Change Agent Development Americas Community
A Personal and Professional Development Community for Making a Significant Difference in Your Work and Life
What Is It?
The Change Agent Development Community has its foundation in a living systems paradigm. It draws on the idea that humans have a role and place in the world to become intentional about evolving ourselves and a direction for humans, life and Earth. Further, nothing and no one has reached their full potential – as a product, business, or natural resource or as a person.
Development of living-systems thinking capability and management of one’s own state of being and will can endlessly advance intentional evolution and the expression of each living system’s potential. This nature of growth is the most certain path to making a greater contribution, sourced from our individual uniqueness and essence, and to the experience of more meaning in our lives.
Who Is It For?
The Change Agent Development Community is for individuals who wish to deepen growth and development in their personal and professional lives. Further, they want to apply that growth to support an essence expression and intentional evolution approach to change. They may be running businesses or consulting to and coaching individuals, businesses, and organizations in their pursuit of change.
They embrace the idea of producing change that has responsible effects in the world. Their work in the change agent community is based on continuing pursuit of a Living Systems Approach and its core frameworks and practices, which have proven successful for more than six decades on four continents in more than fifty industries and hundreds of communities of practice. These include businesses, educational systems, and nonprofit organizations, as well as community and economic development groups.
The Change Agent Development Community focuses on working, inventing and growing together over many years and generations. It has existed in evolving forms for six decades and is handed down as a legacy. It utilizes and continues to evolve a very well-tested and proven system of critical thinking and practice based in modern science and linguistics, evolutionary biology, systems psychology and the ancient and modern spiritual teachings and philosophy of Western and Eastern traditions. What members say about their experience.
There’s no limit of possibility when working with Carol. There is no end point. There’s instead continuous learning if you are willing to challenge yourself. The other individuals that have sought out this work also add to the richness of discussion and learning and provide a caliber of peer-to-peer learning that I had never been exposed to before.
Carol’s work and methods shock you out of patterns and habits that may not be doing you or your work justice, bringing clarity not only to the path of your career but to how you walk it. – Alana Kambury, Starvation Alley, Pinchot graduate.
Working with Carol and the group she facilitates in Santa Fe, I am ever more deeply aware of the meaning of the term “a living school”. A living school is not about information sharing, or even process development, but rather about holding a life-motivating question and learning how to live into that question. Mary Emeny, Board Member, Democracy Collaborative.
“Our business had been successful, but I was starting to get bored and lose interest. Connecting with Carol’s work literally regenerated my passion and excitement for the company – we are now creating larger positive change in a more systemic way than ever before.
“When I first started working with Carol, I was skeptical about the investment of time and money. But as I continued, huge shifts started to happen in me and inside my firm. Carol has a way of integrating deep personal development with razor-sharp business strategy – it’s unparalleled in anything I’ve ever seen.”
– Ethan Roland, Chief Innovation Officer, HowGood
“Since we started working with Carol, we’ve seen consistent 25%+ growth in gross and up to 48% growth in net profits.” – Dyami Nason-Regan, CEO AppleSeed Permaculture LLC
How to Join
You are invited by a current member. You may ask to meet someone or engage someone you know.
There are three levels of engagement in the Change Agent Development Community, each with more opportunities to apply the work and ways to participate in the community than the previous. Each expanded level includes the benefits of all the previous levels. To determine if CAD is a fit for you, and ultimately to decide on the best level for you, requires a conversation with a member in SEED Communities and their invitation.
All scopes of members and attendance in events are by invitation only because the materials and processes are proprietary and access to them requires an agreement. Anyone who has been an active member of the community for one full year may invite another person in at the Professional Growth level. When they do, they accept life-long stewardship for that person’s engagement. SEED Communities membership site provides guidelines for making invitations.
