Renewal Group
 
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Tom Wojick formed The Renewal Group in 1997 after leading organizational change efforts for a national behavioral health care system comprised of multiple hospitals. As Vice President he worked with his team of CEOs in their efforts to transform and sustain their businesses.Upon reflecting on these experiences he realized that the single most critical element to organizational success was leadership. And the single most important leadership competency was relational acumen - the ability to use influential power to bring about change and transformation.   

Tom noticed that leaders who are able to inspire and engage their workforce in the purpose of the organization, and who model the organizations core values were able to overcome obstacles, which caused the demise of leaders who on paper were equally as experienced and academically trained. The difference between success and failure were relationship skills. Whenever he saw positive relationships, he saw results. "If you want to increase your success you need to proportionally increase your relationships."  

This insight captured Tom’s passion, and led him to leave the relative safety and security of working in an organization to form the Renewal Group, which gave him the time and focus to develop programs, which capture the art and science of human engagement and performance. The Renewal Group’s programs integrate the conceptual and practical applications of renewal, emotional and relational intelligence, resiliency and relationship – centered approaches to facilitating change, transformation and optimal performance. These services and programs have helped numerous people and organizations experience not only success but also significance.
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World View 04/06/2010
 
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The world is and always has been a sophisticated and intricate tapestry of interdependencies. The first decade of the 21st. century has heightened and sharpened our awareness of this reality by exposing its beauty, complexity and fragileness.  Advances in telecommunications, medicine, and in the natural and social sciences have provided us the ability to experience the phenomena of interdependency at distances and depths never before seen or imagined. And as we continue to discover its intricacies and synergistic power, we are also experiencing the successes and failures of our attention or inattention to its principles and realities.

Fritjof Capra, in his book, The Web of Life, articulates this reality succinctly in the following quote:

“All living beings are members of ecological communities bound together in a network of interdependencies. When deep ecological perception becomes part of our daily awareness a radically new system of ethics emerges.”

   Every day the dynamic synergy and power of interdependence is at play and impacting the quality of our personal, professional and organizational experiences in small and large ways, noticed and unnoticed; we are part of an on-going experiment.

·      Parent – Child

·      Husband – Wife

·      Manager – Operator

·      Leader - Department manager

·      Sales Rep – Customer

·      Manufacturers – Employees – Suppliers - Consumers

A frequent refrain of, “I had no idea that what we (I) did would have this sort of impact” is symbolic of our growing awareness of the need for higher levels of consciousness to successfully navigate the challenges and intricacies of our interdependent world.  Fritjof Capra says “we are bound together”, and because we are, there is minimal tolerance for choosing to disregard or deny the principles of interdependence.  Leaders and teams that understand and behave as if they are “bound together” are far more productive and creative.

Literally hour-by-hour we acquire new insights into the interdependent architecture, which all systems are built upon, and begin to appreciate that our capacity to perform, sustain and thrive at our highest levels is directly related to the degree of respect we have for every part of the systems we live and work in.

Technology can assist us in attending to some of the requirements of interdependency, but it cannot comprehensively address the very essence of what it is and why it will contribute to our success or to our downfall. Technology can increase the speed and frequency of communication, eliminate the obstacles of physical distance and keep us informed. Yet, Imagine your team only communicating by email and text messages and never spending time together in the same room. One might mistakenly believe that this scenario is an acceptable alternative because it would save time, money and the people who don’t get along with each other wouldn’t have to be in the same room.  However, this scenario does not respect a core principle of interdependency - the need for human connectedness, and more specifically the capacity to build trust, which is the essence of interdependence.  Without relatedness and trust we cannot fully develop what Capra identifies as the perquisite for living in an interdependent world, “a radically new systems of ethics”.  Without a system of values and ethics that respect interdependence, teams and organizations cannot fully realize and capitalize on their full potential.

  All micro and macro systems must respect the principles of interdependence or suffer consequences. Families, teams, organizations, communities, states and nations are bound together and each has an effect on the other. What we do and how we do it, is tantamount to the quality of our experiences and endeavors, and ultimately to the success and significance of each other.

The Renewal Group’s expertise and focus on Relationship – Centered approaches to engagement, performance and leadership are based on the principles of interdependence. We facilitate the learning and integration of skills and competencies that equip individuals, teams and organizations to excel at creating and sustaining teams, networks and systems that are sensitive and effective in meeting the complex challenges of interdependency in the 21st. century.
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