By Julio Olalla and Robert Dunham We find ourselves in a radically changing and challenging world.  We face major global issues that have never been faced before in history, many of which appear to be inexorably growing, including global warming, the energy crisis, population growth and the carrying capacity of the planet, straining global resources including water and arable land, as well as a global recession, an exponentially growing debt …Read More

By Julio Olalla and Robert Dunham We live in a historical era confronted with unavoidable issues of global scale, issues that have never been faced before in the history of humanity. Global warming is shifting weather patterns, with many warnings about severe consequences. In the face of urgent calls for global reductions of carbon dioxide emissions China is building two coal fired electricity plants a week.  The debate about “peak …Read More

We hope to promote new conversations for creating our future that not only addresses the coming predicaments, but also the presumptions of what it is to be human and what is a good life. We cannot produce a new future with the old common sense, with the old answers. So we cannot rush into our new answers, and we can’t afford the old answers. We don’t have time to rush. …Read More

With new conversations among people who bring heart, who call for a standard of valuing the gifts that life provides, we can open a new conversation of the future where “growth” is not the only answer. We can organize for a good life, harmony with nature and each other, and a rediscovery of meaning in the cultivation of human virtue, celebration of human excellence, and the joy of connection and …Read More

Our view is that what is needed is health, meaning, and taking care of what we care about. So many of the decisions made today are not producing healthy people, healthy organizations, healthy communities, or a healthy world. Why? Why would we choose anything other than a healthy future? Profit is not valuable if we produce an unhealthy world, an unhealthy life. We need to re-center our values around a …Read More

Technology not only shapes our thinking, but it currently arises out of a foundational attitude that everything is a resource to be used. We use nature, and even ourselves. Used for what? We need to put the human being and our lives back into the center of our concerns. We must recover our valuing life and a good life as more sacred that our projects and our measures. Our experience …Read More

By Julio Olalla and Bob Dunham We also must rediscover that our soul, our very being, is not separate from our world, the reality of nature, and our relationships with others.We are social creatures, made for connection.In our connections we find ourselves and our lives, we learn to fashion our relationships with ourselves, others, and our worlds.And today our culture has taken us in a drift to separation, from the …Read More

By Julio Olalla and Robert Dunham When we speak of soul we mean that part of our being and our experience that has been honored in all ancient traditions, that part of life with connection and respect for that beyond ourselves, the depth of meaning and experience beyond mind, emotions, and body; the sense of the space of life itself in relationship to world, meaning, possibility, and eternity. The Sufis …Read More

The consequences of our current trajectories into the future will require a response at some point.Why are we not preparing with more urgency and are instead continuing the current trends?We believe that this is due to the very common sense and stories that we live in, and that these are based in our current fundamental view of what it is to be human, and what is a good life. Although …Read More

The concern for any enterprise is its level of performance, and for most members of the enterprise is a concern for how to elevate the level of performance.  This elevation can be to fulfill the ambition for growth, to meet a changing marketplace, to match competition, or even for the sake of survival or to stay even in its outcomes and prospects. But over time this elevation of performance requires …Read More

The reason we have interest in Next Generation Leadership is because the last generation of leadership interpretations were inadequate.  They didn’t deliver the goods of enabling actual leadership and leadership results, however captivating the leadership framework and stories. Leadership is a field that needs some clarity and usefulness where we outgrow our appetite for “next generation leadership” because the last generation didn’t produce satisfaction and effectiveness.  We need an understanding …Read More

By Julio Olalla and Robert Dunham                                      Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things.                                                                   T. S. Eliot We live in an era of global scale.  Our technologies and our massive global population accumulate and magnify our decisions and choices until they affect the entire planet.  At the global level we now have concerns about changing the weather through global …Read More

By Julio Olalla and Robert Dunham We live in a historical era confronted with unavoidable issues of global scale, issues that have never been faced before in the history of humanity. Global warming is shifting weather patterns, with many warnings about severe consequences. In the face of urgent calls for global reductions of carbon dioxide emissions China is building two coal fired electricity plants a week. The debate about “peak …Read More

Once upon a time long ago in a fair land, people worked hard, saved, and lived a good life. In the United States they called it the American Dream, that any hard working, diligent citizen could create a middle class life. Then things changed, and real estate began to inflatedramatically.  The game changed, and saving made you a loser – if you saved you probably didn’t get on the escalator …Read More

Moods and emotions have an ambiguous place in our understanding of leadership these days. I just got off a call with participants in one of a coaching program I teach in, and the examples they gave of client reactions and challenges show that many in our culture are not willing to look at emotions as part of leadership and professional responsibilities. In the 90’s, Daniel Goleman wrote “Emotional Intelligence” and …Read More