Meeting Archive

Due to some scheduling conflicts with our planning team, our group did not host a servant leadership meeting in May.

Instead, we invited you to think about why servant-leadership matters in a changing world. In the introduction to the 2023 edition of the International Journal of Servant-Leadership, Shann Ray Ferch and Jiying Song give us a vision of servant-leadership grounded in art and optimism.

They write: “Life is shot through with the art and science of servant-leadership, and once we encounter it we see just how directly servant-leadership informs, deepens, and shapes us here and now. As for our mutual quest for the essence of servant-leadership, let’s show care for each other and our work. Sisterhood. Brotherhood. Good intention and good humor.”

In this short essay, you have the chance to look at servant-leadership through a new lens that resides in justice, art, vision and love, finding a way to navigate the darkness “not only with bravery and courage, but with love, and to do so not alone but in the company of others.”

Find it here: https://repository.gonzaga.edu/ijsl/vol17/iss1/3/

The Serviceberry: An Economy of Gifts and Abundance by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Sue Gaard and Rich Gassen led a discussion around sections from this iconic servant leadership story.

As Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution ensures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”

We encourage you to purchase the book; it’s a quick read (90 minutes). A link to the discussion questions we used for our session can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jbRi2rfdSaKbKz0Bv1eT4kwTSrBs-UKg/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107956821653795308366&rtpof=true&sd=true

Restoring Sanity: Practice to Awaken Generosity, Creativity, and Kindness

Joe Goss, Mary Hoddy & Ann Grauvogl finished our exploration of Restoring Sanity with some discussions around islands of sanity with some questions for the group:

• Do you need an island of sanity? What does that look like to you? How do you create that island?
• What gets in your way of going forward with open-ended inquisitiveness and curiosity?
• How do we design practices that awaken generosity, creativity, kindness, and the ability to see clearly?
• How would the Servant-Leadership practices of conceptualization, persuasion, and building community promote this awakening?

Full agenda and readings: SL March 2025 Agenda and Pre-Work

Friday, February 21, 2025

Restoring Sanity: Practices to Awaken Generosity, Creativity, and Kindness in Ourselves and Our Organizations

Mary Hoddy and Ann Grauvogl continued leading our study of Meg Wheatley’s book Restoring Sanity: Practices to Awaken Generosity, Creativity, and Kindness in Ourselves and Our Organizations. This month we discussed the following:

1. Guided exercise on Suffering Strangers

   1. Short reading: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EthD81oOayLFiHjoCZdA7HS2iYPM4AiS/view?usp=sharing

2. Reflection on Leading an Island of Sanity: How have you Been Changed as a leader?
3. Compare Meg Wheatley’s Design Principals to 10 Characteristics of a Servant Leader
   1. Resource: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L63b1D-S30zZ91s4CU5AjR3uh88ifFx2/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108403829082285462418&rtpof=true&sd=true

Friday, January 17, 2025

Restoring Sanity: Practices to Awaken Generosity, Creativity, and Kindness in Ourselves and Our Organizations

Mary Hoddy facilitated our January meeting, focusing on a new book by Meg Wheatley, Restoring Sanity: Practices to Awaken Generosity, Creativity, and Kindness in Ourselves and Our Organizations. Meg’s book answers a critical question:

We face external conditions far beyond our control to change, dynamics intensifying at shocking speed. The perfect storm is here, created by the coalescence of climate and human-created catastrophes. As leaders dedicated to serving the causes and people we treasure, confronted by this unrelenting tsunami, what are we to do?

She responds to this question:

We need to restore sanity by awakening the human spirit… a gift of possibility and refuge created by people’s commitment to form healthy community to do meaningful work. It requires sane leaders with unshakable faith in people’s innate generosity, creativity, and kindness. It sets itself apart as an island to protect itself from the life-destroying dynamics, policies, and behaviors that oppress and deny the human spirit. No matter what is happening around us, we can discover practices that enliven our human spirits and produce meaningful contributions for this time.