Entry into any level requires commitment to a one-year membership and prepayment of a nonrefundable membership fee. The agreements are different than certification or licensing; it is tied to active participation, both in the community and in the development series and augmenting sessions. Payment for the learning is made through community membership, not as a licensing fee or certification program fee, and also not as a payment for courses. It is not training. The SEED Community developmental processes and materials, when applied, involves more self-determination than traditional certification and licensing. Personal agency is supported and also connected to ongoing second-line community work in pursuit of world changing endeavors.
Carol has changed the way I think about and engage in my work and interactions. With the help of the frameworks and perspectives she offers, I have become more conscious of my approach to a given situation, mapping out a clear aim and process for myself and being more deliberate in managing inputs and responses along the way.
The value is often hard to put into words because it supports and encompasses so many working processes, but in effect she offers instruments to yield success and pathways to consider in the process of living and working in deeply considered ways. This is the work for anyone trying to change the world, and I can’t more highly recommend Carol as a resource accordingly. – Lauren Yarmuth, CEO, StoneHouse
Commitment from Participants
Community development events are offered on eight weekends throughout the year. We also have level-specific online workshops throughout the year. There are four of these per year at the Personal-Professional Development level, twelve at the Business Development Level, and four at the Lineage Level. Finally, there is a Community-Wide Summit held once/year. For the time being all events are virtual but this may change as the Coronavirus situation changes. We may reconsider timing for 2022.
Each community member commits to the principle of “accepting or rejecting nothing without testing with personal experience.”
Getting Help: There are no one-to-one coaching sessions included and are not part of our philosophy. All development work is done in community events, live and online. If you need a thinking partner or direction, work with the person who invited you to CAD or with other members who agree to engage. To pose questions to Carol directly— bring them to a session in person or on line. It is done so everyone hears the question and answer at the same time and learns together. This practice is foundational to our epistemology. But working with a thinking partner is very powerful by arranging engagements with other member from the community. The Business Development level has separate sessions to examine your work with clients and projects, potentially available after Year One is complete.
Professional Growth Membership Level
One recurring non-refundable annual payment of $1,000 Renew or Join here
(Please note that there will be a 3% handling fee for any changes made after charge goes through)
Members at this level receive the benefit of attending all live events and reviewing recorded online events in one calendar year from their anniversary date. They have access to twenty or more recorded online workshops that focus on personal development and the philosophy behind the technology of the community.
These recorded sessions provide additional developmental materials and engagement with people from around the country for enriching one’s knowledge, understanding, and experience. These recordings are live-streaming and access is limited to the time of a paid membership. The are restricted to being viewed by a member and are not to be shared.
A member’s anniversary date is one year from the date they joined, which coincides with payment date.
Conditions: All materials are restricted to personal use and may not be used in or with other organizations. They may not be shared with others outside the group. They may not be used in income-producing ways or within a company in revenue-producing ways, except as you are intrinsically changed as a person or leader. At the end of one year, it is possible to consider moving to a new level in order to use materials in income-producing roles.
Business Development Membership Level
One recurring non-refundable annual payment of $2,000 Renew or Join here
(Please note that there will be a 3% handling fee for any changes made after charge goes through)
Members at this level receive all of the benefits at the Professional Growth level. Other benefits at this level include four additional online workshops a year with Carol offering “design help” in a fishbowl format (work with one person directly, while other participants learn from watching, listening, and reflecting). Carol will have time to work with two or three people directly in each online workshop. Members are also welcome to attend the four online workshops offered at the Professional Growth level. Business Development members also receive a personal, one-hour Essence Discovery session with Carol or another experienced community leader. This is a one-time event. Recordings of all online workshops are available to Business Development members at the SEED Communities website.
Conditions: This level of membership may be considered after one full year of paid attendance at the Professional Growth level. Entry is by agreement and contract only and most often is appropriate for consultants, small business owners, and business leaders. It is the default level for business owners and organization leaders, unless they are corporations, which requires the corporate rate since a larger entity benefits
With a contractual agreement, expanded use of materials is possible for as long as the member remains in the community and pays to participate at this level. When participation ends, all rights to use of materials cease.
