Telling the ALiA Story
This discussion was started on the Friday, June 26th, 2009 at the Institute's Summer Program, where a group of about a dozen of us gathered around the question of how to tell the story of the ALiA Institute a little bit better. Please add your thoughts, comments, questions and insights.
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Why tell the story?
We identified two primary purposes for telling the ALiA story:
1) As a foundational piece, to remind us what we are about to provide a rationale for what we do.
2) As a marketing piece, to let others know what we have to offer and to invite them in to participate.
What makes for a compelling story?
We brainstormed what we thought might be some of the characteristics of a good story: Provocative, two-way communication, about human experiences, bringing audiences on an emotional journey, helping us live our lives more fully.
What stories are we currently telling?
1) We have a story of lineage which is about how ALiA came to be and what is essential to its existence. This story takes us back to the teaching of Shambhala Buddhism and the offerings of many teachers and years of experience and evolution. We identified this story as being our "foundational" story, the one that gives us our identify and rationale for action. We also identified that this is NOT a story that we openly or easily tell, for example, over the ALiA website. Elements of this story (ALiA DNA) include: a belief in basic goodness, the importance of holding space, and the necessity to work on "the personal" to help us show up more fully in our organizations among other things. Our group felt that these elements need to be articulated and publicly shared in a concise form - not a long comprehensive list of characteristics, but 3 or 4 key elements, something that we can remember off the top of our heads when we each introduce ALiA to our friends and family. This short description would also provide some clues into how the various modules and program elements (meditation, arts etc) form a coherent whole or why certain teaching come together- which some of us felt is currently missing from the Program description.
2) We also have many stories about the experience of people who have attended ALiA (and before it Shambhala) Programs, what they learned and how their lives and their organizations were impacted. This is the stuff we need for the marketing piece. Recognizing the differences in learning modalities, our group felt it is appropriate to tell these stories in various forms: diagrams, testimonials of participants, learning outcomes, success stories of alumni, stories of how faculty came to work together etc. Given online technologies, we recognized that we can in fact tell all these overlapping stories at once - that we don't have to choose only one way of telling them. For example, we can organize the ALiA website around the elements of the Program (as it is done right now), AND we can organize it geographically (e.g. a dynamic map to access various participant testimonials) AND we could also organize it under banners of clusters that speak to specific audiences (e.g. individuals looking for opportunities for personal growth, HR departments looking for help in talent management, CEOs of big companies in search of increased organizational effectiveness etc.) so that each person going to the website can navigate it based on what is relevant to them. Links to pertinent modules, testimonials, books and videos etc can be provided under each cluster.
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That was the result of our one hour together. Now over to you!
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Why tell the story?
We identified two primary purposes for telling the ALiA story:
1) As a foundational piece, to remind us what we are about to provide a rationale for what we do.
2) As a marketing piece, to let others know what we have to offer and to invite them in to participate.
What makes for a compelling story?
We brainstormed what we thought might be some of the characteristics of a good story: Provocative, two-way communication, about human experiences, bringing audiences on an emotional journey, helping us live our lives more fully.
What stories are we currently telling?
1) We have a story of lineage which is about how ALiA came to be and what is essential to its existence. This story takes us back to the teaching of Shambhala Buddhism and the offerings of many teachers and years of experience and evolution. We identified this story as being our "foundational" story, the one that gives us our identify and rationale for action. We also identified that this is NOT a story that we openly or easily tell, for example, over the ALiA website. Elements of this story (ALiA DNA) include: a belief in basic goodness, the importance of holding space, and the necessity to work on "the personal" to help us show up more fully in our organizations among other things. Our group felt that these elements need to be articulated and publicly shared in a concise form - not a long comprehensive list of characteristics, but 3 or 4 key elements, something that we can remember off the top of our heads when we each introduce ALiA to our friends and family. This short description would also provide some clues into how the various modules and program elements (meditation, arts etc) form a coherent whole or why certain teaching come together- which some of us felt is currently missing from the Program description.
