Starting With Ourselves – As Way Opens: Our Spiritual, Creative and

Starting With Ourselves – As Way Opens:
Our Spiritual, Creative and Self-Awareness Practices
Co-Facilitator:
Dr. Mary Finney
Ohio University
19 Elmwood Place
Athens, Ohio, USA
740-590-9553,
finneym@ohio.edu
Co-Facilitator:
Dr. Ilma Barros Pose
Fowler Center for Sustainable Value
Weatherhead School of Management
Case Western Reserve University
10900 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio USA
513-469-0711
ilmabarro@gmail.com
Serving others, helping support spirituality and creativity in organizations, must start with
recommitting to this work within ourselves. Bill O’Brien, former CEO of Hanover
Insurance, said “the success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the
intervener”. Going inward can water the spiritual roots of creativity and courage. It
supports the individual, high quality relationships and collective growth. Too often this
nourishment is missing. Starting with ourselves reignites our teachable spirit. New
organizational and leadership research offers insight into why this nourishment is
essential for flourishing. Diving deep allows us to support others in doing the same.
Personal and professional practices that connect spirituality, holistic appreciative and
aesthetic inquiry offer rich insights into the work we can do out in the world to make a
real difference in organizations, education/training and research.