The O Zone

Article: Ten Learnings from a Friendship

Few have close friendships through their working life that last over 25 years. People leave jobs, move house, step away. Sometimes in family businesses or small entities that are built on deep commitments and longevity, and even in some large organisations that have developed life-long career opportunities, such friendships can happen.

So often structures are at the root of relationships, and for many, relationships are created due to proximity through the structures we are placed within. Some flexible and emerging organisations offer the chance for relationships to emerge out of need, and create ‘light’ structures to facilitate effective working.

The freedom approach to working relationship happened for me with someone who termed our relationship as brotherly rather than simply collegiate. It is now two years since Bryce died.

This is my attempt to express what I learned from 25 years of working with a brother, friend, irritant, rebel, teacher, facilitator, ally and colleague. It may not be much to others, but it is what it is to me.

Read more.

Article: What makes a successful leader?

Audrey Birt, director of Breakthrough Breast Cancer Scotland, recently made it into the final three at the Institute of Directors Scotland awards in the Female Director of the Year category.

She spoke to Oasis Communications Officer Cathy Neligan about the nomination, what makes a successful director, and the Full Circle development approach she is championing with Oasis.

Audrey was delighted with the external affirmation for herself and her team that the nomination brought, and the raised profile it brought the charity.

However, the category she was nominated in raised some questions around what qualities make a good director, and whether these are gender specific.

She said: “There isn’t a male director category of course and I expect that’s because until there is an equality in the treatment of women in leadership roles, in spite of their abilities, it probably is necessary to highlight their achievements in this way.

“By forcing change you change culture, and by drawing attention to the success of women where there is an equality in the workplace already, you help to shift belief and culture.”

Reflecting on the nomination and the different qualities that men and women bring to leadership, she said: “It’s not just that women are different, people are different. Women tend to certain attributes more than men but it is not just about gender. Women are often valued by certain attributes and those are reinforced.”

Read more.

Events: The Odyssey

Storytelling has been at the core of human culture throughout history. Stories are how we shape reality, they equip us to live life, they help us to learn and capture our learning, they enable us to find meaning and direction when we feel lost, stuck or facing significant choices.

Join us on July 20th for an evening with award-winning storyteller Hugh Lupton, who has performed internationally to great acclaim.

He will be giving a special performance of the Homecoming from The Odyssey along with a modern retelling.

Date: 20 July 2012

Time: 7-10pm.

Fee: £15

In a world that is increasingly fast moving, and a European context that is ‘at sea’, The Odyssey continues to speak more than many other stories because it explores what are considered as the qualities many of us value in our lives, security in uncertainty, connection, fellowship, warmth, dialogue, the pleasure of being in relationship, sense of community and that amidst danger and fear we can find joy within life.

It speaks of the questions relating to choices, our connection beyond the self to nature and the transpersonal, to being all of who we can be – more whole and fully human.

Find out more.

To book a place contact Samantha Parker: 01937 541700 or samantha@oasishumanrelations.org.uk.

Article: Phases of a changing organisation

A few days ago I was a guest at a ‘holding group’ meeting for organisational development within a UK Housing Group.

My colleague, and partner of some 22 years, who is the lead consultant, invited me to facilitate a review process as a way of bringing deeper meaning and shared understanding to what has been a two-year journey since they committed to engaging with a whole organisation development process.

The meeting began with what Oasis term a ‘check in’, a practice we have engaged with since our earliest days.

Each person, in a protected uninterrupted space, says something about what has been learned, what is new, what has been significant, and how they begin the meeting. Done well, it’s a potent way of establishing a learning environment and often highlights a critical focus for the meeting.

Read more.

News: New connections, new relationships, new clients

We are delighted to have created relationships with several new organisations over the past few months, culminating in many new pieces of work, including team development, long-term programmes, organisational consultancy and inquiries.

The next few issues of the O Zone will introduce some of these new connections and explore what they do in the world.

Article: Self and peer assessment

When something re-emerges it can sometimes take more energy to develop than the first time round.

At other times it is simply the spirit of the time and there is a sense of flow and excitement.

In January 1996 Oasis launched a new aspect of its Practitioner Community to provide the opportunity for individuals to be part of a self and peer assessment process that stepped away from a hierarchical system; a methodology that reflects a Whole Person Learning approach.

Thinking and practice moves on, as do people, and communities change and evolve. Ours has developed and the focus has been on organic growth, diversity and managing unexpected and unpredicted change.

In 2010 our own space emerged for being able to reinvigorate the self and peer accreditation process within Oasis.

Read more. 

Programmes: A Blueprint for Inspirational Living With Mark Wentworth & Filipe De Moura

23rd–24th June

Colour for Life is about transforming your life through colour and storytelling. It offers a new way to know yourself through colour using the Personal Colour Profiling system as well as helping you remember the blueprint of the life you were born to live.

Through active imagination will find your own colour house, and within that house you will discover different colour rooms all containing their own mythic universes just waiting to be explored. By meeting your inner colour allies you will learn to understand your own personal colour language and how it manifests and communicates to you in daily life.

You will be shown how to decode the messages contained within your colour house and how to translate the wisdom of your colour allies into simple rituals of inspired action.

Is it the green dragon sitting on the sofa wearing yellow shoes in the blue room that holds the key to your lonely heart, or is it the golden hammock swaying gently in the evening breeze on the roof terrace of the Indigo room that will transform your business?

You will learn how to remember your bliss and bring forth the gifts you were born to manifest, watch as your colour dreams reshape and re-tell your life story from the inside out.

Colour treasure maps, storytelling and visual affirmations all make up the tools needed for this incredible journey you are about to embark upon.

No special talent is required just the willingness to want to be happy beyond your wildest dreams and fall in love with your own life, as well as the desire to have fun, imagine, play, and see the world through colour. What colour will your story be?

“If you don’t know the trees you may be lost in the forest, but if you don’t know the stories you may be lost in life.” Siberian Elder

Mark Wentworth and Filipe De Moura both share a desire and a passion to make a difference in the world. It is their belief that Creative Expressive Arts can be a way to achieve this mission.

Mark is the founder and principal of Colour for Life, with 25 years’ experience based in colour psychology, shamanism and working with people’s life stories. Colour for Life is a training school for Colour Psycho-Dynamics a pioneering course uniting the world of colour with esoteric and transpersonal psychology, as well as offering designs for living and personal discovery journeys.

Filipe is a professional Tenor having graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama; it is his enthusiasm and desire to leave the world a better place that drives Filipe to unite the world of drama, music and Colour Psycho-Dynamics.

www.colourforlife.com
www.dynamicheartproject.com

Investment for the weekend: £150

Bookings/contact: mark@colourforlife.com 07949 282 384

Comments from previous participants:

“I have found home, I have my colour allies with me to support me all the time, now I have tools for a lifetime, I could ask for nothing more than that.”

“In all the libraries in all the world I would not have found the wisdom I learnt on this course. I now have my own library of my own life and that place is called my heart.”

“I thought this was just going to be another colour course, nothing prepared me for the incredible amount of laughter and wisdom I got from finding my colour house and meeting my colour allies, this course should be on the school curriculum and a must do for businesses. Thank you so much for adding some colour to my world.”