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Peggy Holman
Founder

Founded in 1997, The Open Circle Company is dedicated to supporting organizations in becoming who they say they want to be.  Productive, fulfilling work is performed by people who bring themselves fully to their work: mind, heart, body, and spirit.  The Open Circle Company supports organizations in remembering how to do this.

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Peggy Holman convenes and hosts conversations that matter, inviting people and systems to gather around issues they care about.  By using generative processes that call forth the best of who people are and can be, the energy and wisdom to move dreams to action are unleashed, resulting in more resilient, agile, collaborative and alive people and systems.  The vastly expanded second edition of her book, The Change Handbook (Berrett-Koehler, 2007), co-edited with Tom Devane and Steven Cady, has been warmly received as an aid to people wishing to increase the effectiveness of their organizations and communities. Peggy has an MBA from Seattle University.  Since 2001, she has worked with journalists in redefining journalism for the 21st century. Her current inquiry is into how we take to scale the gifts that the "process arts" bring to shifting our collective capacity for living well together.

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EDUCATION
1983, MBA, Emphasis in Finance, Seattle University

1976 BA, Drama, University of Washington

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BOARD AFFILIATIONS
Open Space Institute (US) co-founder and board president  

Boomer Classics, secretary of this theatre's board

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In my twenties, I developed 2 theories that have often guided me through the years.  Here they are:

The skiing theory of life.  I didn’t learn to ski until I was 23.  I quickly learned that the very counter-intuitive way to be successful was to lean down into the hill.  Rather than causing me to wildly speed towards the bottom, it meant I could set my own pace with grace.  This recognition that the best course of action often is the opposite of what seems the best thing to do has continued to play out in many realms. 

 

The ice cream theory of life.  I love ice cream.  It’s my favorite food.  While debating with friends the merits of high quality brands vs. cheap brands, I learned that the reason people tolerate cheap ice cream is that they rely on their memory of how ice cream tastes.  Rather than enjoying the real thing in the moment, much of the time, we rely on our memory of they way it should be.  To enjoy most fully, I treat every bite as if it were my first.  To live most fully, I live every moment as if it were my only moment.

 

 

Partial Client List

Ala Kukui Retreat Center

American College for Advancement in Medicine

American Press Institute - The Media Center

Antioch University

Associated Press Managing Editors

AT&T Wireless Services

Association of Jewish Community Professionals

Boeing Company

Buddhist Churches of America

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility

Department of Labor: Employment & Training Administration

Embry-Riddell Aeronautical University

Fetzer Institute

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Girl Scouts, Totem Council

Idipron, Programa Bosconia-La Forida, Colombia

Israeli Ministry of Education

Israeli-Palestinian Center for Research and Information

Kaiser Permanente

Los Andes University, Colombia

Microsoft Corporation

National Forest Service

National Park Service

Nature Conservancy of Washington

New England Associated Press News Executive Association

Novartis Pharma AG,  Switzerland

Spirited Work at the Whidbey Institute

St. Joes Medical Center

Washington State Arts Commission

Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission

911 Media Arts Center

 

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