We explored the following questions from the first part of this book:

1. On page 9, Meg Wheatley asks her central question, “What would it be like to be curious about who you’re with rather than judging or fearing them:?”  What would it be like for you?
2. On page 13, Meg asserts, “We do not have to create, fill in the gaps, motivate, or train for these qualities. [generosity, creativity, and kindness]. Humans innately possess these qualities by virtue of being human.”  Do you believe this?
3. On page 15, Meg writes: “We are not seeking sanctuary; we are seeking contribution.” What is your reaction?
4. On page 21, it describes SANE LEADERSHIP ( and perhaps Servant Leadership) as “the unshakable confidence that people can be generous, creative, and kind. The leader’s role is to create the conditions for these qualities to be evoked and utilized to accomplish good work.”

No meeting in December due to holiday timing.

Friday, November 15, 2024

Civility: Using Dialog and Discussion to Work Through and Overcome Destructive Bias and Stereotyping

Join the Servant Leadership Community of Practice on Friday, 11/15. Listen to former High School Administrator Dave Bray’s topic, “Civility: Using Dialog and Discussion to Work Through and Overcome Destructive Bias and Stereotyping.” We’ll also have time for questions and group discussion.

Dave’s presentation summary:

• How do we stand in one another’s perspective to build healthy and inclusive communities?
• At a time when we are pulled in so many directions, how can we find that safe space that helps us to feel like we can take on anything?
• Are we the right people to be in these times, or should we “take a pass”?

The journey in our meeting is about helping to create the future, NOT fixing the past. In addition, we will learn about a skill set that can help us to have PRODUCTIVE conversations during those times when our patience is wearing thin, and frustration and anger drive us to our limits.

Please join us as we explore the need to create communities that nurture, thereby helping those involved to feel a sense of belonging. Given this time in history, our hope is that this session will support us in developing a future where we can thrive together!

Link to presentation deck: https://uwmadison.box.com/s/b34athrjx8a4229y1usisuap1ntzwj9e

Other resources discussed:

Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults, Revised Edition by Jane Vella
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Learning+to+Listen%2C+Learning+to+Teach%3A+The+Power+of+Dialogue+in+Educating+Adults%2C+Revised+Edition-p-9780787966072

UW-Madison Diversity Forum Keynote
https://diversityforum.wisc.edu/session/your-brain-is-good-at-inclusion-except-when-its-not/

Dialog model used in “Deliberation Dinners: An Innovative Model for Dialogue Across Differences” from Diversity Forum on Wednesday https://diversityforum.wisc.edu/session/deliberation-dinners/.

Also, “Fostering Psychological Safety to Enhance Belonging and Community” on Thursday https://diversityforum.wisc.edu/session/fostering-psychological-safety-to-enhance-belonging-and-community/ outlined 10 strategies for restoring safety in meetings. I highly recommend watching both videos.

Definitions of Discussion and Dialogue:

In his groundbreaking book, The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge makes a powerful distinction between dialogue and discussion: In a discussion, opposing views are presented and defended and the team searches for the best view to help make a team decision.  In a discussion, people want their own views to be accepted by the group.  The emphasis is on winning rather than on learning.
In dialogue, people freely and creatively explore issues, listen deeply to each other and suspend their own views in search of the truth.  People in dialogue have access to a larger pool of knowledge than any one person enjoys. The primary purpose is to enlarge ideas, not to diminish them.  It’s not about winning acceptance of a viewpoint, but exploring every option and agreeing to do what is right.
From https://extraordinaryteam.com/dialogue_discussion/

Friday, October 18, 2024

In September we discussed one of Robert Greenleaf’s principles of Servant Leadership, Building Community. This month, we will continue this topic from a different perspective and ask you to bring some stories about community building you’ve witnessed or initiated. We’re also interested in your observations on how the quality of our communities has changed post-COVID and what we need to do to nurture these relationships. A full agenda is linked here, and we welcome everyone to join us, even if you did not attend in September.