Distinctions Spring 2024 – New Ventures West

DISTINCTIONS

Spring 2024

You Are More

by Adam Klein

“I want to help people become who they are.”

I remember uttering those words in response to someone asking, “What do you want to do?” I was heading into college and needing to pick a direction of study. None of them really appealed to me.

Around 2003 I was introduced to the Enneagram, a well developed vertical development system. I remember at the time having a hard time even spelling the word. My exposure to it came as I was transitioning from a well planned life of being an engineer into the direction of…what exactly I didn’t know. I was in a graduate course on Leadership and Culture, and we were discussing personality and knowing ourselves. At the time I had a mild preoccupation with personality tests. I think because I was looking for answers to the question, “Who am I, really?”

I went online and began reading more about the Enneagram, and ordered a well known book, The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Russ Hudson and Don Riso. I remember very clearly identifying with the 7 point and feeling relieved, amazed, and somewhat in shock about what the system revealed about my personality structure.

One aspect that particularly stood out to me was how point 7s have a difficult time with being still or in silence. I learned that, though there was good reason for these traits, taking on practices of stillness, contemplation and meditation could be beneficial. Having had some experience with this already by spending days alone in the wilderness, I was called to move deeper into this practice.

Over the ensuing 20+ years of practicing silence and solitude I have come to experience more of myself—parts that weren’t accessible through my personality, which is automatically drawn in the opposite direction. The saying, “you are more than your personality” has become more of a lived reality. It has me open more to what lies beyond my immediate experience, and trusting that what I am currently experiencing is only a part of the story.

This is, in large part, what we are aimed at with Integral Coaching. Inviting people to expand into themselves—or said differently, to include more of who they are.

For example, I was recently working with a client who wished to be less constrained in their expression and more able to be in the flow of the moment. When they came into coaching they experienced life through their luminous mind, which had many benefits. They could really see possibilities, synthesize and apply models. All this led to wonderful outcomes in their life and those they served. They could also sense the limitation of this, and desired to access more of life through their sensate experience and feel alive.

In our coaching together a marked shift occurred. One example they shared was the capacity to interject in conversations more. They could feel the grounding of their body and were able to compassionately interrupt and take the lead in conversations. Their voice had more power to it, and in speaking with them I could feel the umph in what they were saying.

When we can access, or include, more of ourselves, everything changes. Just as the Enneagram supported my discovery that I was more than my personality, coaching helped my client expand beyond their current capacity into deeper, more meaningful contact with life, opening ever greater possibilities for fulfillment.

May it be so for all of us.

with love,

Adam

Practice of the Quarter

Self Observation

Cultivating a Way of Being

As we explore the depths of our being beyond the familiar, self-observation becomes a crucial tool. We encourage you to choose a quality, a way of being, a way of relating, a way of caring for, a way of observing that you are committed to nurturing over the next month. Please allocate 5-15 minutes daily for this self-observation and reflection, taking notes or recording a voice memo on the prompts to support you. Your chosen quality is the subject of your observation (even though it may be a way of being, etc.), but to keep it simple, name it.

In what ways did I cultivate my quality?
Who or what facilitated my cultivation?
Did I exclude any situation, any relationship as a chance to cultivate my quality? If so, why was that?
What effect is paying attention to cultivating my quality having on me/my relationships/my experience of being alive, present?
What action will I take from what I observed in this exercise?

Poems of the Quarter

“Love After Love” by Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Book of the Quarter

Let your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer

Written with poignancy born of experience, Palmer invites readers to profoundly listen to their life. I often recommend this book to clients who are looking to navigate “What’s next?” with a commitment to something deeper or meaningful. While thin in terms of pages the book is a feast of wisdom, compassion, and invitation to bring ourselves more fully to life and for life to more fully live through us. Palmer has a kind and approachable way of welcoming us to include all of ourselves: strengths & weaknesses, light & shadow, in a way that unifies us. Moreover, he emphasizes the importance of doing all this in the context of community. This is all blended with a pragmatic approach. A loved book by many, I highly recommend it.

