Event Description

Registration for this series is now closed. If you have any questions, please contact Monica Banks at monica@socalgrantmakers.org. 

Join Southern California Grantmakers and The Center for Collective Wisdom for a virtual and highly interactive seven session immersion series geared toward understanding how organizational culture can impact change through Living Collective Wisdom®. The Living Collective Wisdom framework operates on four core competencies: leadership, living systems, community and results to influence large scale change. 

During this experience, participants will learn concrete practices that can help deepen the impact of investments, more effectively embody a convener role with community and systems partners, improve grantees’ capacity to achieve meaningful results, and strengthen their internal cultures grounded in commitments to equity, inclusion and belonging. 

This opportunity is ideal for those interested in strategizing both their individual effectiveness, and the effectiveness of their organizations.

The Center for Collective Wisdom (c4cw.org) has decades of experience partnering with foundations and other funders across the country and in Canada, including many foundations in Southern California. They’ve helped partners significantly improve their positive impact in the world and increase their experience of joy, generosity, and wellbeing.

All sessions include: 

  • Teaching of concepts, commitments and practices as they relate to Living Collective Wisdom®. 
  • Individual and/or small group application sessions 
  • Large group sharing and dialogue

Series Dates

The immersion unfolds over seven half-day virtual sessions from 8:30 am – 12:00 pm PST. The schedule is as follows: 

  • Session 01: Friday, March 8, 2024 
  • Session 02: Friday, March 15, 2024 
  • Session 03: Friday, March 22, 2024 
  • Week of March 25: voluntary office hours 
  • Session 04: Friday, April 5, 2024 
  • Session 05: Friday, April 12, 2024 
  • Week of April 15: voluntary office hours 
  • Session 06: Friday, April 26, 2024 
  • Session 07: Friday, May 3, 2024
  • Week of May 6: voluntary office hours

We will hold voluntary office hours in the off-weeks between sessions to provide additional ad hoc opportunities for participants to explore their toughest questions and current organizational challenges through the lens of Living Collective Wisdom®. To foster an environment for shared learning, vulnerability, and trust-building, we require that participants be in attendance for all of the scheduled sessions. Please note that virtual sessions will not be recorded.

Informational Sessions

  • If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity, please email monica@socalgrantmakers.org for a 1:1 30-minute informational session. Our partners with the Center for Collective Wisdom are happy to provide additional insight and answer any questions you may have. 

Facilitators:

John smiling with his head cupped in his hand

John Ott

Co-Founder, Center for Collective Wisdom

John is the co-founder of the Center for Collective Wisdom. He has been designing and facilitating successful statewide, regional, and countywide change efforts for over 30 years. This work includes designing comprehensive systems transformations, resolving major budget shortfalls, and improving outcomes of community well-being. He has consulted with foundations; state, county, and local governments; local schools and school districts; small businesses and a multi-national corporation; and myriad non-profit and community-based organizations.

John’s experience of being homeless for much of his adolescence inspired his lifelong commitment to promoting compassion and a strong sense of community. The support he received from key adults during that time helped him to chart a life path that would otherwise have been impossible.

Early in his career, John was a faculty member at Duke University, helping to launch the Hart Leadership Program. He also started and led several non-profit organizations and worked as a community organizer. 

John holds a BA in Public Policy Studies from Duke University and a JD from Stanford Law School. He is co-author of The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly, published by Berrett-Koehler in 2009, and Centered on the Edge, published by the Fetzer Institute in 2001.
Eurasian woman in short hair

Rose Pinard

Co-founder, Center for Collective Wisdom

Rose is co-founder of the Center for Collective Wisdom. She was born in South Korea to a Korean mother and French Canadian American father. Her childhood reflected a rich juxtaposition of cultures, including indigenous healing rituals led by female shamans. The Korean peninsula’s history of colonization and war evoked within her a deep respect for the power of intergenerational trauma and resiliency. These experiences inspire her to seek out ways to honor and integrate multiple ways of knowing, including indigenous and women’s ways of knowing.

Her career began on a fast-track management program within finance at Chevron Corporation, with broad exposure to key operations and mentoring by senior executives. After a decade at Chevron, she completed a masters and doctorate in organizational psychology and organizational development from the California School of Professional Psychology.

Her dissertation focused on quantum physicist David Bohm’s theory of dialogue, a discipline central to organizational learning and systems thinking.

For the past two decades, Rose has been partnering with John to design and facilitate a wide range of large-scale change initiatives and to create the Living Collective Wisdom® framework.

Presented by:

evolve is SCG’s suite of programming that champions transformational leadership made possible by the generous support of the Angell Foundation.

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