My Wyrd and Wonderful Week .. talking to machines

Reporting from the Science & Consciousness Summit at Broughton Sanctuary, Skipton

Brenda Dunne (left) over from the USA with the REG equipment from the original PEAR lab, written about by author Lynne McTaggart (centre) in the ‘Intention Experiment’, with Conscious Cafe Host Gina Lazenby, during the Science & Consciousness Summit

I just got back from a mind-blowing week at Broughton Sanctuary, Yorkshire.  It was a unique opportunity to discuss what some might call weird woo-woo, with scientists. Yep, it was an incredible week looking at the intersections of magic and science. What’s not to love about that!

Sceptical?  As much as I love magic and woo-woo there is still a tiny part of me that sometimes needs reminding with proof…. it must be the grounded, practical Yorkshire woman within!  And what better proof can you get than by sitting in front of a machine, sending a thought towards it …. and having it respond?! Unbelievably cool. There is so much we can potentially believe in, in the way of synchronicities and other everyday phenomena, yet ….  when you see a machine give you direct feedback from an intention you send it from your mind, not your fingers, that’s pretty earth-shaking .. or life-affirming, depending on where you stand with believing in the unseen world.  

The event was the Science & Consciousness Summit, organised by Ubiquity University, and attended by over 40 interested professionals from many walks of life and scientists from Europe and all over the USA. It was held at Broughton Hall and Avalon Centre for Wellbeing & Transformation and being five minutes down the road from my Skipton home, the call was strong for me to attend, even though at the time of signing up, I did not quite know what I was letting myself in for.

Award-winning journalist and author Lynne McTaggart has written extensively about the work of a Research lab at Princeton University, and other academic establishments, who sought to bridge the worlds of science and spirit, in her best-selling books ‘The Field’ and ‘The Intention Experiment’. That particular Lab, the leader in this field of research, was called PEAR (Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research) and headed up by Brenda Dunne, from its creation in 1979, together with the late Prof Robert Jahn, until it closed in 2007. 

Ubiquity University’s Peter Merry who convened this Summit had the brilliant idea to re-enliven this important research and arranged to bring all the Lab’s equipment and Library out of storage, and install it in a new facility at Broughton Hall.  It was Brenda Dunne who had stored everything and she came along to the Summit, from the USA, to share stories about how the experiments were down.  It’s one thing to read about the weird machines used, Random Event Generators (REGs), it’s quite another to hear first hand, the narrative on how they were used and developed … and not only that … to witness them being used during our Summit.

If you are not familiar with an REG, it’s basically a piece of kit that does the equivalent of tossing a coin, giving you a 50/50 chance of two results. Statistically this is normally even stevens ….. with the linked software registering half heads and half tails. You can see a line in the middle of a graph with the heads and tails line bobbing along in the middle. Now this is the interesting bit .. when something happens that changes the emotional atmosphere of a space, the machines take note departing from their 50/50 norm by highlighting a statistically significant increase in heads or tails. In other words, the machines respond to an imperceptible, invisible shift and acknowledge that something is happening by changing their behaviour.  Decades of research and hundreds of trials have been done with these machines (and you can read more about this in Lynne’s book or on her blog from this event that she also attended) so I am not talking about a one-off event.  

Peter Merry surprised Brenda Dunne awarding her a PhD Doctorate from Ubiquity University in honour of the decades of service and revise she conducted with the PEAR lab

This fascinating possibility came to life for me when we saw the graph that the machine charted during the first morning of the Summit, and none of us realised that it was running in the background. The chart showed a rise in difference once we had had our opening ritual and then spent 90 minutes listening to Brenda recount amusing tales from the PEAR lab bringing decades of what could have been boring scientific lab talk to vibrant life.  When she finished, Peter Merry surprised all by awarding Brenda with a PhD doctorate, complete with black academic hat, in honour of her decades of pioneering research work. A much belated recognition and one which she valued even more highly coming from Ubiquity. After this was over, the REG screen was shared and we could clearly see a departure from the norm as our group united in thought and appreciation of Brenda’s work culminating in a significant peak on the machine when Brenda was awarded her PhD. It was as much a peak experience for the whole group as it was for Brenda, and the machine gave us feedback that an emotional charge was present in the group and could be seen on the graph.

The central green line is where the “norm” is. Anything around the blue OR red lines shows significance. We sent an intention to hit that red line at the end and we did!

