Program Information

• Creative Process
• Meditation
• Coaching
• Schedule
• Accommodations and Travel
• Scholarships
• Testimonials

Program Faculty

• Dorian Baroni
• Barbara Bash
• Mille Bojer
• Barbara Cecil
• Michael Chender
• Steve Clorfeine
• Glenda Eoyang
• James Gimian
• Jerry Granelli
• LeAnne Grillo
• Lanny Harrison
• Arawana Hayashi
• Yolanda Hegngi
• Adam Kahane
• Art Kleiner
• Marcelo Michelsohn
• Toke Moeller
• Wendy Morris
• Barry Oshry
• Karen Oshry
• Wendy Palmer
• David Sable
• Otto Scharmer
• Mary Stacey
• Bill Torbert
• Meg Wheatley
• Bob Wing

Pathways for Authentic Leadership in Action

Pathways turns the "best of" the acclaimed ALIA Summer Institute into a journey of intensive leadership development that draws on the Institute's renowned faculty and transformational curriculum. Pathways is a uniquely experiential and integrative certificate course, combining personal and interpersonal learning with the broad palette of skills needed to create the conditions for systemic innovation. Rather than packaged solutions, you will leave with the deeply understood concepts, practices, and frameworks that support ongoing learning and transformation — in other words, that support a lifelong practice of authentic leadership in action.

Pathways includes the Summer Institute, a second on-site session, project coaching, and distance learning. You will become familiar with at least four leadership practices, through your chosen Summer Institute module, the October retreat, prior learning, and/or self-organized or self-directed study. These four provide a toolbox for our work together, and a robust support for your own leadership. One is mindfulness meditation, which will be introduced during the Summer Institute. There will be support for continuing this practice in your home context. The other three are the Art of Hosting (or Chaordic Design and Facilitation), Theory U (or the Change Lab), and Human Systems Dynamics (or Complex Adaptive Systems).

By the end of nine months, you will

• have greater understanding of your own leadership strengths and challenges, and practices that support your ongoing development as a high-performing, authentic leader
• be able to see and understand situations through multiple lenses
• be able to sustain confidence and equilibrium in the midst of pressure and uncertainty
• be more attuned to personal and group dynamics, and more skilled in working with those dynamics
• have learned and practiced skills needed to shift your organization's or community's culture toward greater levels of engagement, trust, and accountability
• be in the process of applying a framework for small- or large-scale innovation, which combines strategic intention and focus with responsiveness to changing conditions and emerging opportunities
• have access to the resources, connections, and support of world-class faculty as well as an inspired network of innovative peers and mentors

2010 Schedule

June 4-12

On-site Opening Session (June 4-6). Location: White Point Lodge, Liverpool, Nova Scotia.

• Learn a a framework that bridges the inner and outer dimensions of leadership. This framework provides a shared language and set of working assumptions and guiding questions for the Pathways journey.

Summer Institute (June 6-12). Location: Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

• Learn personal leadership practices that bring self-understanding, clarity, compassion, and confidence in the midst of action.
• Benefit from the rich, multi-faceted learning of the Summer Institute, with its acclaimed faculty of thought leaders, in-depth modules, plenary events, and the diverse perspectives of a learning community of 250 people from around the world.
• Create a six-month personal leadership plan.

October 5-9

On-site retreat. Location: Windhorse Retreat Centre, Nova Scotia, Canada.

• Deepen and enhance interpersonal and systems awareness.
• Experience the integration of three fields of theory and practice for designing and leading innovation.
• Create a four-month project plan.

Between on-site sessions. Readings and assignments, peer learning, and project coaching.

Enrichment. ALIA Institute faculty will lead teleconferences during the project phase of the course.

The Pathways Facilitation Team

Susan Skjei is a management consultant specializing in organizational change, coaching, and leadership development. Formerly a vice-president and chief learning officer in the high-tech industry, she designs and facilitates participative approaches to strategic planning and organizational transformation. Susan also teaches meditation workshops for leaders in the United States, Canada, and Europe. She is currently a PhD candidate in the School of Human and Organization Development at Fielding Graduate University. Susan is a founding board member of the ALIA Institute and has been a Shambhala Summer Institute module leader, coach, and meditation presenter. She is also the founding director of the Authentic Leadership Certificate Program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.

Alan Sloan is an executive coach, consultant, and facilitator based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He provides services in leadership development to government, institutions, not-for-profit organizations, businesses and individuals. Alan is a recognized trainer and facilitator in community development and collaborative methodologies, utilizing World Café, Open Space Technology, Asset-Based Community Development, and Appreciative Inquiry. For more than 30 years, Alan has been a senior teacher of mindfulness and awareness within the Shambhala tradition, and for the past nine years he has been an active member of the ALIA community. He frequently presents mindfulness at ALIA workshops and at the Summer Institute.

Crane Stookey is a facilitator, trainer and coach with a particular interest in the power of experiential learning. He holds a Captain's license for sailing ships and has sailed extensively as Chief Mate and Training Officer on Tall Ships in the US and Canada. He is the Founder of the Nova Scotia Sea School, a privately run experiential education organization, for which he was awarded the Queen's Jubilee Medal for his contribution to the Canadian community. Crane has also studied and taught meditation for over 20 years. His work joins the disciplines of command and insight to address the chaos and complexity of personal and systemic change.

Sera Thompson creates spaces for collaboration, innovation and committed action through organizing, designing and hosting a variety of transformative environments, including strategic planning, networks, conflict transformations, and leadership trainings. She co-founded The Hub Halifax, a co-working space and focus for social enterprise. In South Africa, Sera helped to lead Pioneers of Change, a global learning community of change agents. There she also trained in Deep Democracy, a transformational decision-making and conflict-resolution process, which she is now bringing to North America. Sera is a member of the ALIA Institute Board and has been a facilitator and module leader at the Summer Institute.

Registration Fees

$4500 before March 2
$5500 after March 2

Fees include all tuition and course materials, and all meals during the Opening Session, Summer Institute, and October Retreat. Accommodations for these three gatherings are estimated at an additional $950.

Click here to register.

For more information

Contact Susan Szpakowski, Executive Director, ALIA Institute. 902-425-0492. susanls@aliainstitute.org

“The ALIA Institute combines in-depth cultivation of personal leadership with the organizational issues that are critical in today's global environments. Few other leadership programs create such a dynamic, living laboratory of personal and collective learning.”

—Peter Senge, author, The Fifth Discipline.
2001-2004, 2006, 2007 faculty