The Love Lab 2025

How can we build more loving connections between us – even between strangers?

What enables love to flow, including in organisational life?

How might we create an ecology of connection between us - which we surely need in these fragmented and deeply troubling times we're in?

It's not difficult to see the ways that world events might create separation between us, might pit one group of people against another, create division and suspicion of others, encourage us to make others wrong or bad.

How do we counterbalance that? What can we do to remind ourselevs of all we have in common, of our shared humanity? How do we stay connected?

You know (probably, if you follow me on LinkedIn etc) that I talk about and work with all forms of love as potent medicine for these times we're in. In The Love Lab, we explore a particular dimension of love - love-as-connection - finding ways to connect with everyday intimacy.

No, of course I don't mean romantic intimacy. More like the sort of loving connections we have with neighbours or friends, or with a stranger we giggle with at the bus stop and that we remember all day. The sort of connection that means we are more likely to help each other out, or support someone.

(‘a proper grown-up exploration of love’: said a recent participant)

More questions for a work context:

I'm interested in exploring how we bring more love into our work and lives. What would that mean in practice? What might be possible if more love was present between us? How might we gently create the conditions for love? And how do we start to build loving connections with people we barely know?

For many people the world of work feels loveless. But if as human beings we are hardwired for love, then it can’t be so. Perhaps it’s more that certain things get in the way of us connecting with that love while we’re at work (and elsewhere)

Some people feel that love has no place in the world of work at all. It’s for the private domain, they say. And love is often associated with romance and religion, sex and sentimentality, which doesn’t help.

But we are facing tough times and our connection – and a loving connection – to other people will be vital to us. We need to be able to turn and face what's happening in the world and we can't do that without a deeply human connection to each other.

Who is it for?

Leaders and Managers who are interested in building and supporting cultures - including workplace cultures - that are deeply human and healthy, where there's connection and warmth between people and where the focus is on the relational side of things as well as the tasks and jobs.

OD and Change Professionals whose roles might include finding ways to enable and support care and wellbeing into processes and policies, and model authentic connection within a hard-edged system.

Coaches and facilitators who work up-close-and-personal in support of helping people thrive in organisations that dn;t necessaily seem up to enable that flourishing.

Anyone working at the leading edge of building us a future we can live within...and who know that strenthening the bonds between us really matters.

Overview

In this one-day workshop, which I've run several times now, you’ll:

Learn from research into psychological safety, trust and presence (and so much more) why love is a vital piece of the organisational puzzle these days. I draw on the work of Joanna Macy, Barbara Fredrickson, Erich Fromm and bell hooks, for example.

Hear from my own 2018 and 2023 resrearch, and from my many years of running workshops and events exploring love in organisations, into what we mean by love and what are the common blocks and barriers than get inthe way of us connecting more deeply with each other.

Discover what the fields of systemic constellations, biology, nurosceience and Buddhist practices can teach us about creating connections in modern life

Explore and experiment with what it feels like to build a loving connection through guided activities and practical exercises. We’ll see what happens when we intentionally try to bring love into the room - what it means to try and cultivate a loving connection with someone - and with people we don’t know. We'll play with expanding our hearts to let more in.

Play with the ways we can connect with the love that’s already here, building a base for connection in our organisations and wider lives. We’ll see how love is just beneath the surface and that we can access it more easily than we think.

Discuss what the experiences of the day have taught us for our work in organisations, for leadership practice - and for our wider lives too.

Leave with a series of activities and experiences that, having experienced them yourself, you can adopt or adapt into your own work where creating connection and greater intimacy would be helpful.

Sometimes we’ll be playful – as with all good experiments – and other times serious. So if you’re feeling open and willing to play, I reckon you’ll leave with a greater connection to yourself and to others – and to love.

(And to be clear: again, this it NOT the territory of romance or sentimentality. In case you were still wondering ...)

Do come along. This is the fifth time I'll have run it - it's always a wonderful group of people who come and I have no doubt it'll be the same this time :-)

About me

This workshop incorporates my award winning 2018 research into love in organisations, and the research and thinking, workshops and programmes I've developed and run since then, exploring love in organisations and beyond.

You can read my blogs, find your way to my Leading from Love podcast, and sign up to my monthly Newsletter all via my website.

It also draws on many years of deep experiential work, including shadow work and systemic constellations , as well as over 25 years working in leadership and organisational development, and as a coach and facilitator.

Between now and November ...

If November feels a long way off, I also run monthly (free) workshops. I call them Acts of Love for Tough Times - recognising the very difficult times we're in, and exploring what forms of love might help get us through. Online, and for 2 hours, you'll find them via Eventbrite and via my Newsletter but I also try and keep this page updated with the upcoming dates. The next one is Weds 30 July and the link to book a place is HERE.

H x

(image: Gill Williams)