Corporate Member Level
One non-recurring annual payment of $3,000 Renew here
(Please note that there will be a 3% handling fee for any changes made after charge goes through)
For members who own a company and manage functions or business units, they are invited as a Corporate Member. They engage in all the activities with the Business Unit Level, including 8 webinars (four on design), and design practice and support at end of day for each local session using their own material. Additionally, there are four one hour calls after attending one of the onsite groups to discuss application to your business. Please ask for a conversation to explore. The annual member fee is $3000.
Lineage Membership Level
One recurring annual payment of $3000 Renew here
OR recurring payments, 4 months apart at $1025 each Renew here
(Please note that there will be a 3% handling fee for any changes made after charge goes through)
What is Included: 4 Business Development online workshops, 4 Lineage online workshops, & 4 Lineage Intensives (held on the Friday before each onsite weekend workshop).
Members at this level receive all the benefits at the Professional Growth and Business Development levels. The major difference here is the assumption that you are preparing to be part of the business change practice with the Carol Sanford Institute, which may include contracts to work with clients of the Institute, using the proprietary curriculum or participation in a Multi-Company Series or special subject focus series that Carol leads. Consulting work is the aim, but is not guaranteed. The purpose is to advance a Business Development level of understanding of the work in application.
As with the other levels, entry is by invitation only, but it includes opportunities to participate in income-producing consulting with CSI clients (contract required).
Four online workshops a year are offered, in which Lineage members engage with special materials and processes — not available at other levels — some of which are to be used with clients contracted by CSI and nowhere else. There will also be some video lessons. Members at this level are always welcome to join the Professional Growth and Business Development online workshops, as well.
Conditions: Initially, the materials may be used only with clients under a CSI contract. The materials and curriculum are owned, trademarked and copyrighted by the Carol Sanford Institute and all rights are reserved. This agreement may change with time, and members always have the right to stop participating.
Lineage Guidelines
The primary guideline for membership at the Lineage level is personal stewardship for the Developmental School and its technology and purpose, as offered through business and community events, via esoteric, mesoteric, and exoteric forums. The intention is to build a developmental community, not a consulting practice, with reciprocity for direct educational contribution. CSI contributes funding to build the school, as well as provide income.
Therefore, the following guidelines apply, and a member’s support for the community is demonstrated by adherence to them.
You have been a member of the Change Agent Development Community at the Business Development level for a minimum of two years. You value the contractual agreement at that level and will use the frameworks it offers actively in onsite sessions with your own clients. This is coupled with your belief that business is a node among human systems at which change can be leveraged into all social systems and cultural arenas.
For a minimum of two years, you have been in your own consulting practice or you have been in a role in an organization that is the equivalent (for example, you have connected with clients over the course of sustained efforts, rather than for only single events; you have led some change efforts to successful conclusions).
You are a good householder in terms of your own finances and are self-reliant and resilient.
You have a clear intention to be discerning about integrity with CSI’s technology, materials, and processes. You will not mix paradigms when engaging in the work or use the technology with other philosophies and practices. This agreement will hold, even as you evolve the technology and design for clients. Mixing and matching paradigms diminishes the discernment of everyone, including educators, community members, and students.
You have demonstrated a continuous commitment to your own personal development for some years.
You understand that a Lineage member may NOT use CSI proprietary materials in another professional practice without express written permission. These materials are the sole property of CSI until otherwise agreed.
You understand that being accepted at this level does not guarantee that paid work for you will be forthcoming immediately or perhaps ever—although the intention is to grow the business rapidly so that associates may learn and help develop the technology as it is applied to real change efforts in a business.
All rights to use materials and processes are forfeited when you leave the Change Agent Development Community. Authority is dependent on paid membership and ongoing involvement in the community.