During the course of our five days, we had the opportunity to take part in Remote Viewing exercises, something which Brenda had pioneered, where one of a duo was sent off into the woodland with the instruction to send back a mental picture to the other person to receive then recount. The idea is to tune in to an ‘information channel’ which you can share .. like sending a mental fax through the ether. We also sat with an REG machine and sent an intention to it to move a line in a certain direction and to a certain place … and bingo … there it went. Quite incredible.

What’s interesting in all of this is:

• You don’t need to be a psychic, all Brenda’s experiments into parapsychology were done with ordinary folk with no special skills. Of particular note is that children seem do well! (no hang-ups or judgements to get in the way?) 
• Results are amplified and bigger effects achieved with more people. Two are better than one,  two genders working together are even better and can double a result but a bonded couple (know each other very well) can shift results by a factor of seven.
• Strong deviations are registered by the REG machines when a group of people come into coherence and this change of frequency in the field of energy in the room, through aligned thought or a common goal, can actually be picked up. 
• Powerful intentions have more impact than an idle thought. 

So .. what does all this mean? Well Broughton are now housing this REG equipment from PEAR in what they call the ‘Wyrd Experience’ …. Wyrd being an old Englishe name for magic and the exploration into interconnectedness. The feeling among the group was that it is time to reclaim our weird and magical past and make it normal …. and not the other way round. Much research is happening in this field of altered states and the transference of information by non-technical means. The Galileo Commission is a fascinating initiative now involving nearly 1,000 scientists who are keen to expand the scope of science as it currently is. As David Lorimer of the Scientific & Medical Network puts it on their website, it’s time to apply the same level of research and rigour into Inner Space that we have applied to Outer Space. 

Author Lynne McTaggart reuniting with the legendary Brenda Dunne at Broughton’s new ‘Wyrd Experience’ during the Science & Consciousness Summit

Basically, what’s needed is a Hogwart’s for adults!

We need our own school to help foster our imaginations and develop further the skills we so clearly have. I am looking forward to seeing how Broughton’s  Wyrd Experience develops and hopefully taking part myself!

Conscious Cafe at Broughton

Since 2018 I have been hosting regular Conscious Cafe gatherings at Broughton’s Avalon, attracting folk from all over the north who are interested in gathering in community for conversations about things that matter. The Conscious Cafe movement, started in London by ex-publisher Judy Piatkus, is all about raising consciousness, literally one conversation at a time. It’s a wonderful opportunity to sit with friends or strangers and have heartfelt conversations about life, listening deeply to others and feeling heard yourself. These events are precious and life-enhancing. Of course our live gatherings have had an 18 month hiatus where we moved online but as the live gathering schedule comes back, I look forward to bringing our group to the Wryd Experience and having the opportunity to demonstrate with the help of the REG machine set up, that the kind of conversations our group meetings focus on actually creates coherence which can be registered. There is power and magic in that, particularly when intentions are set as Lynne McTaggart clearly demonstrates in her global work.

I have already been working with a group on the Intention Experiment protocol which Lynne refers to as The Power of Eight ….. it’s been magical and it is fantastic to witness the feedback on what we all feel is powerful energy creating miracles in people’s lives. Check it out … create your own magic.

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Leadership through times of great change

Leading in Changing Times

On April 23rd we had a first .. many UK business women are regular attendees at Lady Val Corbett’s legendary London networking lunches where she invites fascinating and high profile keynote speakers like Channel 4’s Jon Snow, national treasure comedian and global traveller Michael Palin and the colourful cook Prue Leith. The money raised from the lunch events funds the Corbett foundation and their important work in supporting ex-offenders creating a new life. So with the Lockdown and our West End lunch venue closed for business, our ladies lunch was held online .. we brought our own lunch at home and 60 of us settled in on Zoom to listen to our speaker addressing us from her own home. Lady Val was rather apprehensive how this would go but it’s fair to say it was a roaring success. We all now seem to be discovering how much can be achieved, and conveyed, through a screen and no travel! We still get the buzz of connection.

