big mind-12 week brochure 28 feb

“Crucible: A vessel that can maintain high temperatures and transforms its ingredients as a result”

Big Mind: Becoming a Wise Leader (and Follower!) An Experiential Leadership Coaching Program

12 Week Program commencing: May 2011 / Melbourne CBD

http://www.babelfishgroup.com


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The Context for the Big Mind program In today’s complex organisational environments, Leadership is not something that just comes out of title. It cannot be asked for; it does not reside in a single person but emerges where it is needed. For organisations to be successful, their leaders need to know how to work with and within this new playing field.

Whilst this program is all about helping you rediscover leadership and become the leader in your own work and life, as you will discover, it also involves learning how and when to follow as well.

So, what’s behind the name “Big Mind”?

You’ll have to come along to the program to find out, but one way to explain is with this story drawn from Shaun Tan’s book “Tales from Outer Suburbia”:

“When I was a kid, there was a big water buffalo living in the vacant lot at the end of our street, the one with the grass no one ever mowed. He slept most of the time, and ignored everybody who walked past, unless we happened to stop and ask him for advice. Then he would come up to us slowly, raise his left hoof, and literally point us in the right direction. But he never said what he was pointing at, or how far we had to go, or what we were supposed to do once we got there. In fact, he never said anything because water buffalos are like that; they hate talking.

This was too frustrating for most of us. By the time anyone thought to ‘consult the buffalo’, our problem was usually urgent and required a straightforward and immediate solution. Eventually we stopped visiting him altogether, and I think he went away some time after that: all we could see was long grass.

It’s a shame, really, because whenever we had followed his pointy hoof, we’d always been surprised, relieved and delighted at what we found. And every time we’d said exactly the same thing – ‘How did he know’?”

This program is not about telling you how you should lead or follow. It is an experiential program that invites you to find for yourself what works, and having found that, will provide the scaffolding and supports to help you continue along the path. Yes, you can think of this program like that of a pointy hoof.



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Our Philosophy about Leadership “Once there was an artist who was also a teacher of art. He held classes at an art school, and many students signed up to follow them. So many students applied to take this artist’s lessons that the directors of the art school became alarmed. There was not enough space, they said, to accommodate such a crowd of apprentices. They summoned the artist and ordered him to cut down the number of people taking his lessons. ‘You mean I must reject some people who apply?’ he asked. ‘Of course!’ replied his superiors. ‘Not possible’, said the artist. ‘Why not?’ they asked. ‘Because everyone is an artist,’ declared the artist. He refused to alter that faith: in the classroom he would chalk up the message, EVERYONE IS AN ARTIST. Eventually the directors of the art school had him dismissed.”

-‐-‐ from “How Art made the World” by Nigel Spivy.

In the same way that this famous story tells of the artist Joseph Beuys’ and his central message of “everyone is an artist”, we believe everyone is a leader as well. Especially when it comes to thriving in complexity, where leadership emerges in surprising and unpredictable forms. Not just through role, title or authoritative power.

With this at the core questions emerge around: how do we make space to rediscover for ourselves what leadership really means? What are the ways that we can develop a deeper understanding of ourselves and connection with leadership? Here is a hint; finding your way becomes possible once you can build enough space into your life to discover it; this program is that space.

Neuroleadership—you and your brain are plastic; developing yourself is not about learning “stuff” anymore (although that is important), it’s about experiencing the world differently. Come and learn how to be the artist of your emerging self.

Exploring these questions and topics lies at the heart of what this experiential and interactive program is all about.



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Our Approach to Big Mind

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”

-‐Alan Watts

As one of Babel Fish Group’s Crucible programs co-‐created with Niall McShane an executive coach and organisational change consultant, this program promises to take you on a rich three-‐month journey involving group-‐work, individual one-‐on-‐one sessions and selected readings.

Drawing on the fields of Action Learning, Complexity Science, Neuroscience, Psychology and Zen-‐ the program contains:

• four facilitated half day experiential group learning sessions • personal one-‐on-‐one coaching sessions (up to six) • development of your own personal change program and action plan • access to best-‐practice tools and frameworks in the area of coaching, personal transformation

and leadership • email support from your own personal coach throughout the entire program • an opportunity to learn with and from a group of like-‐minded people who will participate in

the course along-‐ side yourself.

