06/17/2026
Friday Notes: Be the Change with Dr. Renee Owen
What happens when the systems we depend on no longer produce the outcomes we need?
Across higher education, public institutions, healthcare, and government, leaders are grappling with growing challenges. Rising inequities, concerns about mental health, environmental uncertainty, and increasing public distrust have many asking whether incremental improvements are enough.
On Friday, June 19, the White Rabbit Clubhouse in Ashland will host a conversation that explores a different question: What if the problem is not the people within our organizations, but the systems themselves?
Dr. Renee Owen, Professor of Education Leadership at Southern Oregon University and author of Becoming a Transformative Leader from the Inside Out, will lead an introduction to self-organizing systems and transformative leadership. Drawing from approaches known as sociocracy, dynamic governance, holacracy, living systems, and TEAL organizations, Dr. Owen will explore models that distribute leadership, strengthen collaboration, and create more adaptive and resilient organizations.
The conversation begins with a powerful observation often attributed to systems thinker W. Edwards Deming:
"Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets."
If the outcomes we see today concern us, Dr. Owen suggests we may need to rethink the assumptions that shaped the systems producing them.
This event is part of the ongoing Friday Noons: Be the Change series, which brings together professionals, educators, innovators, and community members interested in exploring new ways of thinking and leading.
Whether you are an educator, administrator, nonprofit leader, student, or engaged citizen, this session offers an opportunity to consider how leadership can move beyond hierarchy and toward shared responsibility, collective intelligence, and meaningful change.
As Buckminster Fuller famously wrote:
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
Join the conversation and explore what new models might look like for our schools, institutions, and communities.
Friday, June 19, 2026
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
White Rabbit Clubhouse
5 North Main Street, #2
Ashland, Oregon
Admission is free.
Friday Notes: Be the Change with Dr. Renee Owen What happens when the systems we depend on no longer produce the outcomes we need? Across higher education, public institutions, healthcare, and government, leaders are grappling with growing challenges. Rising inequities, concerns about mental health,...