Dame Inga Beale, first female CEO to lead Lloyd’s of London in over three centuries

Our speaker was Dame Inga Beale, DBE, a British businesswoman who became the first female CEO of Lloyd’s of London. After leading the global insurance and reinsurance market for five years, embedding modernisation and cultural change, she left in June 2018. She has spent most of her career in the insurance industry and described herself as “a bit of a change agent for most of my work life” with many difficult challenges.” She seems to thrive on taking on transforming businesses and particularly changing the way people work by using technology. But the challenge of taking on the modernisation of Lloyd’s was the most difficult of her 38-year career.

You can see how the scale of the task was daunting and the successful outcomes was accomplished without a Global Pandemic-like crisis to spur it on!  Dame Inga explained how a forward-thinking Edward Lloyd first started the business (and the insurance industry) from his modest coffee house on Tower Street back in 1688 and, after 325 years, the way business was traded was basically the same. Even though the current building was one of the most modern in the city, the $40 billion of business traded on an annual basis was still done on paper slips. Dame Inga was brought in to change this extraordinary situation and move Lloyd’s from a paper-based environment to digital, hopefully succeeding where several predecessors had failed. She called this “the most complex and difficult transformation I’d ever taken on.” The time span seems to have been done within five years and it is a saving grace that this was accomplished prior to the Covid-19 pandemic which has forced everybody to shift online. Imagine the additional crisis if Lloyds still lived on paper slips! Here is how Dame Inga performed this business miracle:

1. Inga said her first step was to LISTEN. She spent hours, days, weeks talking to hundreds of people to understand them, their practices and their needs. “I had to ask them what they wanted, what was so precious, what couldn’t be kept ad look at what could be kept, what could be changed. I had to understand why it had failed before.”
2. BARRIERS had to be broken down. There was a great deal of separation with top execs hidden way on the upper floors and her own huge office having wonderful views over the city but no windows out into the business so she could see the people. She knocked down those walls replacing with glass and created an open plan environment, a clear signal that everything was going to be opened up.
3. The HIERARCHY had to go. Centuries of male and patriarchal leadership kept the business structure old fashioned. She said she “had to try and reduce hierarchy, because it was stifling the ability of the whole organisation to change and to modernise. People weren’t engaging in conversation and they weren’t listening. If you were up in the clouds in this secluded executive zone, you weren’t in touch with the employees, you weren’t in touch with what was happening.” Many decisions were referred up to committees which made things sluggish so they had to go.
4. The CULTURE had to have a major shift. People had to be empowered to make their own decisions instead of handing them off to a committee. She had to almost encourage people to do this and to step up and make bold decisions. When this happens, mistakes can be made so she had to allow a culture where people felt it was OK to make some mistakes. 
5. Break RULES: People were used to feeling that they had to conform to everything. Now the culture was shifting to encouraging people to start breaking those rules! Creativity and good decision-making was stifled. Inga established an Innovation Lab to help move forward.
6. Pick your BATTLES: in her quest for relaxing the rules and stuffiness, Inga sought to bring in more informality to the dress code of suits, ties and jackets always on .. however hot the season was. One hot Friday she allowed suit jackets to come off … that was a new rule that only lasted an hour. It seems it was one change too far. That was not something that had to be forced as there were other wins happening throughout the rest of the business, particularly where young tech folk were being recruited into the Innovation division. Slowly slowly change happened.
7. Understand the FEARS: of course humans resist change, it’s natural. Digging in to find out why and where the fear is coming from is important. At Lloyd’s, it was not just the older generation that was resistant to change, the under 30s were also trying to hold on to the past. It turned out they were in fear for their jobs, livelihoods and career prospects so they were trying to stick with the old ways. Once that was known and the gaps understood, then reassurances could be made with the right delivery of new skills training. New tech advances and more equipment don’t necessarily remove all jobs, they simply require humans to skill up in new and different areas. Humans need to be helped to grow alongside the progression of technology.
8. Being INCLUSIVE was key: in order to move forward and bring everyone along, Dame Inga highlighted that everyone had to be involved in designing their future. It is clear that as the commercial landscape changes jobs change and some disappear but new roles appear and it is vital that people are re-skilled for the new future. Roles that have not been thought about before are now emerging and so everyone has to be flexible in being open to learning and for providing the means for staff to grow and learn.

The project of taking this institution from its seventeenth century roots fully into 21st century digital paperless efficiency was colossal. How did dame Inga cope and get all this done with five years .. and stay sane? She became very focused and said she “Just had to keep going.” The missiles kept coming (she said she simply threw away the hate mail) and obstacles kept appearing but she did not let those distract her. She stayed on course with the support of trusted colleagues …. “You need allies, you can’t do everything on your own”. 

