Sociologist, Psychologist, Developmentalist, Futurist, and President of Meridian University
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This episode of Integral Voices is an invitation to the dialogue and inquiry intended at the upcoming Integral African Conference. The conference is an opportunity to further our understanding of human development while drawing on the gifts and conditions of the African context. The conversation circles the theme of the role of solidarity in engaging the cascading crises that is the current global reality. Each of the panelists featured in this episode are speakers at the upcoming conference.
Modern and postmodern societies are organized to manage complexity through professions that promote inner development. This course looks at how developmental practitioners such as coaches, therapists, managers, generative entrepreneurs, and transformative leaders can initiate and sustain transformative communities of practice. Such communities of practice generate a cultural commons in the service of transforming professions.
Athens, Istanbul, Cairo, Johannesburg: Complexity is the very essence of the world we seek to navigate in Transformative Learning Labs. These labs are geared to help participants harmonize the interplay between internal and external complexity, aimed at aligning our skills with the world's demands and discovering "the simplicity on the far side of complexity."
Peter Senge and Aftab Omer in Conversation -- What is the true nature of inner freedom? How do we recognize the legitimacy of the other? How do destiny and humility relate to leadership? In this touching and emergent Integral Voices conversation between Peter Senge and Aftab Omer, they draw on ideas expressed by Martin Buber, Humberto Maturana and Peter‘s work in South Africa to explore these questions.
Culture is the medium through which human capabilities are transmitted. In this respect, culture may be understood as a commons that is consequential to the future of other forms of commons. Regenerating the commons is inherently and intrinsically associated with democratizing and partnering. The commons of shared meanings that enable truth telling are exploitable by the market when education is dominated by the market.
Riane Eisler talks with Aftab Omer and Melissa Schwartz of Meridian University about the role of transformative learning within higher education institutions and its importance in regenerating and transforming culture.
A live, interactive panel conversation moderated by Aftab Omer and joined by Riane Eisler, Hazel Henderson, David Korten, Lynne Twist, and Ervin Laszlo -- What are the enabling conditions for reuniting care and economics? Are these also the conditions for the birth of an ecological civilization? Can we get real about markets and what the social wealth economic indicators are that promote real thinking about the human future? In this Integral Voices conversation, three Pathfinders, Riane Eisle...
Hanno Burmester's soon-to-be-published book by Perspectiva Press, Unlearn: A Compass for Radical Transformation, offers a doorway into understanding the role of "unlearning" in transformative change and transformative leadership. -- The panel conversation will also draw on Tomas Björkman's books The World We Create and The Nordic Secret, Monica Sharma’s book Radical Transformational Leadership: Strategic Action for Change Agents, and Indra Adnan’s forthcoming book The Politics of Waking Up:..
Monica Sharma and Aftab Omer in Conversation -- What makes leaders trustworthy? How can cultural and system transformation be scaled? How do transformative leaders serve by engaging worldviews? In this conversation between Monica Sharma and Aftab Omer they identify some of the capabilities required for transformative leaders to systemically engage the fragilities and possibilities of our time.
Can we respond to the multi-dimensional crises of our time with a different kind of speaking and listening? Can we protect and preserve the great storehouse of ideas, stories and practices embedded in human cultures? -- In this conversation between Thomas Steininger and Aftab Omer, they explore the power of dialog to deepen democracy and transform culture so that the great transmission of human capacities may endure.
Nina Simons and Aftab Omer in Conversation -- In this expansive and heartful conversation, Nina Simons and Aftab Omer explore the shadows and possibilities of entrepreneurship. Holding a vision of local interdependence and generative globalization, they discuss how transformative innovation gathers social, technological and cultural dimensions in ways that regenerate the commons.
Thomas Hubl and Aftab Omer in Conversation -- In this wide-ranging and emergent conversation, Thomas Hubl and Aftab Omer explore collective trauma, social healing, and the ways in which scientific inquiry and mystical understanding inform the challenging work of collective trauma practitioners. Aftab and Thomas share their reflections on related themes including the COVID-19 pandemic, collective presencing, the intimate internet, and the power of creative surrender.
Leadership is an inherent dimension of human collective life. The technical, dynamic, and social complexity of contemporary life calls for distinct capabilities of leadership, some unprecedented. The force of the future that drives complexity in modern and postmodern societies requires that leadership be effective in supporting the structural transformation of social institutions. -- This course provides an overview of transformative leadership as practiced in domains such as business, law,...
Entrepreneurship is a major driver of social and economic transformation. Social Entrepreneurship entails social innovation in the service of positive social impact. Generative Entrepreneurship goes beyond positive social impact to include regenerating the commons and furthering collective transformative learning that impacts future generations. Instead of exploiting the commons by externalizing costs, Generative Entrepreneurship seeds and grows the commons. In doing so, Generative Entrepren...
By Aftab Omer for Enlivening Edge Magazine. Introduction by Jean-Paul Munsch, Guest Editor of EE Magazine’s Education edition.
Meridian University's Integral Voices series presents: "Art and Culture in Integral Development" -- Meridian Chancellor Dr. Jean Houston discusses Art and Culture in Integral Development with Meridian faculty members, poet-performer-activist Dr. Rama Mani and poet-activist Dr. Alexander Schieffer.
Meridian University's Integral Voices series presents: "The Power of Transformative Communities of Practice as an Evolutionary Force" -- Meridian faculty member and collective intelligence pioneer George Pór in conversation with Meridian President Aftab Omer and organizational design consultant Mike McMaster, as they discuss the power of transformative communities of practice as an evolutionary force.
Aftab Omer, Ph.D. is the president of Meridian University, a graduate university with degree and professional programs emphasizing the power of transformative learning.
With students and alumni on six continents, Meridian University offers both an online format globally and a hybrid format in California.
Aftab is a sociologist, psychologist, developmentalist, and futurist. Raised in Pakistan, India, Hawaii, and Turkey, he was educated at the universities of M.I.T, Harvard and Brandeis. His publications have addressed the topics of transformative learning, dialogic capability, developmental power, cultural leadership, civil society, generative entrepreneurship, and the power of imagination.
Aftab’s advising work focuses on team development and on leveraging the creative potentials of conflict, diversity, and complexity. Formerly the president of the Council for Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychologies, he is a Fellow of the International Futures Forum and the World Academy of Arts and Sciences.