Graduate News

“Go forth and set the world on fire.” ~ Ignatius of Loyola

Dear friends,

I don’t know if you’ve ever stumbled upon this quote before, from Spanish Christian mystic Ignatius of Loyola. At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is imaginative contemplation, and practitioners are invited to bring all of their senses into meditation time, so as to have an embodied experience of their relationship with the divine. Relationality and collaboration play a major role in the path of transformation and growth proposed by Ignatius, which in time, may give rise to a deep desire to respond to a calling and serve the world in contemplative action. The heart of the practitioner is inflamed by Divine Love and that is the kind of fire he is talking about. Love in action can in fact transform the world.

Inspired as I am from having spent almost a month outside of Rio and truly grateful for all the beautiful moments I had with so many graduates in the Bay Area (at the Wisdom 2.0 Conference and our annual in-person Graduate Gathering) and in Colorado (at a regional Community Gathering), I share with you that my heart is still on fire. And I would like to offer something to ignite your hearts too.

I invite you to contemplate the idea of being held in a year-long container of growth and development after graduating from the PCC ~ no matter how long ago you graduated. How does your heart feel when you imagine that? What do you sense in your body?

If this is what you have been longing for, secretly or not, this is about to become a new reality. It is with much joy that I bring you news that will reorient the way our graduate community experiences our program offerings.

With great excitement New Ventures West is announcing the launch of two Graduate Pathways that will be open to enrollment by the end of the summer. Exclusively built for you, the Pathways have been designed with input from our alumni and provide and weave two key components of our shared work: integration and community.

When you turn the page on the significant milestone that is graduating from the PCC, we invite you to remember that your journey with New Ventures West is far from over. Instead, it marks the start of a lifelong connection, one in which we are committed to supporting you as you continue to grow, interact, and develop your unique voice and presence in the world. One in which meaningful relationships are built and nourished upon fertile ground.

Whether you are an emerging coach who wants to stay in the flow of learning, an established coach looking for advanced support, or someone transitioning back into coaching after time away, our pathways will offer a range of benefits to help you stay connected, inspired, and supported as you navigate your ongoing development and coaching career.

No matter which path you choose, you will have the chance to participate in yours and others’ transformational growth; build new relationships with like-minded peers and faculty; learn through guidance and community; grow within a container for continuous self-development; continue developing a solid cohort and potentially friends for life; and practice Integral Coaching in a dedicated space.

We believe the Graduate Pathways will be an invaluable resource as you continue to grow and make a positive impact on the lives of your clients and all those you are in relationship with.

New Ventures West will launch two pathways: the Connected Pathway and the Engaged Pathway. All graduates from the PCC automatically join the Connected Pathway – where advanced graduate courses will be available a la carte along with a suite of free offers to support them and the community.

Enrolling in the Engaged Pathway places you within a cohort for the year where availability to all graduate courses, along with other pathway specific offers are all contained within a monthly tuition. This pathway specifically orients around being in a yearlong container, your developmental community.

You can read more about both Graduate Pathways on the web page designed for this purpose. We are currently finalizing the offers, but feel free to leave us your details by submitting the form on our page, and be the first informed when registration opens.

If you have questions, feel free to reach out to me. We are connected, and New Ventures West would love to hear from you.

If you feel your heart yearning and warming up, allow it to be set on fire. Let us rekindle that flame and remember the true essence of belonging.

With love,

Marcia Poppe

Graduate Community Steward

Leader Retreat in Toulouse, May 2024

Leaders from Convivium, Centre for Coaching, New Ventures West and Thirdspace gathered in Toulouse this year. We had an enriching time of deepening into shared work. Last year we started a lively conversation of the PCC as an apprenticeship to life. We carried that theme forward specifically looking at what happens in-between each of the PCC sessions. Stay tuned for experiments changing what happens in that time!