Photo: Antony Dickson/AFP/Getty Images

A Spanish synchro swimmer performs during the free combination routine final event of the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships.

Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

A Colombian woman poses with U.S. President George W. Bush after she presented him with a hat and poncho during a tour of the Casa de Narino presidential palace in Bogota.

Photo: Javier Mamani/AFP/Getty Images

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, right, and his Bolivian counterpart, Evo Morales, centre, arrive at an event near La Paz, Bolivia, to counter U.S. President George W. Bush’s visit to South America.

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

U.S. President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush are greeted by a military honour guard during their arrival in Guatemala City.

Photo: ORLANDO SIERRA / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Protesters clash with riot policemen in the historic centre of Guatemala City during a demonstration against the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush.

Photo: Rodrigo Arangua/AFP/Getty Images

A demonstrator breaks the window of a bank in Bogota during a protest against the visit to Colombia by U.S. President George W. Bush.

Photo: Maurilio Cheli/AP

Brazilian policemen subdue a protester during a march in Sao Paulo against a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush.

Photo: RAFIQ MAQBOOL / AP

An Afghan woman holds flowers during an event to mark Women’s Day in Kabul.

Photo: MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A young girl holds the hand of her grandmother during an International Women’s Day demonstration in New Delhi.

Photo: Isam Al-Haj / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Sudanese women pose for a picture to mark International Women’s Day in Khartoum.

For those of you following along… you will have noticed that I have been posting social change leadership practices. I am a participant in a year long program, Art of Change. The program consists of 4 residential sessions, peer coaching, individual coaching with the lead facilitator and program architect Robert Gass, as well as daily practices, posted on this blog.

Tomorrow, I head into the second of the residential sessions so will be offline until mid next-week. Here’s a loose description of this first time offering, Art of Change.

The Art of Change is an opportunity to receive teaching and personal mentorship from a master of the transformational arts. Equally important is the vibrant learning community that we will create together, a powerful catalyst for professional development and awakening.

A transformational change agent must work to her/his own energy, just as the musician tunes and practices her/his instrument. The training, therefore, offers a range of practices and skills to increase our awareness and refine our use of power:
* strengthening our access to inner wisdom and guidance so that it becomes
an increasingly trusted and reliable guide to all our actions
* how to work in harmony with the greater forces of life so as to produce more
and better results with less and less effort
* developing openness and skill for deeper partnership and synergy with others
* enhancing our personal ecology so that our energy is higher quality and more
sustained
* how to be increasingly precise with our use of energy so that we produce the
results we envision, with fewer unintended side effects
* cultivating inner alignment and inner peace
* learning to witness and skillfully dis-identify with limiting mental constructs
* living in the heart: deepening compassion and love
* faith: sustaining our connection to Spirit

“I will share and instruct you in the techniques and processes for working with people that I have developed, but more than this, I want to create conditions in which you can access your own inner master and mastery. If we are open, aligned, attentive, and utterly present… the moment will teach us what we need to know to be of service. Our practices are intended to help you become instruments of love and awakening in all that you do.” Robert Gass

The Art of Change will at the same time work on work on developing and refining the specific skills of the change agent, including:

* models for transformational change for individuals, organizations and systems
* how to read and diagnose energy in individuals and groups
* establishing and maintaining energetic fields of transformation for individuals
and groups
* skillful, precise application of your own energy and presence to inspire and
quicken the pace of evolution
* the art of manifestation: how to guide creations from vision to successful
implementation
* refining the art of truth-telling
* deep and even deeper listening
* yin and yang interventions: the balance of support & challenge; intending &
allowing;
* helping people make things happen: how to accomplish more real results…
with less effort
* the art (and enjoyment) of “difficult” conversations
* creative conflict and negotiation
* setting and maintaining containers: structures and processes for individual and
group energy

We will also support your greater ease and skill as a practitioner of the
transformational arts:

* developing a code of conduct for your work with others
* negotiating and contracting roles and expectations with those whom you work
* handling projections and issues of dependency & co-dependency
* setting and maintaining appropriate boundaries in your work with others
* money yoga: developing ease in dealing with all aspects of your relationship
to money and your work
* skillful collaboration with other change agents
* “marketing” yourself (in the broadest sense of the word) with integrity

Program Elements and Methodology:
Beyond the specific topics, the Art of Change will provide individualized attention to support whatever your needs may be in developing as a worker of transformational change.

Throughout the year, there will be a strong emphasis on participants bringing to the training their actual work with individuals and groups. This provides a bridge between training activities and practical application, with each person having many opportunities for reflection and learning in their ongoing work.

More soon…

Photo: Inaldo Perez / AP

Demonstrators in Bogota throw stones and Molotov cocktails at riot police during a protest against the upcoming visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to Colombia.

Photo: KAMBOU SIA / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A man painted in national colours dances in Accra during celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Ghana’s independence.

Photo: MUSADEQ SADEQ / AP

An Afghan villager peeps out of the one of the houses which was bombed by a Nato’s air strike in Jabar village of Nijrab district in Kapisa province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan.

This brings us to the end of our study of contracting.

To help integrate what we have been learning, please take some time to reflect on the following questions:

1. What have you learned about contracting?

2. What questions remain?

3. What action steps, if any, do you want to take to clear up any of your work context or relational contracts?

4. Writing down contracts whenever possible is a good practice. It never fails to amaze me how people of good will can create so much suffering with each other by having different pictures of what was agreed on.
In the words of movie producer Samuel Goldwyn:
“A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

consider creating:
* formal team behavioral agreements in all your working groups
* written contracts for all consulting, training, coaching engagements
(i.e. your own tailored version of the Contracting Checklist)
* written statements of expectations when beginning new
partnerships of any kind

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass.

Photo: Fadi Tanas/AP

Artists set up large posters showing portraits of Israelis and Palestinians on a section of Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. The images are part of an exhibit called Face to Face.