Systems thinking, articulated well by Peter Senge, allows us to zoom out and look at all the contributing components or stakeholders in a system. Collaboration, relationship building and shared leadership naturally follow. Starhawk’s book The Empowerment Manual, The Circle Way by Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea as well as Peter Block’s book Community: The Structure of Belonging all value citizenship (or participation), inclusion, diversity and being attentive to how we gather.

More recently, I have gained immensely through Mike Kashtan’s training in Convergent Facilitation for group decision-making. The process of hearing everyone and incorporating their wants moves us easily to collaborative solutions.

My Sacred Circle Dance teacher from Greece Laura Shannon, who has been studying traditional dances from the Balkans for over 30 years, teaches not only the dances but also the wisdom from the grandmothers, like shared leadership and creating rituals to gather for both celebrations and grieving.