Envision Halifax alumni, investors, supporters, founders, and friends will have the opportunity to reconnect with each other in honouring the impact of Envision – on us as individuals, on us as a community as we take a deliberate break – or Sabbatical – from the leadership program and the broader work of Envision.

This is a time to acknowledge and honour the many contributions people have made to Envision – time, energy, talents, resources – and to celebrate the growth and change that has occurred in each of us and in Halifax over this time.  There is no question that as we look over the landscape of Halifax, there is more percolating right now than five years ago, some of it can be traced back to Envision and it seems to have a different vibrational energy.

Read on to discover – or rediscover – a bit of the Envision story – and we hope to see you on February 16th!

The Envision Story

On January 21, 2005 Envision, after months of planning, hosted its first community conversation on a snowy day in Halifax.  St. Matthews Church Hall was packed with people, with more on the waiting list.  The conversations that day ignited a passion and vision for, among other things, the inception of a 10 month leadership program.

In September of 2005, Envision Halifax launched the first of four leadership programs.  It came out of a long period of reflection and seeding the ground by a dedicated group of volunteers who articulated and believed in the vision of Igniting a Culture of Civic Engagement across the Halifax Region. Implementation of the program was picked up by another dedicated group of volunteers who responded to the call to design and deliver the 10 month program, inform key business leaders about the initiative, engage sponsors and recruit participants.  The energy around the program was so compelling, it was like the program was its own entity wanting to come into form and would have happened no matter what.

The program was designed based on sensing into the need in Halifax at the time.  It used leading edge theories and methodologies like Theory U, Chaordic Design, World Café, Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry, Circle Practice.  It opened the doors for transformation and change, particularly at the individual level and also at the organization and community level as participants took what they learned and began to apply it to different aspects of their lives and work.

During the fourth year of the leadership program, Envision began to wonder about the landscape of Halifax, what has changed and what is the current need?  This led to asking some important questions – following the guidance of the methodologies promoted in the program.  Did the leadership program still reflect the original vision for Envision Halifax?  How has the need shifted and changed?  How has the community changed?  Who/what else is now igniting a culture of civic engagement that was not there five years ago?  What is wanting to emerge now?   What is the role for Envision Halifax?

As a result of this inquiry, the first strategic decision was to “let go” of the leadership program for the current year (2009/2010), despite all the acknowledged successes, in order to see what the next iteration of it might be – and what the next iteration of Envision Halifax more broadly might be.

What has been discovered so far:

• The next iteration of the leadership program is not yet clear
• There are other things percolating in Halifax right now that are serving Envision’s mission of Igniting a Culture of Civic Engagement – like The  Hub, Four Days of Thinking Forward Halifax, ChangeCamp, PodCamp, and many more.

What we have come to realize is that deciding not to run the leadership program in 2009/10 was not only a wise decision, it was the start of a 12-16 month sabbatical for Envision.  Now that we understand this, we want to be intentional about what this means and what needs to happen during this sabbatical so we can invite a conversation about re-emergence and re-engagement early in 2011.  We also know that those of us who hold Envision near and dear to our hearts will continue to be sensing into the need in Halifax during this sabbatical.

In reflecting back over the four years of Envision Halifax and the leadership program, we know we have seeded a richness into the landscape of Halifax.  Much has sprouted in that time and “Envision” has showed up in many places through its leadership program alumni and other volunteers.  A few examples (this list is by no means exhaustive):

• The Hub Halifax
• HRM by Design
• Citizens for Halifax
• Fusion Halifax
• Leaders of Today
• 4 Days of Forward Thinking
• Change Camp
• Pod Camp
• And more, much more…

So come and share your stories with us, laugh and reconnect with friends on February 16th.

RSVP if you can, to envisionhalifax@gmail.com

Here are some things that I see right now.   Maybe you see more?   If so, please add them to the comments!

• ChangeCamp Halifax – basically an OpenSpace to talk about change.   In their word:  “to provide a forum where engaged citizens can collaborate with a goal of establishing new ideas, new networks, and new tools to resolve issues that Halifax is facing today and will face in the future.”
• Third Wednesday – just a coffee (and other related beverages) talk about the uses for Social Media in Community and Business.
• The Annual Halifax Zombie Walk – when George Romero came out with his gory Night of the Living Dead, it was intended as social commentary.   There was plenty of social commentary coming out of this event – and almost as many interested tourists taking pictures as there were geeky zombies.
• TEDx Halifax and 4 Days – oh yes, TED Talks comes to Halifax!   I cannot wait!
• FUSION Halifax – a networking group in Halifax that always seems to be offering some kind of social event.

There is alot more going on in this town.   Where do you see civic engagement in HRM?

“The shift is an inversion of our thinking and the key inversion is to move from thinking of ourselves and other as effect to thinking of ourselves and others as cause… and if you believed this to be true, in what ways would that make a difference or change your actions?

