“May your children live in interesting times!”
—Curse of Uncertain Origin

Another variant is “May you live in interesting times!”

In either case, the point is made. We do live in interesting times. And these are both wonderful and more than a little scary. I need to spell out the global evidence for this claim. Rather, I will just bring it home to Integral Leadership Review. Our interesting times includes recent successes with the Integral Leadership Collaborative Conferences, and recruiting three outstanding interns: Dave Houglum, Katherine Huggins and Vivian Petties. And signing on a new columnist.

All three of our interns are in the latter stages of working on their PhDs. Dave and Katherine are at Gonzaga University and Vivian is at Capella University. I have already had the pleasure of working with them on this issue of ILR and they have proven to be wonderful additions to the many helping hands that bring ILR to you every two and a half months.

The ILC Conference was an outstanding success. We had about 280 paid attendees, about 50 scholarship attendees (everyone who asked to receive a full scholarship for the conference was given one), over fifty presenters and panelists, a an amazing group of volunteers, without whom there would have been no conference. We also had a small handful of paid conference leaders (not me) who were worth every penny. Their skill was also essential to the success and quality of the conference.

We have already begun receiving material for the January issue, a Special Issue on Integral Leadership in the United Kingdom, guest edited by Associate Editor and Bureau Chief Nick Shannon. He, like all the associates and all of the editors, work for free. Their commitment to bringing information and news from around the world continues to be a wonderful addition to ILR.

In addition, we have just made an agreement with Alfonso Montouri (http://integralleadershipreview.com/1314-integral-leadership-council-members-2) who will write a 5 times a year column on transdisciplinarity and leadership, beginning with the January issue. I am really looking forward to that first column since Alfonso was a popular jazz musician in the UK before his current role as a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.

We have been publishing ILR for more than ten years. We hope that you can help us continue to keep it free of charge to all who want it. I must admit that it has been a bit costly over the years. We have deeply appreciated the support of a few of you, our sponsors, and our occasional advertisers. But these gifts and other forms of support have not come even close to covering what it costs to bring you Integral Leadership Review five times a year. You can help but recommending us to others. You can help by giving a gift that shows you value and support this work. You can do this by going on the website and becoming a member of Friends of Integral Leadership Review with a gift of US$10.00 or more. http://integralleadershipreview.com/join-friends-of-ilr We very much appreciate your support.

This issue of ILR – and perhaps this applies to most if not all of them – has occurred in interesting times. Personally, this has been one of the busiest and challenging work and personal periods of my life. I have been learning a lot, feeling a lot, caring a lot – and the process will probably be as intense in the next few months as it has been in the last. And we have received and are sharing with you a lot of valuable and interesting material.

Imagine! Interviews with both Don Beck and Ken Wilber in the same issue! Also, there is a subtheme of articles having to do with women and integral leadership, including an article by Marilyn Hamilton. There is an excellent article by Integral Leadership Council member Alain Gautier with another by Don Dunoon (In the Leadership Mode) and Ellen Langer, each dealing with development of individuals for leader roles. And I highly recommend “Spiral Dynamics Integral in Action in a Roma Community in Romania” by Alexandre (Rico) de Faria for a truly exceptional case study.

There are a number of reviews of varying depth. I call your attention to James L. Ritchie-Dunham”s review of Maureen Metcalf and Mark Palmer, Innovative Leadership Fieldbook. This very recent publication has already been drawing attention.

Finally, I am excited that we are able to provide you with Barrett C. Brown’s “Complexity Leadership: An Overview and Key Limitations.” This is one of a number of Barrett’s papers we hope to publish in the future, papers he wrote in his PhD program (hence, it’s inclusion as a “Learner Paper”). Barrett has since completed his PhD, but we believe his work has been so valuable that we want to share as much of it as we can with you

I hope you find many things to enjoy about this issue and our innovations.