Attend our Open House and meet Program Director Ken Otter and faculty from the M.A. in Leadership program. Alumni and current students will talk about their experiences and answer your questions.
* Tuesday, October 28, 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
* Saturday, November 1, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
To RSVP please go to www.stmarys-ca.edu/leadershipinfo or contact
Tammy Appling-Cabading at (925) 631-4541 or (800) 538-9999.
Light snacks will be served and all are welcome!
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Previous Workshops
Navigating Difficult Conversations Using Appreciative Inquiry
A Workshop Conducted by Rich Been
August 9, 2008, 9am – 5pm
Rheem Campus 375 Rheem Blvd. Moraga
$95.00 General Public; $75.00 SMC Alumni
Appreciative Inquiry is an approach to human growth and development that focuses on what’s possible rather than what’s wrong. Instead of entering into the downward spiral of identifying problems and assigning blame, Appreciative Inquiry looks for what’s working in a certain situation and how we can build on it.
This approach is particularly effective when navigating difficult conversations. Through the lens Appreciative Inquiry, difficult conversations become opportunities for learning and joint discovery. They are catalysts for expanding our understanding of any difficult issue we might be facing. Most importantly, Appreciative Inquiry can help us see that multiple perspectives or realities exist for any issue and it’s in exploring these multiple realities that we are able to see possibilities.
In this workshop, participants will learn to:
Use the principles and practices of Appreciative Inquiry in service of conducting more effective difficult conversations;
Be more aware of their ability to be mindful and the impact of this on their ability to use appreciative inquiry;
Suspend initial judgment in order to gain access to a deeper level of understanding;
Ask questions that illuminate and build on what’s right about what someone is saying; and
Be aware that the very act of asking a question creates change in one direction or the other and that reality is co-created in the moment by the conversation.
In this highly interactive workshop, participants will learn by doing. Toward this end, participants will receive:
A pre-program personality assessment to better understand individual strengths and challenges associated with using appreciative inquiry and navigating difficult conversations;
A thorough explanation of the principles and practices of Appreciative Inquiry; and
A video-taped practice session with individual coaching and feedback.
About the Facilitator:
Rich Been is a facilitator and executive coach at the Center for Creative Leadership where he delivers the Leadership Development Program (LDP)? and the Foundations of Leadership Program. Additionally, he works with CCL clients across North America and Europe in the design and delivery of custom leadership development programs. Rich’s specific area of interest is Appreciative Inquiry which is the study and exploration of what gives life to human systems when they function at their best. This approach to individual and organization development is based on the assumption that questions and dialogue about strengths, successes, values, hopes, and dreams are themselves transformative.
Before joining the Center, Rich was with T-Mobile USA responsible for Leadership and Organization Development during a time of explosive growth and cultural change within the company and the industry. Prior to evolving into Individual and Organization Development, Rich had a long career as a project engineer and project manager for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. He began his career as an Energy Systems Engineer with the Southern California Gas Company. From there, Rich migrated north to develop and manage a District Heating and Cogeneration program for the State of Washington. And finally, Rich joined the US Department of Energy where he managed the Motor Challenge program – a national program dedicated to improving the efficiency of industrial electric motors.
In addition to his work experience, Rich holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s of Arts in Holistic Education. His graduate work combined training in education and communication with the study of holism and how it applies to individual, group, and organizational well-being.
To Register: contact mling@stmarys-ca.edu 925 631-8681
Global Leadership: Transcending Diversity into Synergy
A Workshop Conducted by Yongming Tang
Sunday June 1, 10am – 4pm
Location:
Rheem Campus, 375 Rheem Blvd Moraga
Cost:
$95.00/ General Public, $75.00/SMC Alumni
Dr. Tang has guided the transformation of organizational culture within global corporations working in China, weaving various forms of “difference” (e.g. ethnic, racial, and generational differences) into a coherent corporate culture. He also has applied his strategy for creating cultural synergy within organizations in India, Mexico, and the United States. In this workshop, Dr. Tang briefly will present a case study based on his work with one multi-national corporation, and provide an experiential introduction into his work.
Diversity and difference have been among the most difficult experiences for many in our contemporary societies. Often, domination dynamics in the form of “us over them”, “either-or”, or “power over” penetrates our human psyche, leading to unequal relationships among many diversities of culture, ethnicity, personal history, life style, and sexual preferences among. This has caused pain, agony, and lack of commitment and community for many of us.
In this workshop, after the presentation and discussion of the case study, participants will be invited to explore diversity from a very different framework – Synergic Inquiry (SI). SI has an ontological worldview which takes diversity and difference as sources of learning and growth, as transformative energy, and as sources of creative harmony. In the SI framework, we intend to cultivate a new psyche – one which invigorates us to create synergic dynamics in the form of “us and them”, “both-and”, and “power-with”, resulting in synergic learning, growth, and harmony.
About Synergic Inquiry
Out of cross-cultural work with organizational transformation projects in China, India, Mexico and the US during the 1990’s, Dr. Tang developed Synergic Inquiry (SI) as an action methodology for promoting transformative changes through integrating the wisdom of both East and West. Synergy is defined as the capacity of transcending differences for transformative action at various levels of human systems (e.g., individual, relationship, group, organization, community, society, and the globe). SI was developed in early 90’s, and has been applied with individuals (e.g. leadership development, coaching, and personal therapy), relationships (authentic friendship and marital relationship), groups (organizational teams and families), organizations (global corporations and domestic companies), and cultures (diversity and community development) in the USA, Mexico, India, Korea, Japan and China.
The Workshop
In the experiential portion of the workshop, participants will have an opportunity to use this new methodology to explore experiences and meanings of diversity from their personal vantage point. Participants will be able to hear each other with a positive mindset to appreciate diversity and differences. In addition, participants will be able understand root causes for our polarizing relationships, cultures, and many other forms of differences. At the end of workshop, a new hope for different lived experience of diversity will be created.
Taoist movements will be incorporated as well as a way to discover differences and cultivate synergy out of diversity and differences.
The Facilitator
Dr. Tang received his first Ph.D. in systems management in 1993 and is completing his second Ph.D. in Chinese philosophy and culture. Currently the president of Global Synergy Network in China, he is also a co-founder of Global Leadership Center in China. He is developing a Center for Global Leadership in the USA, which will conduct research, educational programs, training and consulting with a global perspective.
Yongming Tang [has] taught at the California Institute of Integral Studies from 1993-1997 where he was the head of the Synergy Project. At present, he is a part-time faculty at Saybrook University, an adjunct faculty for Tsinghua University and Beijing University in China, and is the director of the C-EMBA program jointly sponsored by John F. Kennedy University and the Global Synergy Network. Dr. Tang has worked with organizations of different scale, ranging from small non-profit organizations to IBM, Mercedes Benz, GM, Texaco, and AT&T among others. He has been using diversity and differences as the catalysts for transformative action for many years. Currently he is heading up an organizational transformation project for a global organization headquartered in Sweden. He is an experienced leadership consultant and coach. He is the author of Synergic Inquiry: A Collaborative Action Methodology,] published by Sage in 2005. His new book, Synergic Leadership: Experiencing Transformative Breakthroughs, is being published by People’s Publishing House in China.
To register please contact us at mling@stmarys-ca.edu or (925) 631-8681