With Dame Inga’s expertise in insurance, she is always looking at emerging risks and the current global pandemic is really highlighting where the world is vulnerable and where resilience needs to be increased.

In the near future areas of concern will potentially be:

• food shortages 
• water shortages
• the increased risk of living in cities, areas of concentrated populations
• global supply chain vulnerability and the need to buy local
• maintaining healthy work / life balance
• mental health 
• inequality and the ability of the poorest to cope with disasters

Dame Inga said it is amazing how so many people and systems have adapted so quickly to handle this current global pandemic. Yes many have struggled, and continue to do so, but society has done remarkably well with personal and national resilience high. We have been forced to take on new ways of working in days when businesses might have struggled for a few years to adapt and produce the same results and enabled working-from-home.  The investment Dame Inga made in her time at Lloyd’s was well-spent in helping this historic institution handle the emergency that we have all been going through. The lesson now is, whoever you are or whatever you do, get ready … work out ways that you can make yourself and your business be as resilient as possible for future emergencies.

The next lunch with Lady Val will be on June 18th

Meeting a rare news man with a heart full of compassion

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Jon Snow, Lady Val Network

Broadcaster Jon Snow with event host Lady Val Corbett

A rare news man with a heart full of compassion

Jon Snow, one of the most recognisable faces in British television news broadcasting with 30 years hosting Channel 4’s main evening news programme, was the guest speaker at Lady Val’s women’s networking lunch on June 27th.

If I was expecting a hard-nosed, cynical news hack or jaded newsman, I could not have been more surprised. Not only was he a playful and amusing speaker, but he came over as a deeply sensitive, loyal, humble and caring man. 

What was it that caused him to open his speech with a very moving personal sharing of an incident in childhood about his mother? Was it the audience of all women that encouraged him to dig deep and reveal so much of himself? I don’t know but the anecdote about being told by his father that his mother suffered from alopecia seems to have had a profound effect on him as he acknowledged it as being a big event in his childhood. He has remained interested in the condition through his life, and disclosed how he reacted to the news about his mother. While his older brother aged ten merely laughed he burst into tears, which is not surprising when you are only six years old.

His early singing talent, guided by his musical mother, pointed towards a more artistic career but his father arranged for him to study law.  This career never got started after he was ejected from University for taking part in the anti-apartheid pro-Mandela student demonstrations in the 1960s. Moving on from being a ‘rebellious student’ he found himself steered to Lord Longford who was seeking someone to take over a Day Centre for homeless and vulnerable teenagers in Soho.  At just age 23 he became the director. He had already served with the VSO organisation in Uganda so he must have developed some life skills to handle the many challenges thrown at him. He mentioned that experience of living in Uganda as a minority, one of only three white men in a black community, has had a lifelong impact on his sensitivity as a journalist. 

He gave the Day centre charity 6 months but it appears his loyalty and compassion held him there for 6 years .. he said it was so demanding, he did not think he could leave. And it appears he never did as he actually continued to be associated with this New Horizon day centre becoming the chair and remains a patron to this day, almost 50 years after stumbling into the organisation. It came over that Snow is not one to walk away from need. 

His route to becoming a broadcaster, which did not involve any ambition or planning, happened through the development of commercial radio when it was deemed that the BBC Radio needed to have competition. 

It was the early 70s and LBC was starting out. They were looking for someone to filter calls coming in for the night-time radio phone-ins.  Even though he had been educated as a teenager in North Yorkshire, he still retained his southern plummy accent so he was soon asked to read the news. In those early pioneer days of local radio he was then despatched out onto the streets to find the news. And so his illustrious media career began.

He worked with various news organisations and enjoyed the adventurous nature of the job with global travel. Rather like Forest Gump, he seems to have been a witness to several major moments in twentieth century history which he shared with us. He was in Rome, twice, while new Popes were elected in 1978. John Paul I was the Pope who reigned for just 34 days. Snow may not have managed to interview him in that short window of time but he did speak with his successor John Paul II, and conducted the Polish Pope’s first interview in English.

