Reflection and feedback

View.  Shambhala leadership is a path, both for individual office-holders and for all of us who are involved in creating the culture of enlightened society. The Sakyong has spoken of leadership as the natural fruition of the Shambhala teachings, and as such has stressed the need for all of us to deepen our understanding and practice of what he terms “Sacred Governance.”

Self-reflection and review of our individual and collective practice of leadership is part of that path. In accordance with this view, during the last two years the Portland Shambhala Center Governing Council has engaged in a series of conversations about leadership, what it means and how specifically we are doing.  We see our work as being aimed toward the creation of an enlightened society and that therefore what can be conventionally understood as “merely a job or task” is transformed by being understood in that light.

dir-feedback-questionnaireProcess. The Governing Council has initiated a process to gather feedback to the Center Director.  For this purpose we have adapted a process developed by an international working group on “Leadership as Path” that has been offered as a model by Shambhala International.  The Council appointed a committee to refine the questionnaire, administer it, and interpret and communicate the results to the Council and to Director Lisa Stanley.  The members of the Committee are:

 

In consultation with the Director, the Committee has identified a list of members and colleagues who have worked directly with her during the past two years.  Those people have been contacted directly with a request to complete the questionnaire.

Future expectations. We are thinking that good governance involves active communication throughout our community and so are seeking to find ways to make it “a regular thing” — both formally and informally.  If you have ideas about how to go further in this regard or would like to be involved in the current process of gathering feedback, please get in touch with one of the people on the committee (listed above).

Corey Adkins

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