Leading through Emergence

How do we conceive of and support leadership in an emergent practice field where notions of self, other, and collective become more complex and interpenetrative? As we step into transpersonal states and stages of development, how might we orient to leadership as arising from a deeper spiritual ground?

This chapter will describe the experiences, lessons learned, and essential practices of an approach to leadership that synthesizes spiritual practice, shadow work, collective intelligence, embodied awareness, and transformative change, all of which are central to the work of Pacific Integral. For twenty years, Pacific Integral has been exploring, facilitating, and researching transformative change in an integral and developmental context through its Generating Transformative Change program, the Emergent Leadership program, and through other offerings and communities of practice. We have convened, facilitated, and engaged with over 100 residential retreats and virtual courses involving over 1,000 individuals, including developmental programs lasting from nine months to several years, and offered the in-person programs on three continents.

At its essence, our practice transcends the separation of individuals and collectives. It is an engagement with the future from awakened wholeness, by which we mean the confluence of two paths of spirituality, the ascending path of awakening and the descending path of embracing and enlightening all that is. This involves a movement toward the future in which action springs from everyone participating, from the collective as a whole, and from a ground of transpersonal awareness.

— From the chapter’s introduction.