Sue Bennett and Simon Mont

zlotusmusic — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 21:46:12 +0000

Sue’s insures the organization’s office space and internal operations contribute to the wellbeing of staff, and the effectiveness of Sustainable Economies Law Center’s programs .

Sue has spent 25 years working in the nonprofit sector in a variety of program and administrative roles and feels it’s her professional destiny to advance The Law Center’s mission. This feeling is fostered by her personal/political value alignment with The Law Center’s structure and this opportunity to develop and share the lessons learned by the Law Center’s practice of worker self direction and deep democracy . Sue’s community activism is rooted in understanding and minimizing the impact of class and classism and is based on the principles of feminism and anti-racism.

In a past life, Simon directed a high school marching band and taught middle schoolers how to play piano. After that, they landed at Berkeley Law where they stewarded the Restorative Justice Committee in their efforts to create a holistic law school culture and also bridge the gap between the ivory tower and the lived experiences of people impacted by mass incarceration. Their experience at the San Quentin Roundtable piqued their interest in the relationship between experience, identity, social structure, intentional gathering, and conflict transformation. Their restorative justice training provided them with a foundation in facilitating safe and equalizing spaces.

After brief stints at the Alameda County Public Defender’s and the Hayward Burns Institute, Simon decided to shift their focus from mass incarceration to the broader social and economic conditions that perpetuated and enabled it.

Simon is active in the Bay Area Jewish community and lives in a community house filled with exciting experiments in collaboration, art, and creativity. When they’re not nerding out on liberating structures, you can find them writing, performing spoken word, hugging trees, and acting as the managing editor of Tikkun magazine.

Simon researches, consults, and connects around the intersection between leadership, anti-oppression, management, compassion, and awe in order to support the development of holistic organizations.

Sunday Oct 8| 9:30-12:30| Bioregional Hub

Worker Self-Direction: Distributing Leadership for Just & Powerful Organizations

zlotusmusic — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 21:39:11 +0000

In order to create a just and sustainable world, we don’t just need to change what we do, we need to change how we do it. Organizational structures that use bureaucracy and rely on top down power can be replaced by deeply democratic collaborative processes that nurture whole beings; by organizations that support communities and individuals to grow, learn, and act. They will envision and support the development of organizations that embody radical political visions in the way they do their work. The workshop will share personal experiences, facilitate conversations, and provide specific strategies to build the organizations we crave.

Replace top-down power and hierarchy within your organization with deeply democratic collaborative processes and structures that nurture whole beings.

This workshop is about building community. It is about how we organize ourselves to do what needs to get done. It is about how navigating the issues of power, personality, emotions, and identity that arise when we meet each other as peers and attempt to build a world that works for all of us. Its about how to remain mindful of he complexity of the world, the work, and each other and still make sure that we create and follow a budget and get the taxes done.

Conference participants will gain from understanding how values that they already hold, operate on, and attempt to build into their physical designs can be formalized into resilient organizational structures.

The workshop will use group activities, facilitated discussion, and storytelling to leave participants with:
(1) An appreciation of the value of worker self-direction;
(2) An understanding of the operations and management of worker self-directed organizations;
(3) A specific set of practices that can implemented in their organizations immediately;
(4) A vision for how they might embed more democracy in their organization regardless of barriers to change
(5) Resources to engage leaders in conversations about change

Sunday Oct 8| 9:30-12:30| Bioregional Hub

Worker Self-Direction: Distributing Leadership for Just & Powerful Organizations – The Convergence

Sue Bennett and Simon Mont

Worker Self-Direction: Distributing Leadership for Just & Powerful Organizations

Worker Self-Direction: Distributing Leadership for Just & Powerful Organizations

Presented by Sue and Simon