A panel that was of particular interest to me was about the co-creation of leadership. The first presenter was by Dr. Hala Tawell, President of the University of the Middle East Project in Cambridge, MA. She spoke about her work bringing together Arabs and Jews. Her talk can best be summarized by a comment she made, "We all knew the conflicts. We didn't know how much we had in common." This was followed by a paper by Dr. Rosemary Segella, in which she focused on complexity theory as it relates to large groups. She spoke about her years observing large groups and the cycles they go through. This was followed by a talk by Dr. Howard Kibel looking at projected fantasies and the political process. He explored how such fantasies might explain some of the strong reaction some people have against Sen. Hillary Clinton.

During the break, a few of us stood around and talked about the 2008 U.S. Presidential elections.

This was followed by a demonstration group. They had problems getting people to volunteer to be in the demonstration group, so in the end, I agreed to join. Eight of us sat around in a circle. We were asked to enact a meeting of leaders in a community that has been on an emotional roller coaster and now had the angry crowds at the gate. We were to explore the nature of the creation of leadership as we attempted to address the particular issue. We only had half an hour to act and there was a lot of anxiety in the group as they worked towards a solution, while at the same time, observing feelings about the emergence of leadership.

In the discussion that occurred afterwards, parallel processes with the leadership of the open session, the leadership of the AGPA and the leadership of the country were explored. Just as the demonstration group did not manage to arrive at a solution for our hypothetical community, it seemed like the issues of how leadership emerges and the role that large groups play as was not fully explored. Many of us stayed around afterwards to explore our own feelings and what we were learning from the demonstration group.

To me, it seemed clear that this is a very large subject worthy of much more exploration. It is worth noting that I cannot capture the intensity of this group in written words, in part due to the limitations of my own writing ability, and in part out of respect for the process.