Peter Block
Thursday, December 3:  8:30-10:30 a.m./0830-1030
CCEU:  1.0 CC/.50 PD
 
Peter Block is an author and consultant. His work is about empowerment, stewardship, chosen accountability, and the reconciliation of community. Block is the author of several best-selling books, including Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used; Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest; The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work and his latest book, Community: The Structure of Belonging. These books focus on ways to create workplaces and communities that work for all and offer an alternative to the patriarchal beliefs that dominate our culture. Block discusses bringing change into the world through consent and connectedness rather than through mandate and force.

Block is the recipient of the first place 2004 Members' Choice Award by the Organization Development Network. He has also received national awards for outstanding contributions in the field of training and development, including the American Society for Training and Development Award for Distinguished Contributions; the Association for Quality and Participation President's Award; and Training Magazine HRD Hall of Fame.
 
As a citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, he is currently involved in projects focusing on people on the margin and supports the Urban Opportunities Alliance, a cooperative group of six efforts to value the possibility of youth and families in Cincinnati. With other volunteers, he began "A Small Group", whose work is to bring into conversation other groups not in relationship with each other, through the powerful tools of civic engagement. http://www.peterblock.com/

Click on the above to hear from Thursday's Super Session keynote Peter Block with Barbara McAfee.

Session Description 
Community: The Structure of Belonging
The task of coaching is to help people more powerfully live out their intentions. Part of this is to deepen their leadership capacity. What this entails for many is to learn to more effectively build community as the means to increase performance. Our traditional strategies for dealing with problems of performance, quality, cost and employee satisfaction are strong on individualism and weak on community. Community, often confused with culture, is most often treated as an afterthought, left to specialists to worry about. The dominant belief is that laser-like goals, better controls, clearer consequences, more inspirational leadership, and better systems will make a difference. They won't. They are the problem, not the solution. These strategies are incapable of real improvement, they just make things a little better.

This presentation is about the nature of real transformation and what kind of leadership is required to achieve it. Transformation is a shift in the nature of things. It promises a culture of chosen accountability, authentic commitment, and stronger social fabric, all elements of a strong community. Block will define how communal transformation is about leadership that is independent of style, role modeling and holding people accountable.

The session also offers specifics on how to lead people into a new conversation. This requires sophistication in the methodology of questions which value dissent over lip service, relationship over technology, gifts over deficiencies and possibility over problem solving. A key concept is that leadership is about being host, not hero. Small groups are the unit of transformation, questions are the means, invitation is the strategy. This session will be an example of what Block talks about, so that the tools of building community are demonstrated, not just discussed. 

Singer/Songwriter Confirmed as Conference Emcee
ICF member Barbara McAfee (USA) will be the master of ceremonies at the 2009 Annual International Conference. McAfee will join Block to integrate her talent with song throughout this opening session. 

Last year's conference attendees will remember McAfee's powerful presence throughout the super sessions, during the closing Gala event and at her popular education session "The Dog Park for Your Voice: Finding Freedom and Joy in Sound and Song." This Super Session will begin at 8:30 a.m./08:30. www.barbaramcafee.com

McAfee is a voice coach, keynote speaker, and professional singer/songwriter. With 12 years experience as an organization development consultant and 25 years as a professional performer, she works at the intersection of leadership and creativity. For over 15 years, her voice coaching practice has focused on teaching people from a wide variety of sectors pragmatic ways to access the power of voice and presence. Her songs explore the rich territory of change, community, vitality and balance. http://www.barbaramcafee.com/

"I've had the honor of weaving music through Peter Block's presentations for the past several years. Peter is a master at peeling away the nonsense that keeps us from our best work. He poses potent questions that make us fidget, then grow into a wiser place...Most importantly, Peter offers us the possibility of reconnecting with each other in ways that are transformational, joyful, and real." - Barbara McAfee, 2009 ICF Conference Emcee

Getrude Matshe
Friday, December 4:  8:30-10:30 a.m./0830-1030
CCEU:  1.0 CC
 
Getrude Matshe is a humanitarian, entrepreneur, extraordinary storyteller and author of titles including Born on the Continent - Ubuntu and It's Not What Happens to You That Matters. She has been described as a vibrant bundle of African energy whose zest and passion for life inspires everyone she meets.