Snow shared, through his personal recollections, how he brought great sincerity and compassion to his news reporting. Standing outside the prison gates on the day that Nelson Mandela was released, he reported live for ITV. He said it was “An unbelievable experience .. huge crowds. Nobody knew what Mandela looked like”.   They were all working from a picture that was 27 years old. At last when Snow saw him, he simply stopped speaking and burst into tears, declaring it “such a moving moment.”

These are not the kind of stories you expect from a TV news journalist, such was the gentleness and insight we experienced from Jon Snow as he shared his life stories over lunch. When questioned about the leadership of today, and of course that question was asked in the light of the current Brexit Tory party leadership challenge, he reflected on past leaders he has had the privilege to meet. 

He interviewed Margaret Thatcher twenty times travelling everywhere with her overseas as diplomatic correspondent. He often waited long hours for his interview slot which sometimes came at 2am. Always polite and welcoming, Mrs Thatcher also managed to intimidate him at the same time. He might not have shared her politics but he admired her as a leader. “Thatcher had a tremendous tenacity, she knew who she was and the job that had to be done. She was intolerant of challengers … she provided certainty. With her you knew who was in charge and that she would do what she thought was the best thing, even if it was wrong. You would not have had feelings of being adrift like we have today.” 

Contrast this to his interviews with Prime Minister Theresa May, and he was somewhat surprised to find he was never invited to take a seat to speak with her while she remained seated …. his own sense of respectful behaviour prevented him from just taking a seat but the PM’s aide would eventually make a gesture for him to sit. There would follow an “unspeakably unrewarding” interview that was hardly worth broadcasting. What an interesting peak into history and two different leadership styles and individual women. 

He recounted another behind the scenes political vignette when he was standing behind Mrs Thatcher at the door of Number Ten, on the day she became Prime Minister. He was looking over her shoulder, a view, he later discovered, that was captured in a news photograph by the FT. He noticed she had a small yellow post-it note in her hand with the key words ‘hatred’ and ‘hope’. He recognised them as coming from the St Francis of Assisi prayer “Where there is despair, let there be hope…”. She obviously wanted to be sure that she got the key words the right way round. He included this anecdote in a book he wrote. Years later, when he was investigating the Thatcher archive in Cambridge, the curator thanked him for the favour he had done by including that piece in his book. He explained that they had retrieved 58 handbags from Mrs Thatcher (she kept absolutely everything) and in one of the bags was this little yellow post-it note!  The actual one from that day!  “Hatred …Love ..” the curation team wondered what the words meant. Snow was in that rare position of being able to fill in a moment of history where a leader showed she was not infallible and needed to be reminded of important notes.

Snow remains at the helm of Channel 4 News and talked about the responsibility of media in providing accurate reporting. He agreed that there had been a lack of research during the Brexit vote campaign with false claims that were not investigated deeply enough. There is clearly a duty to keep the population informed and to sift untruth from truth. Channel 4 News is an hour long show and they have the space to try to explore stories more deeply. Previously they have been watched on television with a viewing audience of about one million. Now, they are one of the most watched news entities in Europe … with viewers joining them online. In 2018 they had 1.6 billion minutes viewed on Facebook with a high proportion in California … about 16%. He stressed that there is a hunger for in-depth analysis of current events. Even he craves that and has started to read the Financial Times every day because it explores news stories in much greater detail than has been available before.

Snow appeared relaxed during his talk and Q&A then had to leave quite promptly to return the news desk where stories of great impact were being made ready for that evening’s broadcast. All potentially stressful but Snow maintained his calm. I was left with the impression of a sensitive and humble man with a keen intelligence that he has quietly used to further great goodness in the world. 

 

Land of hope and glory? Yes, and I hope so!

Today has been Waistcoat Wednesday in honour of England’s World Cup quarter-final success, and football fevered national loyalty even had the BBC presenters this morning wearing Manager Gareth Southgate’s trademark clothes of blue waistcoat and striped tie. Even I, as a non-fan of football, have got carried away with the enthusiasm and the potential for a big win that would give us all a much needed boost to our national confidence. I’ve even found myself skimming the sports supplements in my weekend newspapers when I usually toss them straight into the recycling bin!  I read about how Gareth’s supportive wife is his secret weapon.

Have you noticed there is something different about this team? Who would ever have expected to hear the words football and emotional intelligence in the same sentence?! 

