Silvie LeMuzic, Gabriella Fenesi, and Ilaria Distefano
Based on the personal and collective journeys that led us to found the Empire of Love initiative, our workshop is an invitation to co-reflect and co-create around the notions of power and empowerment in the perspective of leadership as love. We invite you to a collective exploration of the lived experience of “power with” (power to act and to act in concert with others) as a fundamental skill in transformational social change work. We will inquire into our own lived subjectivity-in-relationship with others to uncover the conditions that enable “power with” to unfold in our relationships* systems. The exploration is rooted in deepened awareness of our own becoming in our relationship with power in the different systems we evolve with-in.
Power being inherent in all social relations, multiple domains of power will be explored, such as agency–identities, aspirations and capabilities, structure–rules and institutions shaping our options; and relationships–social ties through which we negotiate our paths.
In the spirit of Action Research for Transformations and organisation- and relationships-systems coaching, the workshop invites the co-creation of knowledge through action, namely an experiential practice involving critical reflexivity and learning as a systems intelligence. It is a contribution to the expansion of the theory and practice of leadership as love.
KEYWORDS: power, empowerment, systems dynamics, leadership, love, reflexivity
* relationships is intentionally plural [eds]
Organisers
Silvie Le Muzic, Empire of Love, lemuzic.no | silvie@lemuzic.no
Gabriella Fenesi, Empire of Love, www.linkedin.com/company/empire-of-love | fenesig@gmail.com
Ilaria Distefano, PhD, Empire of Love, www.ilariadistefano.com/about | hi@ilariadistefano.com
With the Empire of Love initiative, we support executives, boards, and organisations who embrace the irony and the truth of love ultimately governing any evolutionary process. We partner with leaders and relationships systems committed to growing, prospering, and elevating their contribution to the world in the complexity of our times. Building on the shared commitment to be “love in action,” we co-create experiences and practices that transform the way leaders lead themselves, co-lead with others, and let their unique leadership ripple out into their organisations and communities for the highest good of all living beings. We are three professionals from different horizons, and we funnel our experience in diverse fields and practices toward the expansion of human consciousness and capacities for constant evolution and regeneration.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge all the leaders and systems who, in different capacities, are part of the unfolding of the Empire of Love initiative. Their engagement in leadership as love is a constant inspiration. It is an honour and a joy to serve our local and global communities and to keep learning, evolving, and regenerating together through our complex times.