SAGE Forums

SAGE

Support • Authenticity • Growth • Excellence

Offered Virtually
Small groups of 8 to 12 participants
Led by trained facilitators who are part of the David Irvine team

The challenges facing leaders are increasingly complex. It’s easy to feel overloaded with information, stretched to the limit, and alone. To complement David’s presentations, seminars, and books, SAGE Forums offer a safe, affordable harbour where leaders learn together and support each other in every area of their life.

What is a SAGE Forum?

The SAGE Forum consists of multiple groups of 8-12 individuals who meet regularly to explore personal and professional ideas and experiences, and to support one another in living a life that is focused on creating true meaning and purpose for each of the members. Each group is facilitated by a trained and experienced leader and designed to access the wisdom of every participant. Rather than “training,” where there is an “expert” in front of the class, this is a structured peer mentoring process where each participant listens, supports, and shares their experience in response to a presented challenge.

Because the meetings are strictly confidential, they provide an environment of deep trust where individuals can discuss issues that are highly personal and/or confidential in nature. Participants in a SAGE Forum benefit from the knowledge, experience, and wisdom of a group of peers whom they trust and respect. The members gain insights to deal with professional challenges while simultaneously gaining emotional support regarding more personal issues. Ultimately, members gain increased self-awareness and impact.

The focus of a SAGE Forum goes beyond traditional peer advisory groups, which are primarily focused on business development, and focuses on assisting each member become a more impactful and fulfilled person, with greater clarity and purpose in all aspects of their life – including their business life.

Why join a SAGE Forum?

The primary benefit of being a member in a SAGE Forum is to become a more impactful leader in all aspects of your life. One of the most effective leadership skills to develop for success in the 21st century is to become more self-aware. And the most effective and fastest way of becoming more self-aware is through the honest and caring feedback from a peer mentorship group.

One of the pillars of emotional intelligence (EQ) is self-awareness – having a comprehensive grasp of who you are as a person and as a leader, and how you show up in the world. There’s plenty of research suggesting that EQ – the ability to identify and regulate one’s emotions and empathize with the emotions of others – is vital to success at work. A high EQ helps you build healthy teams, reduce stress, increase engagement and motivation, achieve higher productivity, foster psychological safety, defuse conflict, and improve job satisfaction.

Membership in a SAGE Forum will be most beneficial to those who ask themselves these kinds of questions:

How do I articulate the true meaning and purpose of my life?
What matters the most to me beyond materialistic success?
What is my commitment to the most important people in my life?
What are my deepest unfulfilled dreams, passions, and gifts?
How do I create a life of greater balance?
What legacy do I want to live and lead?
How do I ultimately define success?

By becoming more self-aware, you become more at peace with yourself, you can communicate with clarity, you have a clear purpose and direction, and you can simplify decision making. Being self-aware improves relationships because you are aware of how your actions affects others.

Who would benefit from SAGE?

The SAGE program is for those who understand the incredible responsibility of leadership and are committed to developing and strengthening every area of their life. Leaders at all levels of organizations and in all walks of life who are committed to amplifying their impact will benefit from SAGE.

Leadership development is more than attending a course, listening to an audiobook, or hearing an inspiring lecture. The SAGE program is designed for anyone dedicated to life-long learning and who wants to be a part of a community that will create sustained growth in every area of life.

Whether a CEO entrusted with an entire company, a supervisor committed to building a great team, a leader in the not-for-profit sector, a middle manager who oversees a division, a front-line healthcare professional, an entrepreneur, a parent, a coach, a teacher, a community volunteer, or a citizen dedicated to making a difference, the SAGE program will be transformational and life changing.

What are the benefits?

Having a group to hold you accountable for moving forward with what and who is most important.
Overcoming the isolation and loneliness that often accompanies being the leader.
A truly confidential environment to discuss issues that you may not be able to share with anyone else.
A support network of peers.
Learning from the valuable experience of others.
A place to improve your communications and inter-personal relationship skills.
A sounding board for new ideas/approaches that you are considering.
An opportunity to build strong personal and business relationships.
Build a community for holding yourself accountable to stay on course.

What are the benefits to your organization?

Improved communication and inter-personal skills.
Stronger relationships with colleagues.
Improved problems solving skills.
Psychological safety for team members.

In summary, emotionally intelligent leaders have highly engaged teams and consistently achieve extraordinary results. They inspire the trust, psychological safety and accountability that are foundational to success in today’s challenging business environment.

If you are seeking funding and or support from your organization, feel free to adapt our sample Leadership Development Funding Request. Download pdf (66kb)

What is included in your membership?

Each SAGE group meets virtually 8-9 times per year for approximately four hours per meeting. The meeting times are established by the group members in consultation with the facilitator.
Upon acceptance into a group each member completes an exercise called “Defining Myself” and reviews it with the facilitator. This exercise looks at all aspects of the member’s life – family, career, community, social, health, spiritual, etc. to determine the priorities for this individual at this time in their life.
Each member meets virtually, on a quarterly basis, with the facilitator for about 90 minutes to reflect and review the past quarter and, if appropriate, update the goals and objectives going forward.
There is also an annual retreat for 2-3 days, with the location and timing determined by the group.

All the meetings are organized and facilitated by one of David Irvine’s highly experienced and qualified facilitators.

