Drawing on excellent training and experience in facilitation, and a strong motivation to support others to gain confidence, I created an invitation to co design a learning partnership in Belo Horizonte, Brazil: A new paradigm is emerging. Today, effective leadership is not about fixed structures, hierarchy, reductionism, control, and the capture of just money. New situations need new values, like attentiveness and deep listening, collaboration, personal practices, compassion, openness and curiosity. And these values fit into a range of distinct methodologies, concepts and practices.

6 people accepted the first invitation. Engaging the Pedagogy of Cooperation, we began with connection. Warming up with embodied practices and reflection, we shared what called us to arrive, and then developed our shared vision of a learning group: rotating organisation and facilitation, non-hierarchy between those guiding and being guided, structure, openness, and reflection. With a contract formed, we completed in simple celebration.

From those quiet and connected beginnings, the group completed over a year of gatherings, bringing topics from systems thinking to Theory U, learning games, design thinking, personal storytelling, non-violent communication, and the power of communal food. In every session, we took part as peers, accepting invitations to move, think, and feel, and offering our experience back to our teachers and facilitators. See an annual report here.