Posts
Saybrook University and Bainbridge Graduate Institute to hold workshop on cross-sector collaborative systems
03/13/2013
Saybrook University is teaming up with Bainbridge Graduate Institute to hold a presentation and discussion on March 13, from 7 to 8:30 pm on “Tackling Wicked Problems - How can we Build and Support Cross-Sector Collaborative Systems?”
Much of the work in building a sustainable world is cross-sector work requiring collective leadership and collaborative action. Tapping the wisdom in the room, the workshop will identify a few wicked problems related to sustainability, discuss who needs to be engaged in addressing them, and the challenges and opportunities for that engagement. Using examples of emerging inter-organizational networks, the workshop will explore the role of managers and consultants in supporting collaborative engagement and collective leadership for creative, systemic change.
See LIOS students in action - with The Gnosis Project
02/18/2013
LIOS excels at designing curriculum that supports students in applying learning and leadership competencies toward solving real life problems. As part of the second year curriculum in the Leadership and Organization Development program, for example, students form a Benefit Corporation within which much of the curriculum is delivered. Students are challenged to model the type of leadership we want to bring to the world as future practitioners, while at the same time working within the context of the company to deliver products and services.
The Gnosis Project, the Benefit Corporation formed by the Fall 2013 student group, is conducting market research in order to identify meaningful trainings for the LIOS community, including alumni and current students. We are exploring how to expand perceptions of the skills and competencies that are required to be career ready when leaving LIOS.
Send $45,000 to LIOS – WITHOUT SPENDING A DIME!
12/03/2012
The LIOS School of Saybrook University relies on alumni to help keep our doors open. No matter what your current contribution level is, you can easily increase your gift by almost $45,000 – at no cost to you. How?
Send a student to LIOS
Our statistics show that the vast majority of students who attend and complete one of our programs, don’t stumble upon us in an online search or pick up our flyer at a college fair. They seek us out because they know someone who’s been to LIOS, perhaps a friend, a family member, or a colleague. They see a skillful consultant at work, a therapist opens up their hidden potential, or they observe a transformation in a friend and they want to know where it comes from. Having experience with a LIOS graduate trumps every other recruitment tool we have. Even a single conversation with a LIOS graduate can plant a seed and, and sooner or later LIOS will reap the bounty.
Wanted: Stories about LIOS Graduates Making A Difference
07/25/2012
By Dan Leahy
Associate Dean of LIOS Graduate College
With the proliferation of polarities rampant today, I’m rather fond of some of the “flash mob” videos that periodically show up on You Tube, particularly the ones in public spaces (the commons) that involve orchestras and choirs playing a human classic to the delights of the gathering citizens. To me this is an example of the human potential beyond our limitations: A moment that transcends our differences. Here’s the link to the most recent example that came from my daughter, Chelsea: http://bit.ly/Onvuc4
While I’ve never, yet, participated in one of these celebrations of Life, I’ve often imagined what it would be like. Well, if truth be told, I’ve actually wondered what it would be like to take part in a LIOS-inspired flash mob.
Inspiration and the Sky
05/30/2012
Gotta testify, come up in the spot looking extra fly, For the day I die, I'mma touch the Sky”
Kanye West, “Touch the Sky”
In life, we have no control over what inspires us. Inspiration can come from many different sources. I have been inspired by many unusual sources. When seeking inspiration, I often look to the Sky. I look to the Sky for many reasons.
In addition to being a metaphorical holding ground for the heavens, the Sky suggests dreaming, optimism, strength and a relationship with the atmosphere, a connection with the universe, an umbrella to all that is life. That is inspiration. That is the Sky.
Expanded Research May Help Business Women Identify Real Sabotage
05/23/2012
Recently, I read an article in the American Express Open Forum by Melinda Emerson entitled 5-Ways Women Sabotage Themselves in Business.While the article itself was good, I felt like the scope was limited. I found myself wondering if men, those inferred to be in power, agreed with the points listed.
If the obstacles and challenges that women perceive themselves having are different from the ones their male co-workers, bosses, and employees see them as having, it seems like a significant disconnect in the office. This facet is also likely to come up increasingly, since the article states that women over 50 are starting businesses at a ratio of 2-to-1 over men.
Your best friend calls you and tells you he/she's really sick? How do you show you care?
12/07/2011Sip hot cider & nibble seasonal treats at our next Taste of LIOS, 6:30 p.m. Dec. 15, at LIOS Graduate College, 4010 Lake Washington Blvd., Suite 300, Kirkland. Meet Dean of Students, Cynthia FitzGerald, & Dan Sewell, Vice President of Academic Affairs for Saybrook University. Faculty members Jeff McAuliffe & Alex Onno will guide you through a mini-LIOS class.
Your best friend calls you and tells you he/she's really sick? How do you show you care?
12/01/2011What an exciting place to work! LIOS Graduate College offers some amazing things and you don't need to be a student here to attend. Dan Leahy, former president, will lead the next session of the LIOS Leadership Workshop series called: Results-Focused Communication. The all-day session will run from 8:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. at LIOS, 4010 Lake Washington Blvd, NE, Suite 300, Kirkland. Discount for early registration and for LIOS alumni.
