The Context

During moments of uncertainty, how do we draw upon and make use of our living, embodied experience? What happens when we open the channels to our emotions and anxieties and register what they are telling us before we can consider what to do about it? For the poet John Keats, this way of working—what he called negative capability—was the capacity to remain ‘in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.’ How do we recognize and work with the anxiety that arises when the future feels unclear?

In many parts of the world, we are witnessing a moment in which individuals have exercised acts of leadership on behalf of their communities in the face of authoritarianism and overlapping organizational crises. These acts demonstrate that leadership can arise from any position, whether or not one holds formal authority. However, these acts may often carry real risks and varying degrees of danger. Turning toward one’s own emotional experience can become a powerful and often vulnerable expression of citizenship—helping us discern when and when not to act amid moments of social uncertainty. 

Registering one's internal experience offers valuable insights into being part of any group, whether it be work, family, or society. Every member of a group has a unique window into the group’s dynamics. Recognizing and naming that experience can help the group reflect, reorient, and reengage its capacity to work on its task. This kind of attention to experience is itself an act of leadership—one that can emerge from anyone.

The Workshop

This workshop is designed to strengthen participants’ ability to exercise leadership in a broad range of work roles through finding one's negative capability and taking up a consultative stance. Participants learn to recognize the value of their inner experience - thoughts, feelings, associations, fantasies, daydreams, pre-occupations - and to articulate them to further the group’s purpose and task, be it in a work, community, or family context.

Design

In the workshop, process groups and work groups are used to provide this learning opportunity. In the process groups, participants are invited to study the here-and-now unfolding group dynamics, evolving culture, emotional experience, etc., in relation to the task of the study of belonging. Belonging can be thought of as an experience of security, acceptance, and inclusion within a group, with the possibility of being better known and joined by others. In the process groups, designated consultants practice sharing their experience to further the work of the group. They then reflect on their relationship to negative capability and use of the consultative stance with the faculty, while other participants observe.

In the working group, members work at a real-life problem presented by the faculty in the form a vignette. There are no designated consultants; any member is free to offer consultation as they work on the group task and learn about how sharing experience furthers that work. After each session, the entire group reflects on the process with faculty.

Consulting roles in the process groups are open to anyone with previous group experience (attendance at the workshop or other intensive group experience). There are a limited number of consulting members, and they are available on a first-to-sign-up

basis. Those who choose the consultant role will be assigned to co-consulting teams, who will then take turns consulting to the process groups. Non-consulting participants will take up the member role in these groups and observe the reflections of consultants and faculty after each session.

There is no prior LFE Workshop or group relations experience required for non-consulting participants.

Vivian Chan

Donna Elmendorf

Heather Forouhar

Dannie Kennedy

Megan Kolano

Co-Convenor

Jim Krantz

Co-Convenor

Alan Ruiz

LEADERSHIP CAN COME FROM ANYONE

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