Exploring Bold Leadership in Rural Communities

[Alicia Evans]

Ontario’s rural and agricultural organizations and communities are under pressure – we are all trying to do more with less to address increasingly complex challenges. This pressure also brings with it an opportunity for real change, and real change calls for a new kind of leadership. At the 2012 Leading Edge Summit - October 16 and 17, 2012, people from across rural Ontario gathered together to explore this bold leadership for recharging our communities – how to move beyond our familiar ways of leading and working together to energize and mobilize participation through the Art of Hosting.

Although this was our first year using the Art of Hosting approach (and for most participants, their first experience with it), the Summit is always an opportunity for us to explore the edges of leadership and encourage people to push themselves out of their comfort zones. Our three amazing facilitators – Erika Bailey, Jean Ogilvie and Tenneson Woolf – created an experience where participants could harvest new knowledge, insight and relationships. Participants shared experiences and stories in a variety of engaging formats, learned some new principles and processes for convening meaningful conversations and meetings, began new relationships across sectors and communities, and co-created new opportunities for getting to work on the important issues in rural Ontario.

As always it was an amazing opportunity to connect with passionate and experienced people from across rural Ontario and learn some new ways of working and leading together. Here is a link to video that offers a little taste of what we experienced!

https://vimeo.com/59129519