ALIA – Authentic Leadership Cafe Presentation

Above is a presentation we used at The Authentic Leadership Cafe on April 29 to give a flavour of ALIA – Authentic Leadership in Action.

I think this stuff either grabs you or it doesn’t.  It certainly grabbed me.

In the Summer of 2007, I asked myself the question ‘if I could do anything, go to any conference, training or similar anywhere in the world – what would I do ?’ – the answer came to me quite quickly, it was to go to the Annual Summer Programme of ‘The Shambhala Institute for Authentic Leadership’  (which has now morphed into ALIA – Authentic Leadership in Action).

The quotations that grabbed me on the brochure I saw were :

“The Shambhala Institute combines in-depth cultivation of personal leadership with the organisational issues that are critical in today’s environments.  Few other leadership programs create such a dynamic, living laboratory of personal and collective learning” – Peter Senge

“As the challenges facing leaders grow more complex and challenging, the Shambhala Institute provides one of the very few places where leaders can develop sufficient clarity and courage about their work” – Margaret Wheatley

“What I learned and what I experienced continues to bring value into my life.  The people I met were astounding.  Never before had I the privilege to share space with so many like minds – minds that feel the urgency to bring a state of well-being into their organizations.  I urge anyone who senses that the invitation sounds ‘right’ to them to respond to that inner whisper and attend” – Mary Ann Kahl

My inner whisper shouted at me to attend and now I am delighted to be part of bringing some of that spirit to Ireland and to have the opportunity to encourage others to attend ALIA’s first european event, which is scheduled for January 10-16, 2010 in the Netherlands (see the below link for further details) :

http://www.aliainstitute.org/programs/2010europe/home.html

Of course, it’s not just about going off to some nice event and having a nice experience.  I have deeply felt the responsibility to give back (or pay forward) what I have to give as a result of this privileged and amazing experience.

We stand at the most amazing time in history – the decay of an old system that most of us had taken for granted would just carry on and on and the emergence of something tentative and new.

I love the metaphors (or archetypes) of hospice worker and midwife for those of us who consider ourselves change agents – we need to compassionately and gracefully support people through the experience of death and decay and we need to compassionately and gently support all involved in the new birth experience.  This is our work now.

One week in the Netherlands can’t be the complete answer to the nurturing and sustaining of the hospice workers and midwives we need in Ireland.  My inner whisper tells me now to find my ‘mates’ and do my part of the rest of this work.

I am going to take some time to write up the experience of the Authentic Leadership Cafe in Dublin last week and will post that separately.  The most immediate thing for me is the wonderful feeling of having met some new ‘mates’ and a sense of the potential of what we might be able to do together.

If you are interested in furthering the cause of Authentic Leadership in Action in Ireland, then get in touch and let’s see what we can do.