotiated in good company with genuine curiosity.

In the spirit of this story, we invite all aspiring sustainability champions to join us in Portland, Oregon in May to improve our individual and collective ability to effectively promote intelligence, compassion and courage in our organizations, and the larger systems of which we are all part. Based on Peter Senge's new book, The Necessary Revolution, Leading & Learning for Sustainability will incorporate not only the ideas from the new book but will also feature some of the revolutionaries themselves. (See the attached brochure or download if from the SoL website.) If you register at our published rates by this Friday, April 3rd, get 2 free nights at the Hotel Monaco during the workshop; if you register by next Friday, April 10th, you'll still get 1 free night at the hotel. Just mention "OZ" on your registration form.

Why is this worth your time and money? Most organizations are in the early part of a journey from reducing unsustainability to increasing sustainability - there's lots of low-hanging fruit waiting for someone to harvest it. Here are seven concrete benefits of embracing leadership in a sustainable economy. Savvy internal advocates recognize these realities. And their cross sector counterparts become better partners when they understand that:

1. There is significant money to be saved.
2. There is significant money to be made.
3. You can provide your customers with a competitive edge.
4. Sustainability is a point of differentiation.
5. You can shape the future of your industry.
6. You can become a preferred supplier.
7. You can change your image and brand.

But there's more. The Leading & Learning for Sustainability workshop will incorporate many of the basic learning disciplines and deepen their relevance for the world in which organizations operate today. In particular, we will see how systems thinking tools can be used to help people "see" the larger systems of which they're a part, how the work on mental models and dialogue is providing a new underpinning for innovative collaborations across diverse organizational boundaries. Lastly, personal mastery and the creative orientation help shift our orientation from being "less bad" to truly creating organizations, value chains, industries, and communities that align with our deepest aspirations.

We have five goals for participants in this session:

1. Balance between initiating and sustaining systemic change in the long-term and building momentum and taking action in the short-term.
2. Appreciate the interdependence of interior development with external action to effectively produce system change.
3. Develop more capacity for resilience, compassion and creativity in the face of opposition and indifference.
4. Clarify your own personal vision.
5. Have new insights about opportunities you can act on immediately.

A participant in our February program summed it up this way: "The course offered me a very welcome break to reflect on my personal leadership, be inspired and meet a great group of bright, engaged and open people. I gained a deeper appreciation for the dynamics of systems thinking and the application of a systemic view on sustainability which will allow me to take higher leverage actions in working on complex challenges in my organization."

Please consider joining us in Portland in May. We encourage you to attend with a colleague, and to pass this invitation on to others. If you are not able to attend now, but are interested in future sessions, please let me know. Our next scheduled session will be on November 18-20 in Washington, DC. If you'd like to talk to someone about this session or anything else related to SoL, please contact me or Frank Schneider (+1 (617) 300-9535) at SoL.

If you want to stay current on Peter Senge's work, please subscribe (no cost!) to his blog on SoL's website. (Use the RSS feature of your web browser so that you can be automatically informed of new postings.)

At the end of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy discovers that she could only take the step home because of what she learned on her journey. We hope that you will find SoL and its many offerings a good occasion for practice, companionship and insight on your journey to realize your heart's desires. So many people like you tell me: there's just no place like SoL!

With best wishes,

Sherry

PLEASE NOTE: You have received this message because you are on SoL's mailing list. If you do not wish to receive future mailings from SoL, please reply to this message and put REMOVE in the subject.

Sherry Immediato, President & Managing Director SoL (Society for Organizational Learning) PO Box 381050 Cambridge, MA 02238 USA e-mail: imme...@solonline.org Phone: 1-617-300-9540 Phone: 1-617-300-9550 (assistant - Diane Nakashian) Visit us at: http://www.solonline.org.


Visit us at: http://www.solonline.org.



----- End forwarded message -----