The 2018 Integral Practitioner Convergence Connect • Collaborate • Create

Why the Integral Practitioner Convergence?

Our Historical Moment Requires a New Kind of Professional

We live in a time of agonizing challenges and creative disruptions that require a deeper and higher order of capability from those who choose to engage this historical moment. The challenges humanity faces are so complex that our historical epoch is sometimes described as a crisis of complexity. This is at the core of our current ecological, economic, and political turmoil. In each case, what is required of humanity is more complex than what our current capabilities support. Even our own inventions—technologies, cultural memes, and organizations—have been evolving into increasingly complex forms which have increased the demands of everyday life.

In response to these challenges, transformative initiatives are emerging and converging all around the globe. Our global circumstances require practitioners involved in transformation and leadership to develop a unique ecology of competencies that is complex enough for the requirements of the present.

Many of us are are called to lives of sacred purpose where we seek to connect professional livelihood with personal meaning and passion. However, there is a widening gap between the challenges of complexity and our individual and collective capabilities. To realize our potential for passionate and meaningful livelihood, it is imperative that we close this gap by building a bridge of capability.

What do Integral Practitioners do?

“Let the beauty we love be what we do.” -- Rumi

“My work is loving the world.” -- Mary Oliver

Integral practitioners foster the development and transformation of individuals, teams, organizations and social systems by empowering the whole person and the whole system. In domains such as education, business, healing, coaching, and the arts, integral practitioners bring imagination to complex challenges in the service of transforming mindsets, cultures and social systems. Integral Practitioners catalyze development in multiple domains of professional practice through facilitating transformative learning at different levels: individuals, teams, organizations, and social systems.

Capabilities Chart

Integral practitioners make an impact by:

Facilitating incremental, adaptive and transformative change.
Catalyzing development through transformative learning.
Engaging the vitality and emergence of development and evolution.
Leading in ways that take responsibility for the whole.
Evolving new methods of creative collaboration.
Securing the function of integrity in integral practice.
Developing the whole person: cognitively, emotionally, somatically, and spiritually.
Integrating action and reflection through collective action inquiry and learning.
Anchoring the sacred by reuniting the artistic and the scientific.
Innovating prototypes that can be scaled while sustaining beauty and practicality.
Inhabiting both the contemplative and the performative.
Inquiring through both expressive and scientific methods.
Healing division within historically wounded systems of relationships.

The 2018 Integral Practitioner Convergence

Who Should Participate:

Participants will include aspiring, early career, mid-career, established, and distinguished Integral Practitioners in the domains of education, business, well-being & healthcare, and the arts.

During The Convergence You Will:

Experience a diverse community of inquiry and practice.
Engage with established Integral Practitioners from around the world - in-person and via live video - regarding their professional work and learning journeys.
Connect with other aspiring and emerging practitioners.
Collaborate with others in prototyping your practice idea.
Discover the distinct web of competencies required for realizing your unique vision of integral practice.
Participate in the ongoing development of the Integral Practitioner Convergence.
Explore the core consciousness capacities vital for Integral Practitioners.

## Calling Coaches, Entrepreneurs, Innovators, Consultants, Changemakers, Leaders of next-stage organizations…

Integral practitioners from around the world are converging in Berlin on May 18 - 20, 2018 to learn from each other about the capabilities, methods, models and practices that they are innovating in the context of their professional engagements.

The format of this gathering will not be like a typical conference organized by keynote speakers, panels, and workshops. Instead, the three-day Convergence will draw on self-organizing processes that support the emergent discovery and self-management intrinsic to integral practice.

