March 1, 2001
In this issue:
Newsbrief: Leadership Retreats Focus on the “Inner Leader” in Everyone
Editorial: Conversations for Conscious Business, by John Renesch
More Newsbriefs: Michael Lerner Writes for eCHOICE
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NEWSBRIEF:
RETREAT FOCUSES ON THE “INNER LEADER”
John is hosting a series of five-day leadership retreats that focus on the inner dimension of the individual – the “inner leader” whose role is increasingly expanding in it responsibility. Each retreat will be in the San Francisco Bay Area, at a private home, and will be limited to TEN PEOPLE. John has four associates joining him as faculty for the retreats, which will include segments on meditative inquiry, emotional assessments, appreciative inquiry, lifestyle appraisals and finally audacious commitments on the part of each participant. For more information contact John at 415-437-6974.
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EDITORIAL
A some of you may know, I host a monthly series of evenings in The Presidio here in San Francisco called The Presidio Dialogues. Our tag line for the web site is “Conversations for Conscious Business.” We are attempting to evoke conversations that instill awareness, inspire greater consciousness, and question traditions in business through thought-provoking presentations and interactions with the audiences we draw.
We only began the Dialogues in October of last year and have hosted four of them to date. Except for the first two, each evening we have scheduled includes at least two presenters with as many as four presenters scheduled for future meetings. We have programs planned well into the Fall months presently!
We are finding that more than one presenter offers audiences multiple perspectives from which they can further the inquiry, add richness to the dialogue and add take-home value for the group. Even the presenters are learning in these exchanges.
There are certain things that the Dialogues are NOT. They are not opportunities to network. We actually discourage people from promoting themselves or their causes, something that often happens in groups like these. The Dialogues are not places to come for getting customers for your consulting practice or meeting some new coaching clients. The Dialogues ARE a place to further a dialogue…to stimulate our thinking about the way business is done and the way we succumb to “business as usual.”
My co-host Elizabeth Bloom and I have started the Dialogues as a means of bringing people together to explore how we can all work with more passion, greater enjoyment, and some sense of meaning while staying healthy and nurturing our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual selves.
I’m having no problem getting exciting presenters either. Between those we’ve already hosted and those presently scheduled, our lineups include: Angeles Arrien, Pete Russell, Rob Rabbin, Elisabet Sahtouris, Paul Ray, Kirk Hanson, Gail Holland, Michael Ray, Michael Lerner and many less-known people from the media, technology, finance and philosophy.
Our attendance is building as more and more people from the Northern California area hear about these regular meetings and people continue to come to us with ideas for how we might expand the circle so others can receive value from our efforts. Tapes are being discussed, as well as streaming video. Licensing The Presidio Dialogues in other parts of this country and the world is being discussed.
It is not to surprising that our attendance is mostly women, usually about 2:1 and once as many as 8:1! All of which suggests that there is a thirst, a deep desire, for people to have a place to talk about matters that concern them, interest them and hits at heir hearts about an activity they perform most of their waking hours – work.
If you are in the Northern California area I encourage you to check out the schedule of the Dialogue (see the website for the schedule) and plan to attend one of the upcoming evenings. We meet on the fourth Tuesday evening of each month (except December) and welcome your participation. If you don’t live in the neighborhood but know someone who does, let them know about the Dialogues. They can get their name added to the notification list (monthly emails about the next program) by sending me an email requesting to be added to the list.
And, if you don’t live her but visit occasionally, plan to come to one while you’re in the area. We’d love to see you at one of the Dialogues coming up.
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MORE NEWSBRIEFS:
MICHAEL LERNER WRITES eCHOICE GUEST EDITORIAL:
Michael Lerner, publisher/editor of Tikkun magazine is the author of this month’s guest editorial in eCHOICE: The E-Newsletter for Introspective Leaders, John’s UNfree e-newsletter. Michael is author of a new book Spirit Matters. To subscribe to eCHOICE (see information below).
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eCHOICE: The E-Newsletter for Introspective Leaders
the UNfree newsletter from John
eCHOICE is SENT DIRECTLY FROM JOHN, not through the automatic system of his Web site – Renesch.com – like issues of Better Future NEWS. Subscribers receive eCHOICE in two formats – as text in the body of the email AND in MS Word as an attached file so more attractive copies can be archived by subscribers.
US$43/two-years ($1.79/issue); US$24/one-year ($2.00/issue):
Visa & Mastercard credit card orders: TOLL FREE: 877-2-RENESCH; fax 415-474-7202 with card number, expiration date, and “snail mail” address complete with mail code; mail checks (payable to “John Renesch”) to P.O. Box 472379, San Francisco, CA 94147-2379 USA.
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About John Renesch
Better Future NEWS is prepared monthly by John E. Renesch, a San Francisco writer, futurist, and business philosopher. His new book – Getting to the Better Future: A Matter of Conscious Choosing – is just out. He served as Editor-in-Chief of The New Leaders business newsletter from 1990 to 1997 and has created a dozen business anthologies on progressive business subjects, including consciousness, intuition and leadership. These books include New Traditions in Business, Learning Organizations and The New Bottom Line.
He is also an international keynote speaker, having addressed audiences in Tokyo, Seoul, London, Brussels, Budapest as well as many cities throughout the U.S.