Elizabeth Friesen

Consultant, Designer, Project manager, World traveler

Over 30 years working at Boeing as a Program Manager, Organizational Development Consultant, I had the opportunity to work all over the world, on multicultural projects. I lived in China for 3 years, building a joint-venture maintenance hangar and organization of 900, then spent 2 years living in Singapore developing another joint venture company of over 200. Through travel I began to understand how much we as a country could learn from other cultures, and wonder how we could work together. In 1999 I obtained a masters degree from Antioch in Whole Systems Design - Organizational Systems Renewal, concentrating on multicultural change projects. From there I co-designed a 3-day conference with Udayana University in Bali on Sustainable Development. A diverse mix of 165 stakeholders came together, and through a process called Appreciative Inquiry, created a vision of the future building on their common values. Thirteen initiatives were taken to Parliament for further development. I recently left my position at Boeing. Having travelled extensively and lived abroad, working with commercial and government leaders, I've accumulated skills in negotiation, managing complex development projects, strategic planning and organizational development. I now want to transition these skills into developing communities and organizations, working with women's empowerment. I have a private business doing small interior design projects. I’m enjoying a writing group, and have embarked on a series of humorous personal essays, recording life experiences and learning. In the past I've volunteered training childcare providers on prevention and intervention against child abuse, as well as for women's reproductive rights. I’ve worked hard, but now appreciate the importance of physical, emotional, spiritual balance, taking time each morning for yoga and mindfulness practice. I’ve organized two women’s groups, one that has been meeting for over 15 years, that get together monthly to discover their life dreams and support each other in their journey toward fulfillment.

I am concerned about the empowerment of women around the world, and have provided support to organizations enabling girls to attend school in Indonesia and Afghanistan. As creative outlet, I love traditional textiles, and am learning to spin and weave, working with plant fibers.

If we as people are to survive, if our planet is to survive, we must evolve quickly to be more compassionate, and fight for equality of all humankind. And all humans must have the right to be free and empowered to pursue their own happiness. Peace is only possible through dialogue and requires that we try to understand and have compassion for each other. David Bohm's Theory of Dialogue allows a group to examine thinking with no agenda, freeing up the potential for something new to happen. In conflict, we tend to debate, argue, defend toward some objective. Active listening is a learned skill, and requires compassion for humankind.

Aviation, Change Management, Multiculturalism, Organizational Development, Program Management

From an early age, I've been conscious of the inequality of women. In spite of living in a modern culture, women fear for their safety walking in the same dark street that men walk freely. I have longed to experience women living and working authentically alongside their male counterparts, valued for their contribution as women. Our planet is needing a balance of the masculine and feminine, Yin and Yang. Women around the world have been marginalized, oppressed, abused, and it has taken too long for our society to evolve. Our deepest problems stem from inequality of many, and while men around the world are also exploited, a balance of women leaders would start to change the dynamics of our society. At a minimum, women around the world must be free, empowered, and equal. It is what draws me to TED Women, a forum for men and women to come together to explore women's issues, influence, and strengths.

Listening, story telling, mediating, empathy, cooking, creating order out of chaos.