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This isn't an application!

This isn't an application!

It's meant to serve you by making clear the program elements, required commitments and kinds of experiences you will encounter as a Positive Deviant. We also hope to make clear what we're looking for in an ideal candidate. If you make it to the end and still feel you're a BIG YES, go ahead and submit this form as your expression of interest.
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    You can absolutely commit to both being present and engaged (without distractions or needing to work on the side) to the following dates: In Person Gatherings: April 22-27 : The Dance of Self & System : The Sentinel, Kaslo, BC July 2-11 : Earth As Home. Earth as Teacher: Cross River, BC November 2 - 7 : From Social Change to Systems Artistry : Canmore, AB Online Sessions: March 12: Group introductions & Complexity Microdose I (2 hrs) May 7: Listening Circle I (60 mins) June 4: Complexity Microdose II (90 mins) June 11: Preparation and logistics for land gathering (60 mins) July 23: Listening Circle II (60 mins) September 10: Complexity Microdose III (90 mins) October 1: Complexity Microdose IV (90 mins)
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    The Fellowship is primarily intended to support people who are consciously building - and around whom some version of the next story is actively emerging – the adjacent possible, the speculative future, Game B, living patterns of a different future. We're looking for people who have a tangible and relevant initiative - a project, process, platform, innovation, start-up etc. - that is intended to address some significant collective and challenge, that aspires to have a systemic impact and allows for action-learning and experimentation during the year.
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    You already have existing relationships and viable entry points into the parts of the system you want to shift. Working in – or on – that system is already part of your daily reality.
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    Earth as Teacher (the 2nd gathering) takes place at a backcountry off-grid lodge with no cell service or regular internet connection. Most participants will be staying in tents (we provide the equipment). During the gathering, the hosting team will invite you to spend up to three days and two nights alone on the land in a wild place – which they will carefully prepare you for and supervise. Members of the hosting team have decades of wilderness guiding experience, search and rescue, and medical training and are professionally qualified to host this experience well.
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    We're all about practice. And we're going to ask you to commit to practice time over the course of nine months. Here's what you'll want to be on-board with and able to design your time around: At least 20 minutes of meditation per week. At least 1 hour of time on the land per month. At least 1 hour of preparation, reflection, journaling or reading provided resources per month.
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    The program – and your participation in it - is funded, in part, by the Suncor Energy Foundation. The Wolf Willow Institute has enjoyed a long and generative relationship with our partners at the Suncor Energy Foundation. Their support has been central to many Canadian social innovation and systems change initiatives over the the years. At the same time, we recognize that for some, their role as a leading energy company raises important ethical questions. By applying to the Fellowship you are making a choice. To learn more about the Foundation click here.
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    You will be responsible for your own transportation (both air/ground) to and from each of the program gatherings. We will be encouraging you to draw from your own communities and support networks to help you gather the resources you need to join us! All lodging, food, and expenses during the gatherings (and all the online components/coaching etc.) are fully covered.
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    Positive Deviants are diverse. Our cohorts have included leading advocates for Black liberation, Indigenous sovereignty and the rights of queer and trans people. People working in the oil and gas, concrete, pharmaceutical, banking and tech start-up sectors. High-ranking law enforcement and military officers. People working in government. Non-profit leaders and philanthropists. Free-marketeers and critical theorists. Magicians, mathematicians, adaptive engineers and psychedelic therapists. You will probably like most of them but you won't agree with them all. There may be fundamentally different perspectives in the group. And you may even meet somebody who seems to represent everything that You Are Not. Your personal Nemesis. We will select cohort members who are genuinely dedicated to uplifting the common good and who also have the maturity, self-awareness and experience to participate respectfully and generatively in a diverse group. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be outspoken and uncompromising about their opinions. Imagine spending a year in a group that is not only exploring systems change but also going into deep personal terrain as well. Can you imagine staying ‘in’ and open in such a group?
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    Imagine you are in a small group of peers—a few you consider your friends, one or two you might feel neutral towards, and one in your group that bothers you...gets under your skin. You are invited to present your current thinking around your change work. Your peer group is then going to offer respectful but critical feedback to help you identify potential flaws in your theories and strategies for change. You certainly feel vulnerable, but in general you see this as a good opportunity, regardless of your level of comfort with each individual in the group.
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    Imagine you have been invited by your hosting team to head out into the edges of the forest. It's a clear, sunny day in the mountains. Your peers are nearby and the program hosts are too, but you can no longer see them or hear them. You have been instructed to "wander" until you come across a being that catches your attention in some way. You don't really know what that means, but you do notice the light hits a particular tree in a lovely way. You sit down, as instructed, and begin to introduce yourself out loud, imagining the tree itself to be intelligent and able to interact with you. You've been invited to speak authentically until you are "interrupted".
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    The Fellowship is not a university course and we certainty don't have a singular theory or perspective that we're trying to teach you. But we will be introducing theoretical maps and models and invite you to explore their utility to your own work. The projector starts to hum and there's the title slide..."Tracking Emergence in Complex Social Systems!"
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    The Fellowship is all about whole-person learning. Mind. Body. Heart. Imagination. Spirit. Soul. We move between them all. We've just finished the Emergence powerpoint and we invite you to stand up and begin to explore the concepts somatically. You look around and your fellow participants are moving around unself-consciously...and it looks suspiciously like dancing!
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    Personal growth usually requires vulnerability. Dropping some of our protective strategies. Opening up. Some people will understandably find it hard or even impossible to be vulnerable or do inner work in mixed groups; to go deep, they need to be around people they trust deeply and that can take years to build. Learning and growth is seldom possible in spaces where there is activation, re-triggering or a lack of safety. What do you imagine it would be like for you to do ‘inner work’ in an unknown group?
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    • You feel up to sit with others in not-knowing and inquiry • You've reached the edges of your known maps and ways of making sense of the world and you suspect another approach/way of being/knowing is required • You are willing to explore worldviews that are different from your own • You find it exciting to be held accountable to the edges of your own personal growth • You sense it's time to include the more-than-human world in our changemaking considerations • You're ready to roll up your sleeves and try a few things out
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    • You're not ready or interested in being challenged • You need a very particular kind of group – or for a group to be a particular way - for you to do the work that is most important for you to do at this stage of your journey • If you require professional, therapeutic care and support that cannot be reasonably provided in a group immersion • You feel no pressing urgency to explore alternative ways of making impact in your issue area
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    Write a short (1 page max) note telling us why you would be a good fit. Help us see how you and your work align with who and what the Fellowship is designed to support. Why is this the right timing? How might your participation in the Fellowship have a tangible impact in the world?
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    Include a short resume (2 pages max) that gives us a good sense of what you’ve been up to in the world.
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