So calm and cool and confident is manager Southgate that there was media gossip of him been roped in to take over Brexit talks. Now there’s a thought! Southgate is definitely bringing something different to the game. He has been a poster boy for empathy and is allowing players to make individual comments directly to the press. A younger team with fewer ego heroes, they have been told them that it is up to them to make their own history. Southgate values family life and and the support it has given him so has allowed the team to bring their families with them. This has fostered a relaxed community spirit among the whole group. Surely that is a better foundation for any high pressure, stressful sports challenge.  Everybody’s been referring to the spirit of the team, the relaxed attitude, the importance of joy and the strong bonds within the team. Gareth says they feel privileged. Words to describe their opposing team of Croatia by their Manager are more about their strength and determination. Let’s see what helps win tonight’s match, will it be this younger relaxed team or the determined Croations? Good luck lads .. oh and may of them have a connection with Yorkshire. Just saying’.

See you on the other side of the Match?

Helen Walbey: A Beacon of Feminine Leadership in a Male-Dominated Field

A woman working and running a business in a male-dominated field is usually met with the expectation that she has to take on masculine leadership traits and prove herself to be “one of the boys” to succeed. Founder and owner of Recycle Scooters believes in the power of feminine leadership and she has instilled those values in the operations and culture of her business. She has found that this adds value to her business and gets the best out of every member of the team.

She Invests in Relationships with People

“I do business differently.  I am much happier to pay someone perhaps a little bit more rather than get the absolute cut-throat deal to be able to establish a good relationship with them.”

She Builds a Positive Bond

“A lot of the time it is just about touching base, finding out how their business is going, saying hi, and that establishes that positive bond and instead of doing that very male, “what are you going to do for me / what am I going to do for you?” It’s about that much more feminine idea of building those bridges and establishing those links.”

She Respects Family

“My office administrator is a single mum and I have had her poorly kids in work all tucked up under a duvet because they were ill and she wanted to come in to work so we made a place in the unit that is safe where they can go and we have had the kids come in after school because there wasn’t anyone to look after them. It’s about finding that balance. Now if I was stereotypical I probably wouldn’t be prepared to do that but it is about understanding that if I give the best I can to my employees, I get the best that my employees can give.”

She Values People and Thinks of the Whole Person

“If you have one unhappy cog, then none of the rest of the cogs are going to work as well so even if you take away all of the holistic side, even if you take away all of the feminine principle side, and you just want to be ruthless about it, financially it makes much more common sense for me to look after my staff in an appropriate way because it means my business is going to run more efficiently.”

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Rise of the Feminine Episode 5 Radio: Gender Economics and Feminine Vision to Action

Next week Monday, we take a look at Gender Economics, the contributions to society made by women, and the role that international policy-making organisations play in the process between vision and action.

Gina Lazenby’s first guest is lecturer and international public speaker Africa Zanella. She is also the CEO and founder of the Centre for Sustainability and Gender Economics. Her passion is sustainability, gender equality and its connection to economic growth. She’s based in Spain but works all over the world developing programs, and implementing change that supports sustainable growth that positively  impacts women. She’s also a member of the Green Learning Economy and is involved with Climate change and G20 expert review committees.

The Country Report takes us to Cape Town, South Africa where we meet Madelein Mkunu and hear about how visionary women are stepping forward with initiatives to rebuild the country. We’ll discover that women’s contribution to uplifting the continent is so much more about buildings than it is about bangles and beads.

Finally the One Woman feature is on grandmother and retired guesthouse owner, Valerie Humphreys. She returned from an adventure holiday with an unexpected project – sponsoring a porter in Uganda in his quest to be a medical doctor.

Our guests reveal the important strides women are making to empower communities and the important economic contributions their initiatives and organisations are making. It’s inspiring to see this leadership in action and hear the stories of these real life heroines! Don’t miss this episode this Monday 9am PST/5pm BST. You can tune in on VoiceAmerica or listen to the podcast on iTunes. In the meantime, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter or email. 

Bernhard Plecher’s Thoughts on Female Intelligence in Business

Businesses and companies take on the characteristics of the people that lead them. For better or worse there is a code ingrained in the inner workings of every business entity that’s defined by the attitude and character of the founders and management.

When a business or even a country moves on the pulse of a softer style of leadership, in what ways are operations and employees impacted and what makes them different from companies that take on a harder, more masculine approach? According to Bernhard Plecher, co-founder of German company Westhouse, the differences are immense through the discovery of his own experience.

