Our Creation Story
The Resilient Leadership™ Community was born in Perth, Australia, in 1999.
Wendy Campbell was driving home after attending an angry and vocal meeting between protestors and the directors of a company logging old growth forests. Deeply disturbed by the lack of listening at the meeting, she wondered how she could help the protestors to be strong and have their message listened to by the directors in a positive way. As she drove, the essence of a community emerged in her mind — a place where people working for supportive change in their communities could gather and work together towards their goals — a place where they would be listened to and in the process, learn to listen to those with whom they disagreed.
Catlyne Hos joined Wendy in March 2000, after Wendy called a meeting of colleagues and friends to discuss how this community objective — then called the Wonder of One — might happen. As Catlyne developed her Paths to Identity process during the years that followed, she used it to facilitate the creation of the community and its objective. She overcame the later challenge of the co-creators being spread across the globe by holding online co-creation dialogues. As well Catlyne co-created the 3rd Key of Kindness™. Catlyne finally retired from the team in April 2018, leaving her deeply thoughtful approach to shared creation as her lasting legacy.
Alfred Leung accepted Wendy’s invitation to join the co-creation group in July 2006 after completing Wendy’s first public trial of the Wonder of One concept as The Leader as Inspiring Coach. Working in a corporate environment at the time but approaching retirement, he worked with Wendy to develop his unique approach to people’s life values into the Core Values process of the 2nd Key of Kindness™. As well, Alfred’s Core Values approach became an inherent part of the group’s practice.
During 2007, Wendy’s mentor Tom Wilson guided Wendy to find a more suitable name for the concept — one that would capture the outcome that it intended to deliver. After many discussions, the name Resilient Leadership™ was born.
The next challenge was the image which portrayed the project’s essence. Annimac, a friend of Wendy’s and ongoing adviser for the project, introduced Wendy to Katina Woodruff-Robert. in early 2008. Katina and Wendy enjoyed a number of playful conversations about their projects. During their final conversation, the first part of the current image emerged — 2 sweet lion cubs.
Anne Radford accepted Wendy’s invitation to join the group in September 2008. Based in London, United Kingdom, Anne’s inclusion in the dialogues marked a shift from face-to-face meetings to online meetings. Anne’s authentic and empathetic practice of the Appreciative Inquiry process deepened the team’s dialogues, especially around the 1st Key of Kindness™. Anne remained a committed co-creator until she retired from the group in April 2018. Her lasting legacy was the group practice of respectful listening — inquiring from the place of not knowing — a practice in which Anne which especially skilled.
After Anne joined the group, Wendy’s colleague Andre Burki supported Wendy with his Team Architect skills to craft an online dialogue process. With his support the team culture and co-creation flourished during the now-online dialogues.
Sue White accepted Wendy’s invitation to join the group in September 2010. By this time the online dialogues were working well, and Sue was warmly welcomed. Sue’s warm and insightful approach to Type further deepened the team’s discussions as the 4th Key of Kindness™ continued to emerge during the discussions. Her lasting legacy was the group’s approach to understanding and appreciating difference.
Sally Paulin accepted Wendy’s invitation to join the team in December 2010. Sally’s heartfelt commitment to her sustainability teaching using Theory U broadened the group’s ability to support change makers by helping them to understand the bigger picture in the 6th Key of Kindness™. She also taught the group to be present for the future they were co-creating.
George Eapen accepted Wendy’s invitation to join the group in April 2013. Based in India, George was developing a people-focussed approach to social value innovation. With his thoughtful and wide-ranging care about in our human world, this gave the 5th Key of Kindness™ and the team, a most welcome deepened community focus on their co-creation work.
Now there was a whole community around Resilient Leadership™:
During the team dialogues, the current version of the image emerged — the lion family which we gratefully included in our website banner. This was a good time to reflect on the many people who had been part of its creation. As well those listed above, others who had been part of the journey included Roberta Mead, Tony Manso, Ken Holzman, Paul Chatfeild-Clarke, Digby Scott, Marie Finlay, Phillip Ng, Andrew Nelson and Michael Van Der Zanden.
By the time Carla Van Raay signed up to undertake Resilient Leadership™ in December 2015, the group had co-created a unique and profoundly helpful reference book with associated mentoring, underpinned by the 7 Keys of Kindness™ Journey. Carla took all the time that she needed to work with each of the mentors — Anne, Alfred, Catlyne, Sue, George, Sally and Wendy — before completing her goal in early 2017. She has remained a valued and enthusiastic member of the community ever since.
Lynn Allen formally joined the Resilient Leadership™ Community in October 2017. As well as supporting her to achieve her own project goal, Lynn enthusiastically discussed with Sally and Wendy how the community could become a self-supporting collaboration. She brought much wise advice to this conversation.
Jo McNeilly accepted Catlyne’s and Wendy’s invitation to join the team in October 2017. Jo’s effervescent personality and personable approach brought a welcome new perspective to the group, and to the 4th Key of Kindness™ of Resilient Leadership™. Sue supported Jo as she took her place in our mentoring group, then retired to join our Past Mentors group.
David Shaked accepted Anne’s and Wendy’s invitation to join the mentoring team in March 2018. His thoughtful and kind approach to the big issues that we all face as we strive for positive change added a new depth to the 1st Key of Kindness™. Anne supported David is he took his place in our mentoring team, then retired to join our Past Mentors group. Sadly, in December 2019, after a very busy year following the successful launch of his latest book, and his increasing consulting work, David no longer had the space to give this important role the attention it needed. He retired to join our Past Mentors group.
Tertta Paananen accepted Catlyne’s and Wendy’s invitation to join the mentoring team in August 2018. Her delightful and kind approach to seeing the whole of whatever we are striving for, added a lovely breadth to the 3rd Key of Kindness™. Catlyne supported Tertta as she took her place in our mentoring group, then retired to join our Past Mentors group. She continued her involvement with the Resilient Leadership™ Community by writing a reference book for the 3rd Key of Kindness™, with Tertta.
After many months of Resilient Leadership Community inactivity while our human world reeled from the many shocks of the pandemic and other global upheavals, by late 2021 it was obvious that our community was no longer connected as it had been. In October of that year, Wendy closed the doors. Our shared work was done.
Fond memories of this story of co-creation and friendship will remain with us for the rest of our lives, and of the lives of all those whom we touched during our years together. For those of us who remain connected as fellow life travellers, we continue to connect as friends.
In deepest gratitude for this journey,
Wendy
Wendy’s email.