Last month I accepted an invitation to speak at a most unusual leadership event. I use the word ?speak? advisedly, because it was not a typical keynote delivery. The event, called the Thought Leader Gathering (TLG), looked for me to spark ideas and creativity, not produce them on my own.

The TLG is the brainchild of Craig and Patricia Neal, who are founders of the Heartland Institute. Their TLG events are held every two months in two cities, San Francisco and Minneapolis. They are designed to draw on the collective wisdom of a broad range of leaders, some of whom manage at corporations and others at non-profits. By invitation only, the conversations veer from pioneering vision to on-the-ground best practices, and back again.

On this occasion, Craig Neal asked me to reflect on how I arrived at my concept of ?creating value.? I explained to the 80 or so leaders - seated in a circle which I joined - that I never pursued a M.B.A. at like most of my entrepreneurial colleagues. After graduation with a B.A. in psychology in the early 1980s, I went to Latin America and worked with peasant farmers to build sustainable village economies. Two of my biggest challenges were: 1) human rights issues, for the wealthy elite wanted to leave the peasants in a state of indentured servitude, and were willing to use violence to block them; 2) create a dynamic micro-economy working with a scarcity of capital and a surplus of labor. It became vital, then, to build not only value for Individual entrepreneurs, but also build the political, economic and social environment that would support a sustainable market.

So I guess you could say that I did attend a hands-on B-school. We did not introduce tractors, which would displace workers, but looked for appropriate technologies that would increase production. For example, we promoted soybeans and other new crops that would diversify trade options, and introduced bicycle-powered grinders to produce soy peanut butter. We then laid tracks for promoting the new product, via nutrition programs at the schools and cooking workshops for householders.

I came to understand through my experiences in Latin America that a successful enterprise figures out how to create real value across a cultural field. Local knowledge is an underground stream, and the more places you tap into it, the more value you create.

When I finished my reflection at the TLG, circle members shared the ideas that my story stimulated. One executive revealed that one of his biggest management challenges is to get his people to think outside of silos. ?I want people to bring their emotional and aesthetic intelligence to work, not just their technical skills. My people think too narrowly about creating value.?

Another participant shared, ?We have come full circle. Trust and sustainability went into hiding during the market boom of the 90s. But once again today, the key issue in business is whether I can trust you to create value that will last.?

The discussion went on like this all morning. The Heartland Institute evidently has hit on a winning formula: bring leaders together in a way that allows them to become mentors to one other.

The concluding question of my visit at the TLG in many ways sums up the method of the workshop itself: How do we tap into the underground spring?

To learn more about the Thought Leader Gatherings, click here.

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