After embarking on a journey that led to him transforming the core of his organization, Bernhard discovered the power of feminine values and their abilities to extract greatness from employees. Bernhard was also able to extract a greater benefit; he experienced the transition from being the stereotypical stressed out, sleep deprived businessman to a well rested leader who experiences joy and fulfillment in every moment of his work. He says, “every person wants to grow and it’s just not that you have to ask them to grow by putting pressure on them but believing in them more and giving space and then they feel the trust and confidence that you give them.”

Much can be learned from Westhouse’s leadership shift into a healthy, forward thinking workplace that puts freedom and personal growth at the center of goals and business objectives. Bernhard understood feminine values and he learned the following;

• Women have the ability to listen and support. This makes them the kinds of leaders that are tuned into the needs of employees. Support is given beyond the achievement of greater business goals but towards the personal advancement of the people that work under them.
• Women have greater access to their hearts and they use this access to lead with compassion, strength and the quest for a fulfillment that goes beyond money.
• Feminine leadership is less ego-driven, and it’s willing to share the spotlight. This makes big steps towards harmony in the workplace and sets the stage for teamwork and the fruits of a healthy, unified team of employees.

A feminine style of leadership is driven by the need for what Bernhard calls a “bigger harmony”, By instilling this important value into operations, Westhouse has excelled and achieved international success because of “a harmonization of qualities and energies.” 

Radio Episode 4: In an Age of Soft Power, Technology Helps Women Shape The Future

This week, on The Rise of the Feminine Radio, soft power is at the centre of the conversation and the first guest, soft power expert and consultant, Indra Adnan illuminates the subject with the background of her work and experience. With soft power becoming a subject that’s discussed more widely in society it’s important to understand what makes it different from hard power, and what purpose it serves in today’s world.

Gina interviewing Dr Phyllis SantaMaria about her time in Guatamala 50 years ago and the legacy from her time there supporting a community of women

In the Country Report, Gina talks with the Norwegian founder of the WIN Conference Kristin Envig, who gives insight into the female experience in Norway. Norway is not only listed in the Top 12 of the soft power lead table, it’s also made great strides in female leadership and gender equality. This positions this nation and this guest, as a great source of inspiration and information.

The final guest on this show is Dr Phyllis SantaMaria, a woman who’s had a wonderful career working with communities in different parts of the world, starting in Guatemala and Kenya. Gina and Phyllis discuss the impact she has made and how her work decades ago continues to inspire and empower women today.

Don’t miss the episode! Tune in on Monday 9am PST/5pm London. Join the conversation on Facebook & Twitter

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Radio Show: Why Countries Need Feminine Leadership Right Now

Don’t miss the very first episode of Gina Lazenby’s new radio show, The Rise of the Feminine which launches on Monday 1 August on Voice America (5pm London). This week, Gina will engage with two experts in the fields of feminine leadership, politics and branding and a third guest discusses her entry into the world of local activism for national politics.

First, Gina talks to feminine leadership specialist and author Dr David Paul, discussing a wave of feminine leadership sweeping the world, echoed by the recent appointment of Theresa May to the Prime Minister post in the UK. David has been an adviser to heads of state and government minsters globally, both men and women, and has unique insights into what he sees women can bring to political leadership.

In the second part of the episode, the Country Report, Gina talks to Rúna Magnusdottir, an Icelandic entrepreneur and author, who has had special insight into Iceland’s contribution to the feminine leadership conversation. The discussion is centered mainly on the lessons that the UK can learn from other countries on the perceptions and understanding of feminine leadership.

In the third and final part of this week’s Rise of the Feminine episode, Gina talks with the local chapter leader of the UK’s Women’s Equality party in Harrogate, Yorkshire, Viviane Morris who got involved with the brand new political party with no prior experience in politics. She shares her interest in helping the world raise children who have a more inclusive perception of gender, which gives more hope for the future. We’ll be talking about the Women’s Equality party and its mission in a future show but here we wanted to focus in on what one woman can do when she steps forward and takes action in her local community.

Join the Rise of the Feminine conversation online on the Facebook page  and don’t forget to tune in every Monday, live at 5pm in London and start the week with us in California at 9am Pacific time.

