The art of leading collectively: applying systems aliveness in building strong collaboration ecosystems
Have you ever wondered why some collaborative efforts spark energy and create lasting impact, while others feel stuck or drain everyone involved? One of the secret ingredients lies in understanding how to cultivate what we call "living systems" - collaborations that are vibrant, adaptive, and naturally generative.
In this interactive session, we'll explore six essential qualities that bring collaborations to life and help them thrive:
Intentional generativity: creating space for new ideas and possibilities to emerge
Permeable containment: building strong yet flexible boundaries
Emerging novelty: welcoming unexpected breakthroughs and innovations
Contextual interconnectedness: recognizing how everything connects
Mutually enhancing wholeness: ensuring everyone and everything benefits
Proprioceptive consciousness: developing group awareness and sensing
We'll translate these concepts into something you can use right away - the Collective Leadership Compass, which focuses on six practical dimensions:
Future Possibilities: envisioning what could be
Engagement: building authentic connections and participation
Innovation: fostering creativity and new approaches
Collective Intelligence: harnessing the wisdom of the group
Wholeness: honoring all parts of the system
Humanity: keeping people and relationships at the center
During our time together, we will explore this framework in more depth, through guided exchanges and peer sharing.
You'll discover how to recognise and strengthen these qualities in your own work. At the same time, you will have the opportunity to assess your collaboration efforts within your projects, organisations, or other meaningful collaborations you may be involved in.
By doing so, you can begin to translate the otherwise difficult-to-rationally-comprehend notion of systems aliveness into strategic leadership practices.
Who is this session for?
Whether you're leading organizational transformation, coordinating community initiatives, managing environmental programs, or facilitating collaborative networks, this session will provide you with practical tools to assess and enhance the quality of your collaborative efforts. The framework is especially valuable for practitioners who recognize that lasting change requires understanding and working with the living, interconnected nature of social and ecological systems, and who want to move beyond fragmented approaches toward more integrated, systems-aware leadership practices.
About your facilitator
Suzan Joy is a community advocate, researcher, feminist, and circular economist based in Uganda who has helped movements across East Africa broaden participation and increase impact. Suzan's advocacy, creative campaign, and movement building skills are evident in how her trainings on strategic nonviolence & movement building sparked a revolution in Amuru district, Uganda. When residents of Amuru district, spearheaded by mothers, stood up against land grabbing, their story inspired the creation of the National Land Defence League, a network of community organizers conducting solidarity actions in 4 regions of Uganda to address land conflict.
Suzan consults regularly for civil society, international grant-making organizations, INGOs, alongside grassroots community projects. She has offered her experiences and skills in executing collaborations with organizations like Action Alliance, The Pollination Project, Partos, The Bromeliad Foundation, Afrikan Kontakt, One Million Leaders Africa, amongst others.
An invitation
🎁 Suzan is offering this session out of passion for the topic. At the same time, in exchange for participating in this session, she kindly invites you to make a financial contribution directly to the Abundance Fund Community Fundraiser, and support the first ever in person gathering of the Abundance Collective. Every contribution means a lot!
If you can't make a financial contribution, please consider supporting this fundraiser in alternative ways - maybe spreading the word in your own networks, or offering a session yourself as part of the Abundance Gift Circle. We appreciate it!