Matshe travelled the world studying the greatest inspirational personal development coaches alive and combined their knowledge to produce life changing programs. She is passionate about helping people achieve their full potential and finding their individual life purpose and success. Matshe's story from growing up in Africa to starting a life over in a different country and becoming a successful entrepreneur will prove that anything is possible if you have a purpose. 

Additionally, Matshe is the founder and CEO of the Africa Alive Education Foundation. The foundation's mission is to provide education, health and family support services for HIV positive children and young adults in rural and impoverished communities in Zimbabwe using innovation and breakthrough thinking to create effective programs that inspire and support the underprivileged advancement through education that effects positive and sustainable change at grassroots level. www.bornonthecontinent.com

Session Description
Ubuntu - I Am Because You Are
In this powerful keynote address, Getrude Matshe will lead us in experiencing Ubuntu - the subtitle of her first published book, Born on the continent - Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is a Zulu word which serves as the spiritual foundation of African societies. It is the unification of a world vision enshrined in the Zulu maxim umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu - a person is a person through other persons. Ubuntu articulates basic respect and compassion for others.

As professional coaches, we are nothing without our clients. A person with Ubuntu has the self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong to a greater whole and are diminished when others are diminished.

This is the key question Getrude poses to us as coaches and people. Through deep respect and compassion could we create a world in perfect harmony, where our collective consciousness leads to true human dignity for all?

As coaches it is our mandate to be as open and available to others; to be affirming of others. And when we apply Ubuntu to everything we do, we discover that there is no YOU or ME, only WE.

Tal Ben-Shahar
Saturday, December 5: 4-5:30 p.m./1400-1530
CCEU:  .50 CC/.50 PD 

Tal Ben-Shahar (Israel) is a psychologist, author and wellness coach. His passion is teaching and his Harvard course on the positive psychology achieved a historic student enrollment of 854 students, the largest of any course, surpassing even introductory economics. This startling fact seized the attention of national media, and pieces about "Happiness 101" appeared in the Boston Globe and on CNN, CBS, National Public Radio (U.S.), the Guardian, the Jerusalem Post, and the Shanghai Evening Post, making Ben-Shahar one of the best-known positive psychologists alive. At 38 years of age, Ben-Shahar is a young star in a field that is only 10 years old.
 
Ben-Shahar is the New York Times bestselling author of Happier: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Start Living a Richer, Happier Life and his newest book, The Pursuit of Perfect: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Start Living a Richer, Happier Life, was just released this past March. He currently teaches at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel, as well as consults and lectures around the world to multi-national organizations, the general public, and at-risk populations. His speaking topics include: happiness, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting, mindfulness, and leadership.

An avid sportsman, Beh-Shahar won the U.S. Intercollegiate and Israeli National squash championships. He obtained his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology from Harvard.

Session Description
Positive Psychology Meets Coaching: How the Science of Happiness Can Inform Your Work with Clients

In large parts of the world, emotional wellbeing is on the decline. To understand and deal with this phenomenon, we need to understand the nature of happiness, and then explore ways to enhance levels of wellbeing-for the individual and for society. Positive Psychology, "the scientific study of optimal human functioning," provides practical tools for better living. This new sub-field within psychology is unique in that it creates a bridge between the Ivory Tower and Main Street-making rigorous academic ideas accessible to all. In this session, Tal Ben-Shahar discusses how we as coaches, partners, parents-as leaders-can tap the power of the science of happiness and will also include ideas and tools that can be used to increase happiness. Be prepared to take your coaching to a new level!

Tal Ben-Shahar "Edutaining the World."  Watch video.

"Be prepared to lose yourself in a story, so inspiring, so sad - yet at times so hilarious, and so completely refreshing. Getrude has the unique gift of universal connection. She is the real thing - not some lukewarm nice speaker who gives you an 8 out of 10. She will rock you beyond your boundaries and open you up to what is really possible if you choose the brand of courage she wields. Settle in for the ride!" - Peter Barr-Thomson, MCC, 2009 ICF Steering Committee Member