These ideas are primary thoughts in the notion of self-leadership or personal growth and development.  Did you choose the present or was it created for you by other people, by circumstances, by culture, organizations, systems?  The more you believe it was created for you and you had little control, choice or power of attraction, the more you will point to the need for other people to be accountable for the conditions in which you live rather than owning the possibility that you either created your own present or at the very least attracted your present circumstances and situations to you.

It is true that you are determined by the environments in which you live and work.  It is also true that you shape these environments by being in them.  You are the creator of your world as well as the product of it.

In order to create accountability based civic engagement we need to invert conventional or default cultural beliefs or ways of thinking.  What if the audience creates the performance, the subordinate creates the boss, the child creates the parent, the student creates the teacher, the future creates the present, the listening creates the speaker or the citizen creates its leadership.

We are all citizens.  What are we willing to acknowledge, own and commit to as we call for accountability based civic engagement?  This is a question of great interest to Envision Halifax as we begin hosting more community conversations.   Block says this shift in thinking is the condition for shifting the context of civic engagement within which the restoration of community can occur.

Block says conventional thinking holds the leader responsible for assuring the perpetuation of the default culture, belief systems or ways of doing things, like: leader and top are essential, the future destination can be blueprinted, the work is to bring others “on board”, rewards are related to outcomes and more measurement produces better results. Most of us in leadership roles and advocating leadership skills are probably nodding our heads at this list.  But what if this is no longer the role of a leader?  What if the times are calling us to both be bolder and be less in charge or leading the way?  What if, as leaders, we really do need to show up in a different way?  What would that look like?

In restorative leadership, the task of the leader is to care more about the experience of citizens than the vision or behaviour of leaders – to care more about the experience of citizens (employees, volunteers, others who gather) than the vision!  Imagine!

Block holds that the tasks of restorative leadership are to create a context that nurtures an alternative future, based on inclusiveness and hospitality, and to initiate conversations that shift our experience – which occurs through the way we bring people together and the nature of the questions we use to engage them.  This requires a completely different way of leading and a reconceptualization of how we think about leadership.

In Block’s view, engagement is the means through which there can be a shift in caring for the well being of the whole.  Engagement becomes powerful through conversations that create ownership of this place, even though another is in charge.  These are conversations that evoke commitment without barter, ones that acknowledge the primacy of relatedness, are about the larger communal possibility where dissent is valued as a key component of the conversation and experience.  It is an approach to creating and co-creating the world through invitation rather than mandate.

This leadership is restorative by producing rather than consuming energy, by inviting rather than telling and it creates accountability as it confronts people with their freedom and their power of choice.

Restorative leadership really challenges us to rethink our concept of leadership and invites us to step into new ways of leading where people are invited into their own experience and co-creation rather than persuaded to “buy-in” to one person’s vision.  I wonder if Halifax is ready for a notion which really might be a bit radical? Envision Halifax is ready to hold the space for this type of inquiry, curiosity and exploration.

His definition of Civic Engagement: the pursuit of accountability and commitment through a shift in the language and conversation we use to make community better.  Civic engagement is action through which citizens join in new conversations that have the capacity to alter the future.

He suggests so many of our attempts to change the future actually project the past forward, where by trying to solve the symptoms of issues we have identified we only sustain them.  We need to do our work in civic engagement in a restorative context.  This is the context of relatedness, of possibility and the affirmation that each of us has the capacity to transform the world we inhabit.

It is a world where leaders need to learn new skills, where invitation replaces enforcement of mandate, and where we need to confront people with their own freedom as well as allow them their own freedom, even as we invite them into c0-creating future possibility.

Envision Halifax has always pursued its mission of igniting a culture of civic engagement through leadership and particularly in the last few years through a successful and provocative leadership program.  One of the questions we now sit with is: what’s next and what are the conditions for superlative leadership?

I’m curious.  I’m ready.  I’m inviting.  Are you ready to be confronted with your own freedom?  Kathy

Here are some examples:

Kathy Jourdain and Ryan Deschamps are currently writing articles for this blog.     If you want in on the fun, just get in touch.

There is a Google Group to organize discussion about things Envision.   We are going to use this space to post action lists, periphernalia, minutes of task groups and so on.   You can choose to receive emails from this group if you wish – these emails will be separate from the “master list” announcements that get sent out from Envision.

There is a Parking Lot of ideas where people can make suggest things that Envision Halifax could accomplish as part of its mandate.   Whether your idea is transformative, profound or just plain fun, we’d like to hear about it.

We also started a plain old PBWorks wiki as a sandbox for people to do stuff as well.

The point of all of this is simply to continue the conversations Envision Halifax has already had with alumni, friends, stakeholders, members or curious on-lookers about leadership in Halifax in whatever format is comfortable for people.   Maybe none of these work for you?   Fine.   Open a communication line that does.   Just make sure we know about it so we can let others in on the fun!