Generative leadership isn't really "a thing." It's a concept I've been playing with over the past few years and even more deeply and intentionally as it is the focus at Club Fruition in June.
Unlike generative AI, which produces content, generative leadership creates possibility, scattering seeds of hope and love through our actions and words. It resists the simultaneous constriction, production, and objectification that plague our potential. It facilitates healing, restoration, and wholeness.
Integrating the concepts of regeneration, generosity, and generativity, this practice is leading from the intersections of creativity, healing, and abundance.
If you would like to learn more, join us at Club Fruition to take our class about generative leadership and have amazing conversations with other curious leaders!
Jessica Aviva, Ph.D.
Editor and Publisher
Inside This Issue
Looking back on my life, I can see the many ways I compromised and diminished myself – my integrity, my beliefs, my wellbeing, and my potential. For example, I:
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Played small to be more approachable or understandable
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Acted out of fear and scarcity rather than curiosity and abundance
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Wrote in reaction to people’s objections rather than in response to their dreams
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Now that I’m approaching 50, I realize how these little infractions have quietly etched away at my spirit and dulled all of the beauty and joy I desire to create in the world...
Resources for Changemakers
Several new titles have been added to the virtual shelves at the Fruition Coalition Bookshop. We earn a commission for books sold at the bookshop which helps to sustain our work.
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Visit the bookshop and explore books for feminist leaders including:
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The Solutionary Way: ​Transform Your Life, Your Community, and the World for the Better, Zoe Weil
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The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity, Sarah Schulman
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The Dream of a Common Movement, Urvashi Vaid
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Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Collaborate with People You Don't Agree With or Like or Trust, Adam Kahane
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Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness, Jamil Zaki
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Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm, Kazu Haga
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Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals
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Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times, Carla Bergman
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Public Faces, Secret Lives: A Queer History of the Women's Suffrage Movement, Wendy L. Rouse​​
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Your Brain on Altruism: The Power of Connection and Community During Times of Crisis, Nicole Karlis
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Unrig the Game: What Women of Color Can Teach Everyone about Winning, Vanessa Priya Daniel
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Washing My Mother's Body: A Ceremony for Grief, Joy Harjo
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Just Earth: How a Fairer World Will Save the Planet, Tony Juniper
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We Will Rest! The Art of Escape, Tricia Hershey
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How Black History Can Save Your Life: From the Talk to George Floyd, Everything You Need to Know to Deescalate a Racist Situation
Gatherings
September 10 to 11, 2025
Washington, D.C., USA
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October 15 to 18, 2025​
International Leadership Association Conference
Prague, Czechia
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April 27 to 30, 2026
Narrm (Melbourne), Australia
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Join us at Club Fruition for virtual tea parties, circles of celebration, book clubs, co-working, and more!
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Conventional wisdom tells us that consistency is the key to building momentum. Take one small step each day, and over time, those steps compound into meaningful progress. It’s a reassuring formula—simple, sustainable, and backed by science.
And I don’t disagree. There’s a quiet power in steady, intentional movement toward our goals. It’s elegant in its simplicity.
But life rarely moves in a linear, predictable way....
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Research
About 38% of people across 30 countries identify as a feminist – but 45% of people believe feminism has gone too far, resulting in discrimination against men. Learn more about gender equality attitudes in this study from King's College London.
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The federal government in the United States has created a list of words that they want to exclude – including gender, inclusion, race, bias, mental health, and systemic. The New York Times has published a list.
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The Global Flourishing Study is assessing well-being in six areas: happiness and life satisfaction; character and virtue; close social relationships; mental and physical health; meaning and purpose; and financial and material stability. The first data report is now available with more to come soon.
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Umeå, Sweden, has been deemed the world's most feminist city. Learn what they're doing differently in this article from The Guardian
An August 2024 article about feminist liberation psychotherapy describes the importance of re-contextualizing and politicizing healing.
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Creativity is an important source of well-being and healing – reducing stress, increasing optimism, and restoring physical health.
Organizations have a long history of being stingy—with time, money, and other resources. In the nonprofit sector, this often shows up as:
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Conditional giving
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Self-sacrifice and martyrdom
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Unfair expectations
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Isolation, competition, arrogance, and condescension
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A fixation on problems
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Denying people space to learn and grow
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Scarcity thinking and chronic cheapness
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But what if we reoriented our leadership and organizational cultures around generosity—giving freely and lovingly, grounded in trust and respect?...
So much of my early work as an activist and changemaker was rooted in fighting. Fighting the power. Fighting for change. Fighting for rights. The hypermasculine, often violent energy of fighting pulled me in—and ultimately left me emotionally, physically, and spiritually drained.​
And for all that effort and sacrifice, the world in many ways feels even more fractured today (though, to be fair, there have also been beautiful strides forward).
Now, I choose a different path. I want to create peace—proactively and intentionally. I want to infuse this work with the ease, joy, and love that I believe we all deserve, in every moment and interaction...
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