2) We also have many stories about the experience of people who have attended ALiA (and before it Shambhala) Programs, what they learned and how their lives and their organizations were impacted. This is the stuff we need for the marketing piece. Recognizing the differences in learning modalities, our group felt it is appropriate to tell these stories in various forms: diagrams, testimonials of participants, learning outcomes, success stories of alumni, stories of how faculty came to work together etc. Given online technologies, we recognized that we can in fact tell all these overlapping stories at once - that we don't have to choose only one way of telling them. For example, we can organize the ALiA website around the elements of the Program (as it is done right now), AND we can organize it geographically (e.g. a dynamic map to access various participant testimonials) AND we could also organize it under banners of clusters that speak to specific audiences (e.g. individuals looking for opportunities for personal growth, HR departments looking for help in talent management, CEOs of big companies in search of increased organizational effectiveness etc.) so that each person going to the website can navigate it based on what is relevant to them. Links to pertinent modules, testimonials, books and videos etc can be provided under each cluster.
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That was the result of our one hour together. Now over to you!
Tags: 2009, ALiA, Institute, Summer, story, website
Views: 3
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Aftab Erfan on -
On re-reading my notes from the discussion on June 26th I also found some additional pieces:
We had a discussion about the unique offerings that bring participants to ALiA. We recognize that these need to feature prominently in the story that we tell. ALiA's differentiation is based on:
1) The strength of its faculty.
2) The combination of Programs elements: Modules, Meditation, Arts.
3) The community of people it attracts.
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Permalink Reply by Susan Szpakowski on -
Wow! This was obviously a very productive one hour. I'm wondering how we should begin to move forward in re-telling our story?
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Permalink Reply by Susan Szpakowski on
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Aftab, last night I watched a documentary about Joseph Campbell, whose life was dedicated to understanding the great stories of the world and the universal human themes behind them. He followed the “Hero with a Thousand Faces” across cultures and historical periods, and I realized that the story of authentic leadership is about the hero’s journey too. Not because it’s about climbing to the top of the heap and claiming recognition or single-handedly saving the day, but because there’s so much letting go to do. And because the stakes are high and there’s so much fear to overcome. And because the hero’s journey is about personal transformation for the sake of social transformation.
All of our modern-day epics are hero’s journeys, and in fact George Lucas consulted with Campbell when he was writing Star Wars. Another is Lord of the Rings, and I always found it amusing but somehow appropriate when Toke Moeller talked about himself as a hobbit, and Tim Merry called his place The Shire. In some ways we are all little people who have no idea whether our small acts of courage and leadership will make a difference at the end of the day. And yet, as the storm clouds darken and the impulse to retreat into fear grows stronger, even the simplest gesture of human dignity and kindness can mean so much. Just in itself, for itself.
I suspect it’s no accident that the U Process is also in the shape of the hero’s journey. We let go of our habitual frame of reference and pass through the gates of fear into the underworld of collective consciousness where some treasure, some needed insight, is discovered and brought back into the light of day. Sensing, presencing, realizing.
The Shambhala metaphor is warriorship, but I know that word makes many people uncomfortable, in a world where there is already too much war and aggression. But the meaning is similar, perhaps even more radical in its simplicity. But that’s another story and maybe I’m going on too long, and I suspect this isn’t the kind of story-telling you were asking for. Or is it?
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Permalink Reply by Aftab Erfan on
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I am hoping that some of the folks who took Laura Simms' workshop will jump in here and rescue me [heroically or not] because I am already out of my depth on this subject! But essentially, I feel like ALiA Programs have been an important segment of many personal and organizations journeys so maybe there is a nice collection of warrior stories that we could collect and tell as a way of putting ALiA more prominently on the map. I do think we need to think carefully about format, because I hear that people have less and less time for novels but will go and see a block-buster film. Of course online multimedia is also growing in popularity and that might be a more appropriate venue for us.