Courage to Lead
08/05/2011
The following is an excerpt from Dr. Shelley Drogin’s remarks at the recent LIOS Graduate College graduation in June 2011:
In a recent planning meeting with the Dean of LIOS Judy Heinrich and Organizational Systems Chair Mark Jones, we were reminded of one of the great educators, Parker Palmer. Parker wrote a book and founded a program called” the Courage to Teach.” As we thought about LIOS Graduate College, the phrase “the Courage to Lead” was uttered and it was one of those YES moments. I want to expand upon the concept of “the Power of Yes.” But first, let me begin with the alternatives to Yes.
Our minds know all too well NO (all of us are familiar with the terrible twos that are filled with NO’s); we are quite familiar with the MAYBE’s, the NO-BUT’S, or YES-BUT’s. However, in contrast, there are those YES moments in life that our consciousness can fall into, those YES’s that exist beyond our doubts, the YES’s that have no end. When I speak of “the Courage to Lead,” I am reminded that we must have the courage to attend to, to pay attention to, those YES’s.
Courage as a concept and as a word is rooted in the heart. The head of leadership is more about theories of practice and practice of theories. The heart of leadership, “the Courage to Lead,” is about our values and dreams. It is difficult to talk about courage without exploring fear. It has been said that courage is fear that has said its prayers. Let me tell you a true story about the first tightrope walker (taken from Mark S. Lewis’ commencement speech at University of Texas, 2000).
In 1859 the Great Blondin -- the man who invented the high wire act, announced to the world that he intended to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope. Five thousand people including the Prince of Wales gathered to watch. Halfway across, Blondin suddenly stopped, steadied himself, backflipped into the air, landed squarely on the rope, then continued safely to the other side. During that year, Blondin crossed the Falls again and again--once blindfolded, once carrying a stove, once in chains, and once on a bicycle. Just as he was about to begin yet another crossing, this time pushing a wheelbarrow, he turned to the crowd and shouted "who believes that I can cross pushing this wheelbarrow." Every hand in the crowd went up. Blondin pointed at one man.
"Do you believe that I can do it?" he asked.
"Yes, I believe you can," said the man.
"Are you certain?" said Blondin.
"Yes," said the man.
"Absolutely certain?"
"Yes, absolutely certain."
"Thank you," said Blondin, "then, sir, get into the wheelbarrow."
Like that man in the crowd, we often know a lot of things, some with apparent certainty. But also like that man, there will be times in your life when knowing things won’t matter as much as how scary the situation is--and when that happens you’ll have to decide whether or not to get into the wheelbarrow. There are times when, in order to succeed, you will have to trust --when you will have to take a big leap of faith--and when that time comes I hope you will face your fear, say your prayers, and take appropriate action.
What you have earned as graduates of this amazing institution is the ability to move on, to dare to do anything. What you retain as graduates of this amazing institution is the privilege to return any time--to return emotionally, spiritually, or just to visit. And it is what you've learned at LIOS that will in part determine what you do out there.
And my hope is that “your dreams take you to the corners of your smiles, to the highest of your hopes, to the windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart has ever known.”-anonymous
The Overwhelming Life of a LIOS Graduate Student
07/15/2011by Marcus Berley
LIOS student
Life as a graduate student is often overwhelming. Take a busy schedule, limited finances, and a daunting reading list, and add in whatever major life transition you are experiencing at the moment, such as a divorce, a death in the family, or a newborn baby. Now, go write a sound, well-referenced, and creative academic paper.
What makes LIOS different from other graduate school programs is that, in addition to balancing a busy life, it challenges students to explore who we are and where we come from. What question have you always wanted—but been too afraid—to ask your mother? What are the rules of your family, and what role do you play? What cultural biases have crept into the crevices of your way of thinking? Well, your homework is to go ask those questions. To your parents. To your aunts and uncles. To your grandparents. Take all of that newly acquired systemic knowledge and apply it to yourself and your most intimate relationships.
Not terrifying enough for you? Well, you’re only reading about it, possibly imagining it, but not actually experiencing it. LIOS is all about experiencing. The theories you read make so much sense on paper, but watch what happens to your insides as you study group theory in a group that is studying itself. Your mind jerks. You scramble to figure out what is going on. Your heart cracks open. A teacher asks you if you have a tendency to avoid conflict, then challenges you to try another method with a conflict that you currently have with another student. Throughout all of this you’re being evaluated on a wide range of skills you’re supposed to be developing. Oh yeah, and it’s ok to cry.
Somehow, you’re doing it. You read and you write papers, and you tell your mother that, even though things have gotten complicated, you love her. You move apartments and split up with your partner or find a new one, you find an internship or a project, and you don’t have much time to look around. It’s graduate school. It’s overwhelming.
And going through it is wonderful preparation for life as a sound, creative professional.
