The Journey Beyond

3-Day Experiential Workshop

November 15-17, 2023

Produced by Living Giving Enterprises, LLC

In 2007 we began a course that has grown into something special, the Journey of Facilitation and Collaboration (JOFC).  Many of the 800 participants in JOFC have reported significant transformations in their approaches to facilitation and work. Nearly 90% report that they continue to apply skills and knowledge learned in JOFC to specific challenges they face in work and personal life. For us, as teachers and practitioners, the rewards we have derived from JOFC have been innumerable.

Now,  it’s time to continue that Journey! Advanced Opportunities in Integral Facilitation: The Journey Beyond has been enthusiastically received by over 100 brilliant and engaged participants in the Fall of 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. It continues to be a fabulously transformative experience for all of us. So much so that some students having repeated this journey 2-3 times as a learning and healing retreat for themselves. Because of its success, our continued desire to evolve this work, and popular interest, we are offering it again at the Holy Wisdom Monastery just outside Madison, WI.

What is the Journey Beyond?

What is the Journey Beyond? This is a course designed for managers, consultants, team and project leaders who work on highly complex (local to global) initiatives that cross culture, sector, geographic, and social domains. Our aim is for learners to have a powerful paradigm-shifting experience while learning approaches to restore human health, social ties, financial viability, and ecological services for people, organizations, and communities. It’s time for us to envision innovations in products, services, policies, and systems that produce conditions for life to thrive by design.

The Journey Beyond is only open to past participants of JOFC. Building upon the archetypes, experiences, and models of JOFC, we offer participants the chance to learn to collaborate in the presence of high complexity to create, revive, and restore healthy systems. Specific learning objectives include:

• Learn to hold personal and collective energetic space to facilitate healing and opening to possibility.
• Embody core values, competencies, behaviors and practices to fine-tune your presence as an Instrument of collaboration.
• Design & Manage Complex Environments that bring about meaningful collaboration around complex multi-disciplinary issues (e.g. healthcare, sustainability, education) in multi-scale systems (those crossing over from the personal or project level to include whole industries, sectors and beyond). 
• Practice tools to facilitate connection within and between cultures and value sets.

We have organized this course to allow the emergence of capacities at each scale, from Personal to Organizational to Global, integrating the ‘four quadrants’ and our archetypal competencies along the way.

EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT. Register by July 4th for $800, a 20% discount from the standard course fee of $1,000. The course is limited to 18 participants so you are strongly encouraged to reserve your space early! Read the refund policy here.

Testimonials

I’m in a new position at the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association as Program Manager for the future Alumni Park and One Alumni Place. It is a dream job for me and I owe Darin, Harry, and Steve a thank you for helping me get here. In my interview, I had a moment where I realized the different worldviews of the interview committee members.  After that moment, the conversation shifted and I felt much more comfortable and able to communicate.  The beauty was that I didn’t feel like I was selling them something inauthentic. Rather, I knew how to have a genuine conversation with each of them.  No doubt your work helped me land this exciting new position.
–McKenzie Zdrale, Program Manager, 2015 Participant–

Several months later, the magic is still unfolding from my back-to-back experiences at JOFC and JB.  What I learned at these amazing workshops continues to connect with the work I do.  I have a renewed sense of confidence in my own abilities, giving me the courage to take risks and approach challenges with curiosity and creativity.  The sense of community and support generated at both workshops continues to sustain me.  I have truly changed the way I see the world and interact with it.
–2015 Journey Beyond Participant, Janice Belgredan, Educational Consultant–

An exquisite balance between profoundly private moments and
profound collaboration and sharing.
–2013 Participant—

This is the best training I have had the pleasure to attend. This is the second time the course has been offered. I have attended both offerings and, although they continue to refine and advance the course, have felt the same way each time; personally changed for the better and inspired to be a change agent for a better world. Steve, Darin and Harry have crafted a safe and intimate environment in which everyone emerges having been healed in profound ways and energized with tools, new ways of thinking, and inspiration to accelerate positive change in the organizations and systems in which they live and work. The facilitators demonstrate that our self is central to our professional work and to the impacts we can make; that attending to our self (emotionally, spiritually, and physically) is essential to affecting positive change in our world.
–Erica Cochrane, Ph.D., Director of Conservation Measures, International Crane Foundation,
2013, 2015, 2016 Participant–

I was at a real estate closing yesterday. My seller, Erica was telling me about her communication responsibilities with the Crane Foundation. I said to her, “I might have some info that you will find useful.” “Wait,”  she says, I think I’ve heard of this before. I’m into facilitating and these guys at the UW created these two awesome programs, The Journey of Facilitation & Collaboration, and the Journey Beyond. In the Journey Beyond, I was uneasy for a bit because, geesh, they weren’t showing me how to be better at my job, which was paying me to be there. They were intending to create a whole paradigm shift for me. I embraced it and there’s nothing I can tell you here that would convey how powerful this program was for me.
–Tom Christensen, The Christensen Company, LLC in conversation with Erica Cochrane, 2013 Participant–

