Anima News

Director’s Notes

Welcome to Anima’s inaugural newsletter!

Our last year has been a very exciting one of getting our work off the ground. Here are some of the highlights of the last year:

  • We’ve run a number of highly successful programs both in Canada and abroad that include Women’s Leadership, the Equity Institute as well as the United World Colleges Youth Leadership Summit (UWC-YLS) for communities in conflict in Europe. This year, our European project was filmed by award-winning independent documentary filmmakers who were inspired by seeing the positive impact of the program on the integration debate. The film should be released by 2009.

  • We had our first ever Anima Summit in Alberta this past June with our associates from the West Coast, Sheelagh Davis and David Hatfield. It was a productive planning session where we laughed, dreamed and strategized for the next one to two years.

  • We are very proud to announce a partnership with the nationally respected Crown corporation, The Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF). Anima and CRRF will jointly be offering our Equity Institute–integrating anti-racism with emotional intelligence and conflict resolution–across Canada over the next year. Our first program is being offered in Toronto at the beginning of November (see below for details).

We hope to see you at one of our upcoming events!

Annahid Dashtgard, Executive Director

Upcoming Programs

Shakil presenting Keynote address at the Elementary Teacher's Federation of Ontario, Spring 2007

Below is a list of Anima’s fall programs! Our work is designed to enable people to be more effective personally and professionally, to create inclusive and productive environments, to harness the power of uncertainty and to transform conflict into opportunities for growth. We look forward to seeing you there…

  • Equity & Leadership Institute: Integrating Anti-Racism, Emotional Intelligence and Conflict Resolution, Nov. 1-2 Toronto.

    Anima Leadership is teaming up with the Canadian Race Relations Foundation to present this unique, interactive workshop for managers, educators, and leaders of equity initiatives. By integrating anti-racism with emotional intelligence and conflict resolution, a unique and very hopeful approach has been developed to create inclusive organizations and environments. The Equity & Leadership Institute balances intellect with emotions, and internal factors with structural forces. Self-awareness, empathy, compassion and truth speaking are the foundations for this embodied, relational approach to equity. Using theory, practice and experiential activities that have been developed and tested in national and international settings, this cutting-edge program will both challenge and support your current equity strategies. Limited space due to the experiential nature of the workshop.

  • A Capella, Creativity and Conflict: The Art of Improvisation and Leadership, Nov. 30-Dec. 1, Toronto.

    Anima Leadership is bringing our skilled Vancouver-based associate, David Hatfield, to Toronto to present this unique workshop for managers, consultants, educators, trainers and coaches and others who facilitate change processes and work with conflict. The study and application of conscious improvisation is a powerful addition to the skill set of leaders and change-makers. While new learning in science and brain research reveals that change is a constant that underlines every living systems, dedicated skill building in improvisation remains virtually absent from current leadership trainings and theory. Current social issues, especially pertaining to conflict, require the kind of instinct and risk-taking skill that the study of improvisation provides. Besides, it's a whole lot of fun!! While vocal improvisation will be the main modality, improvised movement and writing will also be explored. Singing experience not required. Limited spaces available. Register by Nov. 2 & receive a 15% discount.

  • ABLE Program for Women, Nov. 21-Dec. 12, Toronto

    The Anima Body-Leadership and Eating program is a unique, bold and life-transforming 4-session program for any woman desiring positive changes in her relationship to food, eating and body image. This course is designed to support women where many of us get caught-- in judgments of ourselves and our bodies, and in controlling our relationship to food, to nourishment. Our struggle is not with controlling how much food we eat or monitoring the size of our bodies, but for our own power—power gained through accepting aspects of ourselves that have been silenced, threatened or devalued. This program is designed to go to the emotional root of patterns with food and body image and to give women the critical analysis, tools and experiential practices to break free of the prison of "not enough". You will emerge with new levels of self-awareness, confidence and capacity to enact change in all areas of your life. Limited space due to experiential nature of the work. Register by Nov. 2 & receive a 15% discount.

Contact Anima Leadership for more information or to register for any of these programs:

info@animaleadership.com | 416.462.9512x1 | www.animaleadership.com

Recommended Reading

Participants at the UWC-YLS RACE CONFLICT program in the Netherlands, Summer 2007.

A General Theory of Love

2000 by Thomas Lewis, M.D., Fari Amini, M.D., Richard Lannon, M.D.

This book is a lyrical and at the same time, scientifically grounded must-read for anyone interested in understanding the necessity of having healthy relationships as a foundation for driving effective change, in both our personal and professional lives. Written by three doctors, this book summarizes the latest findings in the field of neuroscience that speak to our need to be in relationship and what that means: the phenomena of emotional resonance (how we unconsciously tune in to each other), filters that affect our perception of things (our in-grown bias), the importance of listening and general guidelines to forge healthy relationships. We recommend this book as a guide to fostering more holistic, dynamic and sustainable change processes for ourselves, in teams and organizations and in our society at large.

“The changes in which we will be called upon to participate in the future will be both deeply personal and inherently systemic…[our] blind spot concerns not the what and how— not what leaders do and how they do it— but the WHO: who we are and the inner place or source from which we operate, both individually and collectively.”

~ Peter Senge et. al. in Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society, 2006.