2007 Authentic Leadership Summer Program

Leading Change through the Power & Practice of Story with Christina Baldwin

We are at the end of the old road and the well-known story. One of the requirements of leadership now is to articulate the path forward: to name the unnamed territory and elicit stories that will guide us on. In a professional arena crowded with tools and theories, the return to story shines in its clarity and simplicity. The one who knows his own story stands like a tree in the wind. The one who tells the collective story holds the heart of the organization in her hand.

We may not know what stories we most need: but we will know them when we hear them coming out of each other’s mouths. Story is the oldest form of communication. People have been practicing this skill for tens of thousands of years in every language ever spoken and every society ever developed. Story is the transmitter of wisdom, the carrier for ninety percent of everything we know. Story will set the vision in place for where we are going: we proceed from the story into the action. Want to change yourself? Your organization? The world? Create those stories…

In this module we will experience the power of story to significantly influence the quality of our personal lives and our engagement with the important organizations—both professional and community based—to which we belong. We will

• Map the self-story: who we bring to life
• Map the organizational story: where we make our contribution
• Integrate the self-story and organizational story, designing a congruent energetic field
• Map the new story, creating verbal spaces that call us to new realities

The story-shifters in organizations lead through questioning, listening, paying attention, and then speaking/writing narratives of metaphor and allegory that inspire, inform, and activate. If you are ready to take up this role, as a speaker, writer, and listener, come practice the heights and depths of story. Prepare to have fun and to discover things about yourself and your organization that will surprise you into new life directions. This is an interactive and self-reflective module that will engage all participants in writing, collage, storytelling, and movement.

Christina Baldwin is a passionate advocate for the power of words to direct our life action and purpose. “We become who we say we are,” she says, “and we create the world we say exists.” She is a writer, teacher, speaker and facilitator dedicated to creating lives that make their fullest contributions and building a world that can hold the best of human dreams. She is the author of groundbreaking books that open new territories of thought, application, and activism. Her work in the field of journal writing started the personal writing movement and her book Life’s Companion, Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest (Bantam, 1992) is a modern classic. Her research into the infrastructure of the conversational field led to the development of PeerSpirit circle methodology and her book Calling the Circle, The First and Future Culture (Bantam, 1997). Most recently she has integrated the written and oral traditions of her study into yet another book destined to become a cultural icon: Storycatcher, Making Sense of our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story (New World Library, 2005). She recently received a Books for a Better Life award for Storycatcher.

For the past decade, along with author educator Ann Linnea, she has been president of PeerSpirit, Inc. “Building Communities of Reflection, Adventure and Purpose.” Their work has taken them from their home base on Whidbey Island north of Seattle Washington across the United States and Canada to Europe and Africa. Their consulting focuses on designing sustainable dialogues and collaborative processes that deconstruct patterns of miscommunication and renew conversational culture. See also www.peerspirit.com and www.storycatcher.net.

Storycatcher is required reading for this module. Calling the Circle is recommended reading.

"We need a new story to inform our work and our lives. Christina Baldwin is a brilliant and loving guide into the realm of story—that interior place of experience and interpretation that surfaces in our actions.  For many years, I have learned from Christina skills and sensibilities that I treasure and use daily." —Margaret Wheatley, author, Leadership & the New Science, Turning to One Another, Finding Our Way

“Beyond being a preeminent innovator of Circle practice, Christina Baldwin's presence, wisdom and skilled experience as a facilitator are the best I have experienced in my 40 years of practicing that art.” —Roger Harrison, Ph.D.

“Christina Baldwin is a master holder of story space.  She has the gift of leading from the edge, inviting participants to discover their own stories–past and waiting to be born —so that they are revealed effortlessly, creating new pathways to be lived.  Her latest work that she is bringing to the Shambhala Institute of Authentic Leadership is the crowning achievement of her life so far and she is offering this to others so they may create their own stories.Christina is a gifted teacher and story catcher!” —Maria Scordialos, Harå, a UK-based enterprise hosting people to reveal sustainable realities and practices.

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