The Land & Leadership Development Community

We are an international group of people who share a living-systems approach to project design: including regenerative land management, environmental education, community and policy work, and much more.

We meet 4 times every month, and all meetings are recorded.

You can come as often as you like.

The cost is on a sliding scale. See below for more info.

Currently our schedule is: 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month, 5:30 PM
2nd and 4th Thursdays 10:30 AM. Eastern USA Time Zone (New York USA) click here for a handy time-zone converter.

Here is a list of upcoming dates.

How we started

Four years ago, a group of participants from one of my courses asked if we could continue learning together. I said yes, if we could set it up so that we could learn using our own experiences and projects as test cases. I knew this was the best way to learn as a community, to resist the temptation to have an “expert” holding forth on a subject while everyone else listened passively. I also suggested we use living systems frameworks to see the processes of life at work, and discern where and how to intervene to be most effective.

We had people from all around the world and all walks of life. The group worked out a system in which some of them paid extra for those who could not afford as much. Many of us are still together, and many new people have joined, but the structure of our meetings has stayed the same.

Who we are

We are an international group of people who share a living-systems approach to achieve our aims. Each of us seeks to understand the specific place where we live and work, as a living system. Most weeks we focus on one person’s place or project, but the discussion is structured so that everyone is simultaneously reflecting on, and learning about, their own. By doing this together on a regular basis, we gain enormous perspective–on the uniqueness of our own places and projects, how they are nested within the whole, the processes that are common to all living systems, and the surprisingly individual intervention points that actually create change.

If you have spent hours playing with rocks in a mountain stream, you know that you can redirect flows of water by moving a few stones (and that the power of moving water can change an entire landscape downstream). Likewise, by learning to image (bring to mind a realistic image of) the actual processes moving through a place (photosynthesis, grazing animals, human beliefs, microbial work, etc.) we can find points of intervention that redirect whole systems (economies, public health, food systems, etc.). This is how we create land and communities that work for all life, rather than getting distracted by working on parts and pieces.

Currently we have about 30 members, whose projects include farming & ranching, urban gardening, bee-keeping, compost making, managing non-profit organizations, environmental education, policy work, human and environmental health, ethical investing, writing and other creative work, and planning at a local, regional, and global scale.

As a community, we are growing a shared understanding of how living systems work (and how to create conditions that allow life to do its work) based on our own experiences of processes and flows within those systems (flows of water, carbon, sunlight, and nutrients; the work of all species; human beliefs, behaviors and patterns; evolution and biodiversity, etc.)

Why we gather

• We are smarter and stronger together than we are alone.
• There is a power that people develop when they count on one another that can lead to wiser decisions, and more lasting change in the world.
• Continual learning, personal development and community development are not only meaningful and fun, but also essential for true ongoing regeneration of living systems (ecosystems, food and farming systems, economies, health care systems, governance systems, etc.)
• The processes of living systems are mostly invisible to us unless we practice asking better questions and observing the world around us more deeply.
  
• To be effective, we need to be willing to question our assumptions, notice the results of our actions, and change course as needed.

How we gather

Our international community gathers together 4 times a month, alternating mornings and evenings, so that people from various time zones can attend. (All meetings are recorded, and members have access to hundreds of previous recordings.) The more often you come, the more capability you will develop, but there is no need to "catch up" between meetings unless you want to. (This is a community of ongoing reflection and practice, not a sequential course).

Didi Pershouse designs most of the events, and serves as a resource to the group as a whole. We work together not just as a learning community, but also as a “meta” learning community that sometimes attends and/or hosts other events together. We will hold regional retreats in 2025.

COST

The cost for membership for those in the Global North economy (eg: North America, Europe, Australia, NZ, parts of Asia and parts of the Middle East) ranges from $50-100 per month (recognizing that there are different economies within the Global North.) The cost for those in the Global South economy (eg: Africa, India, South America, Southeast Asia) is $5-10 per month, recognizing that there are different economies within the Global South. (Please be respectful of our intentions and do not sign up for a Global South payment plan if you live in the Global South but have a Global North salary/inheritance/lifestyle.)

Many of our current members adjust their payments and contribute to an equity fund to make this work. Add on extra to your payment below, or you can donate through PayPal. We all benefit from being able to learn from each other in different areas of the world.

Please contact Didi Pershouse if you have questions about what makes sense to pay.

Are you ready?

This may not be the right time in your life for this kind of work. Our discussions are highly focused. This requires a strong center from all participants and a commitment to the work of self assessment and ongoing personal and community development. Please consider whether this is a good fit for you.

A few of the many WRONG REASONS TO JOIN:

• You want to collect good ideas that you can put into a workbook. (This work is living work. The design changes every time.)
• You want a place to think about projects, but don’t want to work on self development. (We practice three lines of work–development of self, community, and system.)
• You want an expert to tell you what to do and give you lots of great advice and information. (We learn from looking at our own–and each other’s–experiences of places, projects, relationships, and processes, through living systems frameworks.)
• You want someone to be the great Earth Mother for you and take care of everything.

Please DO JOIN US if you want to continue learning in an international community of practice by applying living-systems thinking to project development, while working on your own inner development as a leader. (We define a “leader” as anyone working to make things go well in the world–and encouraging others to do the same–whether your efforts are recognized or not.)

SCHEDULE

We meet 4 times every month, and all meetings are recorded. You can come as often as you like. Our schedule currently is:

• 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month, 5:30 PM Eastern USA Time Zone (New York USA)
• 2nd and 4th Thursdays 10:30 AM.

This schedule may change. To convert these (Eastern Time Zone/New York USA) times to your local time, click here for a handy converter.

Click here for a list of upcoming dates.

We alternate morning and evening times to accommodate different time zones, since we are an international group. We generally have at least two meetings per topic, always with a new discussion and perspectives. Come as frequently as you can. The more you come, the more capacity you will develop, but there is no need to "catch up" between meetings unless you want to (this is a community of ongoing reflection and practice, not a sequential course). Meetings are recorded, and community members have access to current and previous recordings.