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How we found 100 Women of Spirit to celebrate

On Saturday I took part in a magical day that was created to honour Dadi Janki, the centenarian head of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (BKWSU). Apart from the fact she is an incredible leader and role model, it is quite unbelievable that she is still working in her global role at age 100. (And global it is with her 49,000 frequent flyer miles clocked up last year!). I was invited to join a team at the BK UK headquarters to help create something that would be a tribute and celebrate her near century of service … we know of stories where she offered comfort to the sick from the age of four, apparently a child prodigy in terms of caring and healing. So yes, it is almost 100 years of being of service, a mother and server to the world.

At the outset it was decided that offering our thanks to Dadi and sharing her accomplishments with others would be better focussed on the people who have been inspired by her rather than Dadi herself. She would have brushed that spotlight away. So the idea was born to take the number of her years and find “100 Women of Spirit,” women who had served their communities in a variety of ways in differing fields. This was not to be the top 100, simply 100 representing a much wider community of women who support the fabric of society and deliver change, often with trailblazing ideas and initiatives but are largely unrecognised. And with the BKWSU being the largest (and probably only) global spiritual organisation led by women, this was an opportunity to celebrate women in leadership roles. Our other criteria was that, like Dadi and her mission to be an instrument for God, their lives had been guided by spirit and their work accomplished by using their spiritual inner compass to achieve their vision. We did just that on May 14th when we had almost half of our nominated 100 women awardees attend a ceremony in London. Some of them described it later as “the best day of my life!”.

How did we find those 100 women?  Well, in truth it was not so easy. The trouble with highlighting those that have evaded the spotlight is that they are not going to be so visible! We decided to cast our net across the UK and ask all of the members of the Spiritual University and who run the centres, who they had noticed and found inspiring. Starting 8 months ago, we sent out a brief and then names started to pour in. We considered the different fields of law, education, social justice, healthcare, mental health, women’s empowerment, prison service, politics, social change, spirituality, religion, policing, community work …. we really wanted to cover the whole of society and particularly areas that are off most people’s radar.

We asked: “Who stands out in your community as a woman who inspires others in the way that Dadi has inspired you?”.  We were defining “Women of Spirit”  as:

•Women who are able to act for the greater good, not just benefitting themselves, but bringing benefit, upliftment or inspiration to others.

•They are working through the qualities of love, compassion, kindness, innovation, open heartedness and the ability to see the inter-connection of all things.

•They are motivated by something both within themselves and from beyond themselves.

•They are resilient in the face of difficulties, stay focused on their task and inspire others to do the same.

And so it came to be that 100 letters were sent out.  After many many discussions and research inside our judging panel we concluded our first ever list of unsung heroines who were to have their praises sung! ….at last!  Some of the women were actually well-known having already had an OBE, national recognition as a member of the House of Lords, or become high profile through their work. Many had laboured tirelessly for years without anyone outside their community seeing their efforts as being of particular value. But we used our eyes to see them … we held up a different prism so that what matters deeply could come into view.

It was planned that Dadi Janki would be at the event and personally hand out the award certificates that she had signed but at the last minute, a bout of ill-health kept Dadi in India. Her absence gave us a heightened reason to celebrate her and reassure her that a new generation of women are indeed taking her baton and are moving out into the world with determination and compassion.

To us Dadi Janki is a Trailblazer, having left India in 1974, speaking no English but with a vision and courage to bring the spiritual messages of the east to a more consumer-focussed western world. To say that she was ahead of her time is an understatement.  Dadi is an incredible example of a Vision-Holder who inspired thousands to create a global movement of meditation and self awareness programmes from just a handful of enthusiasts in London. With centres in 120 countries in just over 40 years that is an amazing achievement of her vision. Dadi as a Community Builder ensured growth of the organisation from a tiny handful of people who were nurtured by her careful tending. And finally, Dadi’s ability and special gifts for caring for others, listening and encouraging people ensured her role as Sustainer enabled the spiritual organisation would thrive, not just survive.

The 100 Women of Spirit, whose names and citations will be published shortly on Dadi Janki’s website are examples of one or more of these categories that guided us in our choice: Trailblazer, Vision-Holder, Community-Builder and Sustainer. This is what women do so well in the world to make society function healthily and bring the social change that communities are crying out for.

You can’t be what you can’t see, so this inaugural roll call of trail-blazing women of spirit will serve to highlight the important role women are already playing in the world and inspire other women to step forward, even with the tiniest and seemingly insignificant initiative they can bring change.