About Laddership Circles

Along the ServiceSpace engagement spectrum, somewhere in between an online university and an incubator, is a space for project initiators to dive into our 'gift ecology' processes, learn about the nuances of leading with inner transformation, and hold space for new designs to come to light. Traditional project incubators support their entrepreneurs in becoming sustainable through money, we here we are exploring Love's Business Plan.

Since our start in 2014, hundreds of change-makers across dozens of countries have completed our circle. It has spawned off into thematic circle with doctors, educators, business leaders, and much more. In countries like Vietnam, Romania and Japan, volunteers have translated entire curriculum into local languages. Laddership alumni have pioneered "Priceless Pricing" experiments in wide-ranging spaces from restaurants to churches to a doctor in Texas and a hotel in Vietnam. A Buddhist conference issued tickets with "multiple forms of capital". In India, countless gift-economy experiments have spread to millions.

As each circle convenes a new configuration of people, projects, and places, we continue to be humbled and transformed by the collective spirit that unfolds. Here’s more on the emergence of these circles and continued lessons along the way.

To join our next Laddership Circle, please click on the button below and submit the application. One of our coordinators will be in touch with you soon after.

   Apply For Next Laddership Circle

Summer 2020

Laddership Pods!

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, to respond to the surge of interest, we've innovated a new format -- a game perhaps, a 4-week challenge, or perhaps an obstacle course with our habit patterns. We call it Laddership Pods -- to innovate solutions that circulate love over fear.

Spring 2020

Three Concurrent Circles.

Three concurrent Laddership Circles are witness to wide-ranging patterns of positive deviance.

Winter 2019

Laddership Circles Focused on Educators

We dive into themed circles with educators (and special guest experts!) as well as a group of meditation trainers who surface remarkable stories of how anybody can serve. Meanwhile, an alum in Costa Rica seeds innovative ripples in education and government.

Fall 2019

LaddershipX starts -- in Romania!

Juicy questions come up every week. Ashima chronicles the journey: Gather, Hold, and Ripple Out. Lila and Marius launch a " LaddershipX" experiment with educators. It's our first-time to offer our platform for local circles, and we hope to do more of it!

Summer 2019

Seventeen Project Intiators.

Seventeen project initiators look at the role of motivations, efficiency of caring, and how to tune into invisible value, and beyond. Prior to that, two circles, nicknamed Yin and Yang, tune into designing for emergence. Along the way, they witness stunning encounters with young strangers, a son's letter, unconditional love, and much, much more.



Sampling of Breakout Calls


Laddership Curriculum

Gandhi offered a trilogy of "hands, head and heart" and suggested that we, as individuals and cultures, first align those elements and ultimately learn to lead with the heart. Today, we have many vocational schools that amplify the work of hands, many think-tanks that operate with intellectual capital of the head, but we don't have spaces and tools to design projects with "compassion capital”. This is mostly because compassion's effect is distributed -- in time and space -- and hence hard to quantify and fit into an entrepreneurial paradigm. Laddership is an experiment on this topic.

With a six-week curriculum progressing from personal to systemic, Laddership Fellows engage with regular readings and homeworks, daily practices, a weekly video conference call, and optional design calls. Examples of topics include the edges of compassion practice in the dominant paradigm: how to engage a heart of gift ecology at work; evolving relationships to capital; and infusing organizational values with micro-acts of kindness, mindfulness, and generosity. In each case, the idea is to really push the boundaries of traditional enterprise, with the intention of developing collective strength to step into new structures over time. This is not a theoretical exercise, but rather a process where we experiment concretely and amplify what works.

Implicit through the whole process is deepening our collective capacity to support kindred spirits, and to hold the paradox of questions in our experiments rather than jumping to any preconceived answer. If you are interested in joining a future Laddership Circle, do apply below and one of our coordinators will be in touch.

   Apply For Next Laddership Circle

Quotes

  • We arrive empty handed, and leave empty handed. So then, how do we want to spend the time in between?

    Nimo
  • What you are, the world is. And without your transformation, there can be no transformation of the world.

    J. Krishnamurti
  • If the universe is alive, it makes sense to get rid of undue complexity, live simply, and focus on a conscious relationship with the world around us.

    Duane Elgin

Get In Touch.

To stay connected, you may like to subscribe to our monthly newsletter. If you'd like to reach us on a specific matter, please drop us a note below and we'll get back to you shortly.

Error received
Your message was sent, thank you!