We live in an increasingly complex and interconnected world where innovations and sustainable solutions to the challenges we face in our organizations and communities lie not in one leader or one viewpoint, but in engaging the knowledge, wisdom and capacity that is within each of us, our organizations, and our communities to produce wise action and sustainable results.

In response to this need, new leadership skills and facilitation tools have evolved. They are designed to enable us to work together with intelligence and wisdom in large or small groups to create an opportunity for all voices present to be heard and listened to and people are treated with respect regardless of their views. These tools create the opportunity for the wisdom in the room to emerge. They support group dialogue and conversation where the gathering is designed not as a meeting but as a harvest of ideas and actions so that participants feel a sense of ownership in the outcomes. These methods include World Café, Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry, Theory U, the Chaordic Stepping Stones planning process, Scenario Planning, and Technology of Participation Strategic Planning and Focused Conversations.

The Meadowlark Institute is a known resource for these result oriented, hosting or facilitating methodologies. Institute staff and associates are experienced practitioners in community and organizational dialogues for team building, strategic and action planning, consensus building, and cross-institutional collaboration.

The Meadowlark Institute trains and supports leaders in the Art of Participatory Leadership and the Art of Hosting Meaningful Conversations program, its own Building Leaderful Communities program, and in customized leadership programs for individuals, businesses and organizations. The Institute also provides intergenerational and intercultural transformational leadership learning experiences focused on developing our collective capacities to work together.

Meadowlark Institute staff and associates are certified Flow Game hosts. The purpose and intent of the Flow Game is to strengthen the life affirming leadership and actions of the participant. Its aim is to strengthen and bring focus into an important area or question in one’s life – be it a project, a future direction of work or relationships, or as part of personal growth.

The Flow Game is ideal for work teams that wish to explore a collective as well as a personal intention or for individuals who, together with others, wish to explore a personal intention.

If your business, organization or community is in need of strategic planning, leadership training or development, team building or civic engagement services that provide ways for people to engage with intention, strengthen their professional relationships, design deliberately, focus on sustainable outcomes and support a shared commitment to action, the Meadowlark Institute is the resource for you.