The Flagship

Last month I was blessed to facilitate the fourth annual Evolutionary Leadership Workshop, our flagship program. A workshop to make dreams real. I also facilitated the first ever Evolutionary Leadership Graduate Program, an opportunity for former workshop participants to come back and level up. 

It was our first time hosting out of Channel Rock, a most special retreat center on Cortes Island, off the coast of British Columbia. Channel Rock is off the grid. Bald eagles soar in the morning and one can hear the whales breathing at night. In more than a decade of doing this work I have only been to a handful of retreat centers that hold such transformational magic. The land itself is doing the work. We are just showing up for it.

We have had medicine people show up for each of our workshops. But this year’s cohort was specially defined by the presence of medicine women who came with sage, sweetgrass and palo santo to burn. We tuned into an ancestral wisdom that is carefully being reclaimed. We have a lot to remember if we are truly going to get free.

Our workshop has always held the commitment to center women and people of color. And this year I was specially moved by the presence and gentle teachings of gender queer folks. We are building community in the most beautiful ways. 

It is inspiring to see the work work. There is a consistency to the Evolutionary Leadership Workshop. There is something powerful that happens at this intersection of intention, connection and experimentation. I witness the way participants show up for themselves and for each other. And I get to be there at the birth of relationships that will last a lifetime.

The Graduate Program was another success. We literally closed one workshop in the morning and started the next one that same night. But our graduates are not new to the experience. They are in relationship with their respective cohorts. They know what is possible when we truly open our hearts. They came with joy, readiness and courage. And they showed up. They really showed up. I was not only holding them as their facilitator, I was also held by them, by their care, commitment and appreciation.

The graduate program focused on freedom from limiting beliefs. Participants came back with feedback from the project they committed to when they first became part of the Evolutionary Leadership Community. In order to take the next bold step forward we dove into the hard work of shedding the limiting beliefs that hold us back. It is always more powerful to dive into the work of making things real when we come with the concrete experience of an experiment and its results.

This is all work that is meant to have an impact on the real world. It is all about making dreams real. It is about experimenting our way into the future that we want to create. I am deeply fulfilled by the experience of facilitating these workshops. And I cannot wait to see what these people manifest as they step back into the world.

I’m not sure what the future holds for the Evolutionary Leadership Workshop. I am on my knees asking for guidance, wanting to tune into the evolution of my own work. But this is and has been our flagship and I could not be any prouder of our impact.