The Work of Lineage Level
CSI’s educational program and consultation activities develop consciousness capability and expression that enable human beings to play their roles in evolutionary patterns in this solar system. Those roles are particularly focused on elevating the levels of energy available and on the ordering and organizing of those energies in value-adding processes. This work cuts across many fields and disciplines, from business and education to community and economic development, and many more.
To Begin Your Membership in the Change Agent Development Community at the Lineage Level, please click the level above. Membership is paid annually on your anniversary date; this is not a pay-per-session course. You may attend as many events in as many locations as you choose in return for your annual membership fee. Membership also includes all materials and one individual engagement annually per person.
Note: Principles for sharing materials at the Business Development level apply here as well, but because most cannot be shared, the Lineage principles supersede the Business Development principles where there is a conflict or seeming conflict.
“I believe that there are certain things that can only be learned from real masters. Carol Sanford is such a master. I experienced taking the craft of leading change way beyond tools and methods, to a place of fundamentally understanding of how human beings and living systems work .It has changed how I work (or engage people). Johannes Bjorkman, Kaospilot, Arrhus, Denmark.
Lineage Corporate Membership Level
One recurring annual payment of $3500 Renew here
(Please note that there will be a 3% handling fee for any changes made after charge goes through)
Read the information above for Lineage Level, which also apply to Lineage Corporate Level.
COMMUNITY WIDE DATES
Online Workshop Instructions for those considering joining
Members-Only Online Workshop Instructions
Community-wide weekends
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- January 21-22, 2023 (Hybrid, Local & Online, additional Saturday afternoon workshop 1-4pm PT)
- March 4-5, 2023 (online only)
- April 22-23, 2023 (Hybrid, Local & Online, additional Saturday afternoon workshop 1-4pm PT)
- June 3-4, 2023 (online only)
- July 15-16, 2023 (Hybrid, Local & Online, additional Saturday afternoon workshop 1-4pm PT)
- August 11, 2023 Seed Summit (online only)
- August 19-20, 2023 (online only)
- October 7-8, 2023 (Hybrid, Local & Online, additional Saturday afternoon workshop 1-4pm PT)
- December 2-3, 2023 (online only)
Community-wide workshops are focused on personal development for change agent professionals, including materials and discussions on this work and approach. (Available to all Change Agent Development Community members.)
2023
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- March 7, 2023, 12pm – 2 pm PT (online only)
- June 13, 2023, 12pm – 2 pm PT (online only)
- Sept 12, 2023, 12pm – 2 pm PT (online only)
- Dec 5, 2023, 12pm – 2 pm PT (online only)
Global Seed-Communities Summit
- August 11, 2023
- Friday 9 am – 12 pm PT
- Attendance is included in your CAD membership
- This summit will be recorded for later viewing on the membership site
- Online primarily (small gatherings may happen, not arranged by Lineage)
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DATES
Business Development & Corporate Workshops To sign up to work in the fishbowl with Carol in any session, please send her an email at carol@carolsanford.com. (Available to members of CAD Americas at the Business Development, Corporate, and Lineage levels)
2023
- Tuesday workshops for Advancing Application Design and Development, 12pm – 2pm PT
- February 7, 2023, 12pm – 2 pm PT
- May 16, 2023, 12pm – 2 pm PT
- August 8, 2023, 12pm – 2 pm PT
- November 7, 2023 12pm – 2 pm PT
- Fish Bowl Fridays, 1 – 3 pm PT
- January 20, 2023
- March 3, 2023
- April 21, 2023
- June 2, 2023
- July 14, 2023
- August 18, 2023
- October 6, 2023
- December 1, 2023
LINEAGE DATES
Lineage workshops
2023
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- January 10, 2023, 12pm – 2 pm PT
- March 14, 2023, 12pm – 2 pm PT
- April 18, 2023, 12pm – 2 pm PT
- July 11, 2023, 12pm – 2 pm PT
- October 17, 2023, 12pm – 2 pm PT