Sarnia woman writes book on meaningful connection, collaboration

Elizabeth Soltis, a Bright’s Grove woman and organizational development consultant who works with the United Nations, among other organizations, has written a book.

Called Authentic Collaboration: A Bridge to Meaningful Connection, the 300-page book, self-published book with Tellwell Publishing, is meant as a practical guide to help people better connect with themselves, each other and the Earth, said Soltis.

“The authentic collaboration vision is wholistic and integrative as a path to sustainability because it honors all of who we are,” she said, adding, at its core, the authentic collaboration approach is about connecting using one’s heart, in a bid to avoid things like competition, defensiveness and judgment that can otherwise crop up when people and groups try to work together.

“We actually need a different level of consciousness to address the complex challenges we’re dealing with, different than the level of thinking that created the problems in the first place,” Soltis said.

“That’s fundamental to why I felt motivated to write this book.”

Writing began April 2, 2020, the day after the anniversary of her brother John’s death in 2015, she said.

She’d had plans to write the book for years, but didn’t feel she was ready until after going through an “emotional release” on that anniversary, she said.

And while the book isn’t about her brother, that relationship acts as important subtext, she said.

“I would say that, in part, my book is a reflection of my healing journey and coming to terms with what had unfolded between my brother and I,” she said, calling that aspect a love story about forgiveness.

Mostly though, she said, she wanted to help people find a way past discourses that often end in conflict or us-versus-them thinking.

“The pain of that is so obvious to me … and I see it as rooted in the separation paradigm — that somehow I am separate from you, rather than seeing us both as nodes on the interconnected web of life,” she said.

Connection to the Earth is also essential, said Soltis, a former member of Climate Action Sarnia-Lambton and one of the group’s founders.

“Authentic collaboration holds the spirit that we’re all sitting on the same ring of life and that there are no outsiders,” she said.

“And that’s the way nature operates, in the interdependent web of life.”

Soltis said she traveled abroad before joining the United Nations as an organizational development learning specialist 20 years ago, and still offers consulting work to the UN and other organizations, including businesses, through her company Bridges Global, teaching leadership courses, facilitating team retreats, and designing and delivering workshops on collaboration, conflict mastery and emotional and relationship intelligence.

She’s also continued serving abroad as an organization development practitioner, she said.

The book, which includes more than 45 skill-building exercises for people and is intended as a practical guide, is expected to be available in May on Amazon and at the Book Keeper in Sarnia, she said.

Details about the book, and upcoming retreats also are available at bridgesglobal.net.

“The big pivot point is to take that long journey down from our minds and into our hearts, to bridge from our mind to our heart, to connect with others from that space,” she said.

“That changes the tenor of everything.”

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