Membership Applications

Membership will be by invitation for the first six members in each group, and after that membership will be at the discretion of the group. There will be no competing businesses permitted in a group.

Membership Fee

Founding Members* fee
$2,500 per year *
Founding Members fee is only for the first three SAGE groups!

Next Steps

There are a number of ways you can learn more about the SAGE Forums and determine if they are the right fit for you. Choose whichever one (or more) that make the most sense for you.

Self-Awareness and SAGE Assessments

Complete the complimentary Self-Awareness and SAGE Assessments to give you a snapshot of how self-aware you are at this moment in time, and how aligned you are with membership in a SAGE Forum.

Register With the Refundable Deposit

Secure a seat in the next available Forum by paying a $500 refundable deposit (using the Pay the Deposit button below). Upon receipt of your deposit, you will be contacted by a member of our team to schedule a 1/2-hour call to ensure the SAGE Forums is right for you.

PAY THE DEPOSIT

“And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?” – Rumi

Facilitators

Marg Barr is our VP of Client Care, ensuring our clients’ needs are well taken care of. Although her degree is in Recreation Administration and she spent over 10 years working in that field, it is her passion for leadership, organizational development and personal growth that earned her the respect of her direct reports and colleagues in her professional work. She is a committed life-long learner and passionate facilitator.

Ken Ritsco is a finance professional with over 15 years of leadership experience in various industries. His core values of fairness and caring come through in his everyday life. Ken’s free time is spent coaching and being involved in volunteer work around his community. He strives to have a positive influence on those around him and hopes it can become contagious.

Master Facilitator

Jim Reger’s work is focused on assisting individuals in creating and building authentic lives and cultures in their organizations, their families and their communities. Jim founded The Reger Group in 1978 and since then he has consulted with thousands of business owners, executives and their teams across North America and Australia – primarily dealing with authentic leadership development. He has also designed, developed and delivered train-the-trainer programs for numerous peer mentorship groups in Canada. Jim co-authored two books with David Irvine, as well as written two of his own, the latest being “A Higher Purpose – Living a Life of Meaning and Significance “. Jim lives with Joan, his wife of over fifty years, on the beach in Victoria, BC.

My Passion and Purpose

“Of all the numerous and varied leadership and personal growth opportunities and experiences I have been involved with over my varied career, by far the most profound, powerful and lasting was my participation for over twenty years in a peer mentorship group. This group contributed to my growth as an individual by providing me with caring feedback and holding me accountable for achieving the results I desired, both personally and professionally. I am passionate about continuing this meaningful work with David and his team, where I will be looking after the selection, training and support of the SAGE Forum facilitators.”

“The SAGE group stood up to its name in every way. Support, Authenticity, Growth, Excellence. We are all struggling with various trials. Each time we meet was a chance to pause in our busy schedules and get real with those trials in all aspects of our life. The opportunity was there to listen to each other and provide the feedback asked for.

It provided a place to get real. To ask, share, or discuss those questions you may have held off on or the action items that need to be done.

I could not relate to all the scenarios or questions asked but the group was diverse in that there were deep conversations around all encountered.

There was informal and formal accountability built into the group.

I left each session inspired and had enough food for thought to carry me over to the next meeting searching for more.

The leadership was great to provide direction but also allow the group to flow naturally. He guided the group to feel connected and shared inspiring insights. There was genuine input and involvement from the leadership, and it was a 2-way discussion in all aspects.

I was in search of a community and ended up with an extended family. I am thankful to have been a part of this inaugural group and look forward to continuing the discussion.”

Robert TeetaertProject Engineer

“I was first introduced to David and his work as a participant at a session he was doing at a conference several years ago. I was super inspired because through his message and presentation he made me feel like he knew me – could see me and said the things I needed to hear. I wanted more.

I was searching and I found David’s authentic leadership master course and signed up. It was amazing and I felt invigorated and excited. I was introduced to a group of like-minded souls and David structured the course so we had an accountability buddy and opportunities to work in small groups. We developed a relationship with one another that felt safe, supportive and caring. We belonged. By the end of the course, we weren’t ready to stop. We wanted more and attempted to keep the momentum of the group’s energy going by creating an informal weekly coffee group. The group worked for a little while but something was missing.

Then the SAGE Forum popped up. The SAGE Forum brings together those individuals who have the desire, the interest and the curiosity to find their best selves. Folks who believe in the value of relationship and the value in having the support and opportunity to look at their own way of showing up in the world. David’s work teaches you how you can do just those two things with the end result being what he has called and “authentic leader”. I wanted to learn those lessons and believe I was a good student but the piece that I struggled with was how to shift my role from being the student to being the teacher and provide the necessary leadership to create the environments that facilitated a connection with others to receive the teachings. Just giving them “the book” obviously was not the strategy.

The SAGE forum is providing me with the opportunity to explore how I can practically apply the valuable lessons I have learned. It’s an interactive forum giving voice to each member. We learn from each other with each other. We have opportunities to provide and receive feedback to help each of us on our journey of not only finding our best selves but how to provide the leadership within our communities so others may benefit as well. Together we agree, living in vibrant healthy communities is where we all want to live and work, and the SAGE Forum certainly helps us keep focused and on track. I highly value and am grateful for my opportunity to participate and do not hesitate in offering a 5-star recommendation.”

Dianne McConnellRetired Educator

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