And by the end of this program you will be walking away with:

• an up-‐to-‐date understanding of how to lead (and follow!) in today’s environments of complexity and change

• a deeper understanding of your Self and the drivers of your behaviour

• methods and frameworks to change that you can use after the program concludes

• you will have an understanding of coaching to the point where you can use the techniques and tools acquired during the program to coach yourself and others in your workplace

• you will see your world/life differently, have greater insight.

You will be a wiser leader (and follower!)



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Your Program Guides

Andrew Rixon PhD With one of the first PhD's in Complex Systems and Complexity Science from the University of Queensland in June 1999, Andrew has gained global experience in working with organisations within Australia and internationally in the USA, the Netherlands and the UK. Today, Andrew's focus is on how complexity-‐inspired approaches can change the way we work. As a keynote speaker, workshop leader and professional facilitator and leadership coach, Andrew's style is engaging, light hearted and curious. Andrew juggles in his spare time.

Niall McShane MBA Consistent throughout Niall’s working life and central to his approach is a passion to support people to be all they can be through the use of intention, insight and mindfulness. Over the years Niall has applied his approach in fields that vary from professional sports coaching to more recent activities involving Organisational Change and Leadership consulting in Asia and the Middle East. Niall is married with two children and enjoys cycling, yoga and reading eastern Zen philosophy with a perfectly brewed coffee.



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Program Fees

The associated program fees for the 12-‐week Big Mind program are:

Interested in just pursuing a one-‐on-‐one coaching relationship... Ask us how...



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Recommendations of Your Guides

Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Creative “Andrew is innovative, intelligent and resourceful. He has the ability to understand the real issues involved in organisational culture and work with you to identify new ways to address them.” February 1, 2011 Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, Creative “Andrew has a remarkable ability to listen to what sits beneath the client's need in order to construct a format and program to achieve an optimal outcome. His great honesty and open manner in working with diverse stakeholders has the capacity to encourage people to participate fully thereby shifting old patterns into creative paradigms.” February 16, 2011

“We have worked with Andrew on a number of occasions the past 10 years, Would you believe it, 10 years? ... Well, would you believe 5 years? .... How about I bumped into to him last week in Bourke St? No seriously, over the past three years Andrew has done some outstanding facilitation and presentation work for the www.vpscin.org which has been characterised by his deep subject matter knowledge, extensive skill-set and 10 out of 10 rating on the fun to work with scale. In 2006 we had Andrew and Edward de Bono present in consecutive seminars that I refer to as the Rixon / de Bono double. Andrew has also facilitated a group session of 300 using Open Space Technology and done some great work in our strategic planning process. Highly recommended.” July 16, 2008

Top qualities: Client focus, supports achievement of client outcomes “Niall is not afraid to ask the tough questions and focus on overcoming any potential obstacles. I also sensed a great ability and desire to learn and be the best coach possible. One way this translates is a desire to always deliver the best outcome for the client, which comes through in the session and serve Niall extremely well as a coach.”

November 25, 2010

Top qualities: Aids reflection and self-awareness “Niall provided coaching to all the leaders on our technology project at NAB. And since the coaching was taking place in the workplace, I initially made the assumption that it would be all about improving productivity and communication between team members, and generally focused on work related issues. This turned out not to be the case at all. It is normally rare for me to put aside the time for personal reflection, but my coaching sessions with Niall were an ideal opportunity to reflect on and improve my understanding of myself – what I enjoyed doing, what motivated me, what I saw as my strengths and weaknesses, how I behaved in different circumstances and why, and what I wanted to achieve personally and professionally. Niall’s approach to coaching was key to this – not offering solutions, but helping me ask myself the questions that improved my self-awareness, and resulting in some key actions I could take to help me achieve my aims. As a result of Niall’s coaching I have a much clearer picture of my key strengths, what I want to achieve in the future, and the steps I can start to take to get there. I’d recommend his coaching sessions to anyone.”

Dec 01, 2010

big mind-12 week brochure 28 feb

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