JOFC opened my eyes to the strength I have in staying present in a meeting. The Journey Beyond opened my eyes to stay present in a system, not trying to control or fix or even understand it,
but to see how I fit in and what I can do.
–Barb Bickford, 2013, 2016 Participant–

This workshop deepened the experience and learning from the Journey of Facilitation and Collaboration. I believe this is one of the most important workshops of our time. It provides the theory and practice to move into facilitating and leading the complexity faced by our organizations and communities.
–Stacy Craig, 2016 Participant–

The Journey Beyond was an incredibly valuable professional and personal development opportunity. The facilitators provided us with the unique opportunity to reflect upon ourselves and how we can become agents of change. The Journey Beyond had a great balance of active learning opportunities that were directly related to professional growth and opportunities for personal reflection and contemplation of life direction.
–Abby Lemke, Sr. Career Advisor, UW-Madison, 2016 Participant–

The Journey Beyond was a carefully crafted experience that provided a vessel in which we each could safely explore our perspectives and challenges. We practiced how to help diverse people work well together by first gaining a deeper understanding of differing worldviews and then practicing how to effectively communicate in these settings while maintaining dignity and respect for each person. We stretched our personal and professional boundaries and were encouraged to turn our desires for change into transformational action plans. We began to shift our energies toward Living Giving Systems and restorative practices. I came away feeling revived and renewed for the work ahead, ready to bring my personal best to each experience in which I am called to be of service. I am thankful for the deep, yet gentle “call to action” my heart received.
–Sandy Salvo, Program Manager, UW Health Facilitator, Qigong/Tai Chi Instructor, 2016 Participant–

Anytime there is a course offered by these three great people,
expect to be wowed and grow immensely.
–Nancy Schultz-Darken, 2013 Participant–

The Journey Beyond provided me with a unique opportunity to reflect on the important, yet often overlooked, aspects of our existence – our connection to ourselves, one another, our environment. I also learned new ways of being that enable me to engage in complex change that add meaning to my life. I have a more direct connection to my and others’ humanity as a result of this workshop.
–Mark Kueppers, 2013 Participant—

Having focused, in-depth time spent exploring the core topics in this workshop allowed me to integrate the lessons and information into my understanding in a deep way as opposed to just learning ideas that I’ll need to study regularly to fully grasp and remember. For example, the time we spent inhabiting the different worldviews has enabled me to see that layer in my interactions and relationships (almost as if I’m wearing worldview-filtering lenses), which then empowers me to bring the most relevant pieces of myself and perspective to those interactions.
–2015 Participant–

This course has helped me to value my own decision-making processes while still holding the knowledge that others will come to very different decisions depending on their worldviews.
–2013  Participant–

I found the Journey Beyond to be a great experience that captures the balance between intuition and technique and between being centered and connected. It primes you to be in a good headspace to be effective using the techniques.
—Bob Ash, 2013 Participant ––

Journey Beyond provided effective, multifaceted, profound mutual learning and challenge in a gorgeous setting. Facilitators consistently held the learning community in mutual respect and quiet while, simultaneously participating fully themselves .
–Linda Newman, 2013 Participant–

The Journey Beyond was truly that. A journey beyond and deeper into the concepts of JOFC. Everything was so well done during the workshop, from the content, to the setting, to the lunchtime discussions. The passion of Harry, Steve, and Darin to make the workshop a truly meaningful journey into the concepts and into your self is obvious. They took great care to make sure the participants come out on the other side of the journey with a new view on not just work topics, but on how you see your self and others. It will undoubtedly influence how I move forward in my life journey.
–2015 Participant–

The instructors did an excellent job of creating and maintaining a safe container for us to connect, risk and celebrate together. The synergy of the group allowed me to stretch my capacity to process and practice new ways of looking at the world, my organization and my clients.
–2015 Participant–

JOFC gave me tools to help navigate the world,
JB gave me tools to avoid getting swept away in the storm.
–Lisa Welgehausen Project Architect, 2015 Participant–

JB has helped me continue to grow and become more confident in my role as a facilitator. I am willing to try different things and also to change things up midstream. I still plan things out yet I feel I can be more spontaneous with changes to the plan! Yesterday I facilitated a meeting and my peer (who attended JOFC) mentioned how she thought I had really taken facilitation to heart. Each day I feel I am learning and it’s exciting. Thank you for this training. It’s incredible.
–2017 Participant–

JB is a space of possibility. I gained the courage and tangible action steps to create continued spaces of possibility in my life – to turn dreams and goals into reality. The Journey Beyond was unlike any professional opportunity I’ve had – it had a profound impact on me, and was truly transformational, impacting all realms of my life. If you have the opportunity to experience JB, your mind and soul will be thankful.
–2017 Participant–

It was restorative and enlightening.
–2017 Participant–

I arrived at JB hopeful to learn some new tools to integrate into my life so that I could be a better leader. I left understanding that I already had those tools, but wasn’t accessing them in the best way. I wasn’t using my voice and my gifts for the better of my colleagues, my “industry,” my family, or myself. I came away with a greater understanding of myself and how I can impact and ultimately change some of the old ways of being.
–2017 Participant–