2018 Convergence Catalysts

Aftab Omer

Aftab Omer, PhD is a sociologist, psychologist, futurist and the president of Meridian University. Raised in Pakistan, India, Hawaii, and Turkey, he was educated at the universities of M.I.T, Harvard and Brandeis. His publications have addressed the topics of transformative learning, cultural leadership, generative entrepreneurship and the power of imagination. His work includes assisting organizations in tapping the creative potentials of conflict, diversity, and complexity. Formerly the president of the Council for Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychologies, he is a Fellow of the International Futures Forum and the World Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Jean Houston

Jean Houston, Chancellor of Meridian University, is a visionary researcher who has authored nearly 30 books and worked intensively in over 40 cultures, lectured in over 100 countries, and worked with major organizations such as UNICEF and NASA. Dr. Houston has developed a worldwide network of leaders including Joseph Campbell, Margaret Mead, Buckminster Fuller, Jonas Salk, US presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, as well as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, giving her unique insight into the human potential. Dr. Houston's book, A Passion for the Possible, is an expansive compliment to her inspiring PBS special of the same name.

Although Dr. Jean Houston is best known for her work in human and social development and the realization of our human capacities, she is also a cultural historian and an explorer of the psychology and philosophy of history. As the “adopted” daughter of the anthropologist Margaret Mead, she was sent into the field to study the ways in which different cultures brought their own unique experience of different kinds development. “Jean, go out and harvest the human potential,” Dr. Mead directed her.

Rainer Leoprechting

Originally from Trier, Germany, Rainer now lives in Austria with the rural Obenaus Community he co-founded, where people connect with their inner and outer nature. He initiated and co-hosts the Next-Stage.World gathering for organization re-inventors, consults with leadership and project teams and develops internet matches that align the developmental context of individuals and organizations. Before that, he worked in Brussels with the European Commission from 1994 to 2012, where he founded and led an in-house consulting service. In his work, Rainer combines Art of Hosting practices, Systemic Constellation Work, Action Learning, and process consultation along with his own process innovations. He presented recently at the Integral European Conference and will be co-leading self-organizing processes for this conference again, this year.

George Por

George Pór is a faculty member in the Transformative Leadership graduate program at Meridian University. He is a strategic learning partner to visionary leaders in business, government, and civil society; an evolutionary agent and Teal Mentor, facilitating vertical development in people and organizations. He is a researcher in collective intelligence, the founder of CommunityIntelligence and an online magazine and community: Enlivening Edge — News from Next-Stage Organizations.

Melissa Schwartz

Melissa Schwartz, PhD is the Chief Academic Officer at Meridian University where she guides integrally-oriented programs in Education, Business, and Psychology. The Director of Meridian’s Center for Transformative Learning, Melissa is dually licensed as both a psychologist and as a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT). She serves as a reviewer for the American Psychological Association’s Journal, Psychology of Women Quarterly, and the California Psychological Association’s Office of Professional Development. As well, she serves as a Subject Matter Expert for California’s Board of Behavioral Sciences in the continual development of the state’s MFT licensure examination. Melissa’s research interests are in the areas of adult development, the psychology of women, integral transformative assessment, and the role of culture in transformative learning.

Raymond Fismer

Raymond Fismer is a physicist and long-time practitioner in adult education, relationship counseling, ecological engineering, and NGO finance management. He has worked extensively as a researcher and workshop leaders on masculine development. He is the lead organizer for the Integrales Forum’s upcoming Conference in June 2017.

Nico Roenpagel

Nico Roenpagel, PhD, is a faculty member in the Transformative Leadership graduate program at Meridian University. Based in Berlin, he explores novel intersections of art, education, and meditation. Originally trained as an art and drama teacher in Germany, Nico completed his doctoral research at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He is an associate of the Berlin-based non-profit Forum for Meditation & Neuroscience.

And others...

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Event Details & Registration

Friday, May 18th

2 pm to 9 pm

Saturday, May 19th

10 am to 9 pm

Sunday, May 20th

10 am to 2 pm

Cost: €250

Full three-day 2018 Convergence event
Coffee to be provided during event.
Advance online registration only

Venue Information

The Refugio

Lenaustraße 3-4, 12047 Berlin, Germany

Living and working with newcomers

A five-floor live, work, and event space in Neukölln, Berlin, the Refugio draws individuals from all over the world who are looking for meaningful community. Refugio runs a coffeeshop, provides catering, organizes events and is launching a rooftop garden space.

The Refugio was developed with and for the Berlin City Mission by Sven Lager & Elke Naters (www.sharehaus.net) and launched in May 2017.