Our Offerings
C4CW currently offers Immersions, Intensives, 1:1 Ally Sessions, and Academies to help our partners embody Living Collective Wisdom in support of their work toward profound results.
As you explore these offerings, know that we never want cost to be the reason someone cannot participate. If you want to engage in any of our offerings and need some financial support, we will work with you to explore creative funding solutions. And … if you are someone who can, we would welcome your donation to help us fund scholarships to support others who need financial help to participate. Thank you!
Have more questions? Check out our FAQs.
Immersions
Immersions are in-depth, highly interactive online experiences for individuals and teams to begin to learn and apply the Living Collective Wisdom® framework to their change work.
An Immersion in Living Collective Wisdom® includes:
-
Seven ½-day online sessions
-
Office hours with John and Rose for additional learning and application support
-
A comprehensive workbook to support participant learning and engagement
-
Access to online resources
To ensure the emergence of a robust learning community and meaningful engagement with each participant, we limit the number of participants in each Immersion to no more than 20.
What participants learn
Immersion participants learn how to:
-
Help systems and communities discern and take right action in support of profound results
-
Cultivate the conditions for collective wisdom to emerge in support of our work toward profound results
-
Avoid the emergence of collective folly, and heal the negative effects of past folly
-
Increase their capacity to influence living systems
-
Foster relationships of mutuality, particularly among people with divergent perspectives
Who Immersions are for
We partner with foundations and systems to design and deliver immersions to cohorts of community, systems, and organization leaders who are committed to achieving and sustaining profound results.
We also conduct standalone Immersions for change leaders and consultants who want to learn how to integrate Living Collective Wisdom® into their ongoing work toward profound results. Our next standalone Immersion begins in March 2024. For this Immersion, we are particularly encouraging people to enroll who want to learn both how to embody Living Collective Wisdom® and how to help others do the same. If you want to see if space is still available for this Immersion, please reach out to us.
Intensives
Attending an Immersion is a prerequisite for engaging in an Intensive. Building upon the content of an Immersion, Intensives are intended to help participants become Living Collective Wisdom® allies. Specifically, participants learn how to:
-
Teach Living Collective Wisdom®;
-
Facilitate 1:1 ally sessions; and/or
-
Design and facilitate Wisdom Dialogues®.
The design of an Intensive
An Intensive unfolds over a nine-month period through a variety of engagements and supports, including:
-
Multiple online sessions to deepen participants' understanding of Living Collective Wisdom®;
-
An in-person experience where participants are supported to teach the framework and facilitate a Wisdom Dialogue®
-
Regularly scheduled peer-learning sessions supported by C4CW staff;
-
Regularly scheduled office hours facilitated by John Ott and Rose Pinard;
-
1:1 ally sessions for each participant;
-
A comprehensive workbook to support participant learning and engagement; and
-
Access to online videos and other resources.
An intake process prior to the Intensive helps us identify learning pods and case studies. As with Immersions, we will also compile and share brief participant bios to encourage peer and cohort engagement.
Building upon the content of an Immersion, an Intensive begins with a deeper exploration of the four core competencies: leadership; living systems; community; and results. Mastery of this additional content is essential to help participants learn how to teach the framework and facilitate 1:1 Ally Sessions grounded in Living Collective Wisdom®.
With this foundation established, participants are supported to examine their current change work through the lens of the four developmental aspects of large-scale change: cohering a movement; building the movement; stabilizing a living system; and sustaining the living system. Living collective wisdom means embodying the four core competencies as we work together to nurture and integrate living systems and related movements to achieve profound results.
An essential process for embodying Living Collective Wisdom is a Wisdom Dialogue®. Intensive participants who choose this track will be helped to understand what distinguishes a Wisdom Dialogue® from other group processes, and how to design and facilitate Wisdom Dialogues® in their change contexts.
Who Intensives are for
While an Immersion can benefit anyone, an Intensive is designed specifically for participants who are designing, leading, supporting, funding, and/or deeply engaged with complex change efforts and who are committed to helping others embody Living Collective Wisdom® . This includes:
-
Staff members from foundations and public systems who support systems and community change initiatives;
- Members of collective impact efforts, including backbone teams;
-
Social justice, community, and public policy advocates supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives;
-
Stakeholders from regional or issues-based collaboratives; and
-
Consultants and evaluators who support large-scale change efforts, especially those efforts inspired by systems thinking and complexity.
To ensure a highly interactive and personalized experience for participants, space is limited in Intensives.
1:1 Ally Sessions
As essential as Immersions and Intensives are for helping participants understand and apply the commitments and practices of Living Collective Wisdom, 1:1 Ally Sessions provide customized support for participants to more fully embody this way of being, relating, and doing.
These 1:1 sessions are guided by C4CW allies who have deep experience with applying Living Collective Wisdom in their own lives, and in helping community and systems leaders live collective wisdom in support of profound change.
Immersion participants are offered the option of participating in a series of six one-hour sessions. Participants complete a self-assessment survey prior to the first session, and again before the final session. While these sessions are grounded in Living Collective Wisdom, the focus of each individual session is determined by the participant.
1:1 Ally Sessions are an integrated component of Ally Intensives.
Academies
C4CW partners with foundations and systems to design and lead Academies for communities, systems, large collaboratives, and other large-scale change efforts committed to profound results. Academies are custom-designed, typically multi-year processes that enable communities and systems to embody and integrate Living Collective Wisdom in support of their large-scale change efforts. The focus of these trauma and resiliency-informed processes is to strengthen the infrastructure and culture needed to sustain progress toward profound results for the long haul, and participants' experience of joy, generosity, and wellbeing.
While each Academy is unique, all Academies unfold through four iterative phases: assessing, readying, embodying, and integrating. During each of these phases, C4CW discerns along with leaders from the inviting community or system whether there is both will and capacity to evolve the process to the next phase of engagement.
The timeline for initiating and completing an Academy varies with the unique size, capacities, history, and scope of desired results within each context. In our experience, however, a typical Academy unfolds over 18 months or longer.
Want to know more, or discuss a potential Academy for your community or change effort? We would welcome an opportunity to connect.