How do you engage Collective Shadow? How do you design a process for sustainability leaders to address the shadow of self, of the group and of the planet?

That was a question that we asked ourselves during the Embody Integral Sustainability inquiry during August 2011 at Venwoude, Netherlands.

Behind our questions we found support from using Theory U as a backbone for our intentions. Thanks to the work of Anne Caspari, of Mindshift, who uses the U Process as a map for coaching, facilitating and supporting change. Check out Anne’s map of the tools, mechanisms and processes she has identified to address shadows at every stage of the U Process.

With Anne’s guidance in the background, and the Theory U design of our conference, we used a number of processes to explore shadow including the masks of Five Wisdoms, Sustainability Leadership Competencies, Sentence Completion Dyads, and  Generational Constellations.

With Willow Dea’s  (Igniting Brilliance) coaching in the foreground we emerged three sets of questions for exploring Collective Shadow using the process of Sentence Completion. This is work that we plan to undertake as we follow through on the implementation phase of our Meshwork “Living as Though We Plan On Staying”.

In respect to the Challenges to Create a Sustainable World, the sentence completion sets that emerged were these.

I/Individual

  1. In myself, I’m uncomfortable with …
  2. A shadow issue that’s becoming clear to me is …
  3. A way to work with Shadow for me would be …

We/Collective

  1. In our group, what I’m uncomfortable with is …
  2. A collective Shadow in our group may be …
  3. We might work with our Shadow by …

World/System

  1. In this world, a central sustainability challenge is …
  2. A collective sustainability Shadow is the world may be …
  3. What we could bring into this world (in service to sustainability is …

And now our work is to follow through on the commitment we made to practise this work together.