Our purpose is to deepen our practice and understanding of authentic leadership so that we may create a good human society.
It’s a tall order, brimming with assumptions about what “authenticity” and a “good society” are.
Some people think authenticity has to do with just being yourself and “letting it all hang out” but authentic leadership goes far beyond this definition. It has to do with accessing the best of who you are in the service of others. So it is not enough just to be “real,” you need to also be connected with others in order to be effective.
Leaders who are trustworthy are internally and externally coherent, according to a study by the Center for Creative Leadership. They know themselves, show empathy for others and take action when needed. They are able to join head, heart and hands in service to the whole. In other words, they are authentic.
- Susan Skjei, Director of the Authentic Leadership Center at Naropa University
We believe the practice of authenticity, and becoming more skillful at hosting spaces for others to show up more authentically, leads to a better world. One with more openness to difference, deeper understanding, wiser actions and more effective collaboration. In other words, a world with better relations and wisdom, leading to better processes, solutions and outcomes.
Who we are
We are always seeking greater diversity—more flavors in the soup, more challenges and perspectives to welcome.
We span several generations, with facilitators, consultants, public servants, engineers, managers, community organizers, artists, entrepreneurs, educators, retirees, students and at least one realtor.
What connects us is a conviction that if we can foster authenticity more often and more skillfully in ourselves, and learn to create the conditions for it to come forward more easily in others, the world, our work and our own lives, will be better.
We are also part of a larger, global Authentic Leadership community that has periodic virtual gatherings to check in about how things are going in other regions around the world, like Japan and Europe. These calls are organized by the Authentic Leadership Center at Naropa University.
Our core content
The models we work with include:
An understanding of what we mean by authentic leadership, and why we feel it is helpful to creating a better society and world.
Three principles we can practice and apply, that work together to create a ‘container’ in which authenticity seems to arise naturally. We can invoke this container in ourselves, our interactions with other people, and even as we engage with larger organizations or systems, to bring forth better relations and wise actions.
A model that helps us see when we are working at the personal or “I” level, the interpersonal or “we” level, and the systemic or “it” level.
Some of our core practices include:
Cultivating presence through mindfulness
Deep listening and mindful, or authentic, speech—ground zero for engaging with others
Embodiment, including how to remain expansive, inclusive and open, yet grounded and powerful
Working with the many challenges that knock us off balance, such as bias, fear, change and conflict
how we work
We explore and deepen into a given topic or practice over a 4-month cycle of 4 gatherings.
We experiment with a mix of virtual whole-region gatherings, and in-person local gatherings in Seattle and Olympia.
Three times a year, at the culmination of each of our 4-month cycles, we treat ourselves to one full-day (9am-4pm) in-person whole-region gathering, to deepen community together, and finish off our cycle topic. These normally take place in Seattle.
Most members pay $180/year for membership, which covers our meeting venues, lunches for our full-day events, guest content providers and helps us fund scholarships for those who would otherwise find the membership fee a barrier to participation.
We are all-volunteer and non-profit. We self-organize via a stewardship team, a hosting team and member participation.
our roots
ALIA 2013 in Driebergen, The Netherlands
We grow out of a tradition of “Authentic Leadership In Action” (ALIA) that began organizing in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2000 as the Shambhala Institute, and later rebranded as the ALIA Institute. The week-long intensive gatherings ALIA hosted in North America and Europe for 14 years focused on systems change, social innovation and the practice of authentic leadership. These intensives proved to be seminal for systems change leaders like Peter Senge, Margaret Wheatley, Otto Scharmer, Adam Kahane, Wendy Palmer and others. ALIA now resides with the Authentic Leadership Center at Naropa University, with Susan Skjei, one of the founders of ALIA, as its director.
Going back further, the roots of ALIA reach into Shambhala Buddhism. We are not religious or formally affiliated with Shambhala, but its wisdom tradition influences our understanding of authenticity and what it means to practice authentic leadership in our lives and in the world.
A brief summary and some photos of the original ALIA Institute gatherings can be found on the How We Thrive website.