It’s been a remarkable year at the Center for Transformational Presence in so many ways. Thanks to our graduates, we presented workshops for the first time in Costa Rica and Spain, and Transformational Presence is now gaining a strong foothold in Poland. Our work continues to expand in the Netherlands through our vibrant community there. It was also good to be back in Sweden after a two-year absence in Scandinavia. We look forward to our first Transformational Presence for Leaders and Coaches (TPLC) five-day program in the U.K. in January 2018 and also our first TPLC in the French-speaking part of Belgium in December 2018.
More than 40 graduates from eight countries joined us in the U.S. in June for our fifth Transformational Presence Global Leadership Gathering (formerly known as our Global Summit). We also hosted the Transformational Presence Leadership in Action (TPLA) three-day workshop in Connecticut in November in celebration of the release of my new book, Transformational Presence: How To Make a Difference In a Rapidly Changing World. We look forward to taking the TPLA to the Netherlands in May 2018 and to Poland in September.
All of this was made possible by the commitment and dedication of our community members. Throughout this year, more and more people have stepped forward to ask, “How can I help? How can I become more involved? How can I play a larger role in Transformational Presence?” And increasingly, people are asking, “How can we take Transformational Presence further into the business world and into education and healthcare and government?”
Something is shifting. Through the Great Breaking Open and the many challenges we are facing on every level of society in our VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous), something is opening in the mass consciousness. Here at the Center, we sense that more breaking open is coming. And it feels like the need and, in fact, the longing for what we bring to the world through Transformational Presence will continue to expand exponentially.
Though people sometimes refer to Transformational Presence as a movement, we actually see ourselves as a part of the much larger conscious leadership movement. Furthermore, we are very clear about what we have to contribute to that movement. We provide a powerful set of practical yet transformative skills, tools, and capacities that, together, are actually the foundation for conscious leadership.
Through Transformational Presence, leaders, coaches, and anyone committed to making a difference can strengthen and expand their personal presence for greater impact, effectiveness, and transformative action. In essence, we help leaders be who they need to be so that they can do what they are here to do.
This year it became clear to us that we must now expand and strengthen our own foundation in order to support the conscious leadership movement in this way. As happens when you listen to potential instead of focus on problem-solving, a new opportunity emerged for collaborative structures within our community.
This idea was actually born out of a challenge. In July 2016, Trace Hobson joined us as our Chief OAM: Organizational Alchemist and Mystic. Trace and I both had a strong sense from the beginning that we were to work together in taking Transformational Presence further into business, organizations, and societal systems at all levels. However, the challenge for creating a business partnership was that Trace lives in western Canada and the Center is based in the northeastern part of the U.S.
Listening to our Transformational Presence tenet, “A problem is not something to be solved; it is a message to be listened to,” we trusted that this stumbling block in the form of a country border must hold an important invitation. After several months of listening and sensing the invitation, what emerged was a Strategic Alliance model for collaboration.
We soon recognized that this was not just for our collaboration – it could also serve as a model for strategic alliances with members of our global community who have chosen to make Transformational Presence the foundation of their work, and who are committed to carrying this work further out into the world through their own companies. With the assistance of an attorney who specializes in international business arrangements, we drafted a Strategic Alliance Agreement.
As our first official Strategic Alliance partner, Trace has now created a new company in Canada: iConnectExpansion.
iConnectExpansion’s role is to hold space and intention for connection, expansion, and realization of the emerging potential of Transformational Presence on a global scale. This new company is positioned to serve and support the Center, the Seale Foundation, and Transformational Presence graduates and their companies in service of our global mission: We help create a world that works.
More specifically, Trace’s role is to be a point of connection and expansion, and, where appropriate, to be a co-contributor, co-creator, or collaborator in specific projects. He is already following the potential for other Strategic Alliance partnerships as they reveal themselves.
In essence, through iConnectExpansion, Trace is serving as an organizational steward for the further evolution and development of Transformational Presence throughout the Americas and Europe. He is also laying the foundation for us to be ready as doors open and invitations come from executives, teams, industries, organizations, and leaders in other parts of the world as well.
Trace has also been instrumental in helping us create a plan for how Transformational Presence can continue to evolve and thrive in the coming years as I begin to slow down my travel and teaching schedule and work more from my home base.
As part of that plan, I am now mentoring the first leader team of six people from four countries to share the teaching and facilitating of this work with me starting in 2018. The first leader team members are Kim Adams (USA), Jo Boniszewski (Netherlands), Sander van Eekelen (Netherlands), Trace Hobson (Canada), Rebecca Johns (USA), and Joanna Zawada-Kubik (Poland). My plan is to begin mentoring a second team in the coming year.
As we step into 2018, our intention at the Center for Transformational Presence is to continue expanding our coaching services, webinar and virtual learning opportunities, as well as our in-person programs in support of leaders, coaches, organizations, businesses, and anyone who wants to make a difference in the world.
The Center, the Seale Foundation, and iConnectExpansion are working closely together in service of a greater good. We are listening for what wants to happen next, sensing how we are being asked to show up, and saying yes to the service we are being asked to provide. Joining together with you, we can indeed help create a world that works.
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