This is the first of a four-part series called Stillness, a practical guide to creating pause in the midst of conflict. 'Stillness' is not a meditation or spiritual practice, but the art of suspending judgement to observe what is happening in a conflict, be it an inner-conflict, intergroup or intragroup storming. This series draws from John Paul Lederach's book, The Moral Imagination (2005) in which he describes the place of patience, place, time and serendipity in the practice of peacebuilding. This episode introduces the concept of Stillness with three stories from Heather's recent experience of lobbying in Parliament.

Patience in the Startup Phase


The word “leadership” has become tired.
It’s been gentrified—repackaged as a job description, overselling its glamour whilst underselling its beauty.
Real leaders don’t chase titles. They stay in the hard places, where there’s pushback and limited resources. They endure the subtle and overt ridicule that comes with believing things can be different.
My podcast is for the weird and wonderful ones—the people who keep believing and keep building, even when the system seems designed to make them fail.
If that’s you, let’s be friends. Because the biggest threat to people like us is isolation. The second is never having the skills involved in rebuilding from the ground up taught to us, studied or recognised.
That’s why I created The Academy of Systemic Renewal: a place that champions the science of what we do.
http://systemicrenewal.com
