How do we change the story of human progress, to care for all of life, from within the field of OD?
For a long time, the way people grow has been defined by growth, competition, extraction and a sense of disconnection. Today, more and more people recognise that development rooted in these principles is destroying our ecological and social systems. What does this mean for the field of organisational and leadership development? Isn’t now the moment for us to lead change not only in structures and systems, but in the deeper cultures of development that brought us to this point?
The Bio-Leadership OD for LIFE project (Previously the Human Development Project) sets out to connect people who are willing to challenge the status-quo of learning and leadership, and to take the lead in cultivating a new culture of human progress for all of life. The project started with a series of interviews through 2020, and inquiry circles in 2021. The project then formed into OD for Life - an urgent call for to gather, form a manifesto and practice change as OD practitioners.
See the OD for Life website here
The Team
Andres Roberts
Andres is a guide dedicated to a new kind of progress, fit for a positive future for all. His work combines renewed ideas about learning and change, reconnection to Nature, and the wisdom of ancient cultures to help more positive, and more systemic, change happen. Building on twenty years of experience in learning and leadership, Andres has studied with respected elders from across the world, helping to make ancient wisdom and Nature-based practices more accessible in the modern world. Andres is co-founder of Way of Nature UK and founding partner of The Bio-Leadership Project.
Din Van Helden
Din has been learning, co-designing, facilitating and consulting for the last 20 years in the field of Organisational Development. Entrepreneur at Grounding.
Din aims to enable the conditions for life to thrive, evoking levels of connectedness – at the individual level, as well as in the quality of relationships between people, in order to create a positive impact on the systems we are participating in.
Joeri Kabalt
Joeri has ten years of experience in Organisational Development at Kessels & Smit, The Learning Company and specifically with Appreciative Inquiry as a change philosophy that centres participation and possibilities.
She is intrigued by how we can live our lives with a sense of wonder and passionate about enabling meaningful and deep connections and encounters with ourselves, each other and nature.
Michelle Holliday
US based thinker, facilitator and author. Author of The Age of Thrivability: Vital Perspectives and Practices for a Better World, as well as in a popular TEDx talk and an online slideshow. Michelles work centers around “thrivability” — a set of perspectives and practices based on a view of organizations and communities as dynamic, self-organizing living systems. Michelle spent the first part of her career in brand strategy, working internationally for Coca-Cola and H.J. Heinz. The second part of her career focused on employee engagement, consulting for a range of organizations in Washington, DC. More recently, as part of the global Art of Hosting community of practice, she’s designed and hosted hundreds of transformative conversations for clients and the public.
Ella Wiles
Ella is a host and operations and production lead for Bio-Leadership. She is dedicated to urgent action knowing we need to develop life-centered practices and awareness to lead differently. She has worked in a series of sectors from human rights, research to materials reuse and social enterprise and tech start-ups - all with ambitions to help people and planet. At the core of all these sectors she has learnt the importance of how we connect with nature and each other, overcoming the fallacy of separation is at the core of her work. That sense of purpose has led Ella to work closely with the Bio-Leadership project over the last couple of years.