(On that note, I am sharing a favourite story, a video my sister just passed along: http://www.girleffect.org/#/splash/ )
I guess the question of what kind of story-telling we're asking for comes back to the question of why we might want to tell any stories at all. Do we agree that the purpose is what we outlined above (ie. to tell us what we're about, and to tell others what we're about) or is there other purposes?
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Permalink Reply by Adam Yukelson on
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Joseph Campbell talks about myths (stories, for our purposes) as guiding signs along the road, left by those who walked the path before us. They show us the way, alert us to obstacles, give us strength and guidance, etc. Campbell says the hero's journey that underlies myths from all cultures follows the same pattern of departure, realization, return; but the stories take on different forms and characters depending on the needs of the community in which they are told.
What are the stories that could serve as guiding signs for members of the ALiA community, and those who become part of the community?
To Aftab's question of why tell stories: in addition to foundational and marketing pieces, I wonder whether there is space for stories of this kind. Stories that illuminate the path we're all on as members of this community.
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Permalink Reply by Susan Szpakowski on
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Aftab and Adam, Yes, I agree that there are different kinds of stories that serve different purposes. Joseph Campbell's biography reminded me of the archetypal story of transformation, which is one way of talking about the kind of leadership needed now, as well as the personal journey of setting out when there is no map. "Authentic leadership" doesn't necessarily capture all that, and there may be ways that we could communicate it through evoking archetypes. One year we had a module by Carol Pearson, whose life work has been around the power of archetypal story-telling in organizations--to create a shared, experiential sense of purpose and vision, and for marketing.
Another kind of story (which is related) is told by the people who have passed through the Institute and engaged in new ways of working, new partnerships, and new projects as a result. Some of these very impressive, and some have continued to travel and grow over the years. For a long time some of us have said, wouldn't it be great to make these visible somehow... We have collected a few on video but somehow never had the time or the expertise handy to systematically edit and upload these. As the technology becomes easier to use, there is less holding us back. Lyn Hartley has done a good job of collecting "stories from the field" for our newsletter, Fieldnotes, over the years. Maybe we could create a separate blog for these, and maybe someone out there has a passion to get the ball rolling.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean, Adam, by "stories that could serve as guiding signs." Is it what I just described or something different?
And what did you all learn about stories in Laura Simms workshop right before the Summer Institute. I kept hearing that it was rich, but no specifics....
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Permalink Reply by Susan Szpakowski on
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David Whyte uses poetry, archetypes and myth to tell the story of transformation in the context of the workplace. In The Heart Aroused he summons the story of Beowulf.
"This reluctance to enter the deeper waters of the psyche is not confined to modern participants of corporate life. Fifteen hundred years ago in the Old English poem Beowulf an anonymous bardic author confronted his listeners with a frightening image of this inner lake. His listeners were almost certainly rough warriors used to getting their hands dirty. He found them equally shy of that dark water.... Beowulf is a masculine story of descent into the waters of the unconscious, but where the restoration of a profound inner feminine power is essential to his survival. In that context it is a compelling story for both women and men working in a masculine workplace sorely in need of a commensurate balancing power. In a corporate culture still dominated by the image of the warrior archetype, Beowulf's plunge into the waters of the unconscious seem to be equally instructive for both sexes."
There's that warrior archetype again. Could there be warriorship that joins masculine and feminine power? That is the Shambhala warrior.
There's potentially a very intriguing conversation here (for me anyway) about the difference between Eastern and Western ways of imagining and imaging the journey of awakening. What does it mean to awaken at work?
More from David Whyte:
"Questioning in a real way, we start, by all the lights of the poetic tradition, to *awaken*. We are come to consciousness, albeit in a dark wood. But as we awaken we take the first steps into the hall of grief and loss. Looking over the centuries of human struggle commemorated in poetry, a man or woman often seems to begin the journey to soul recovery in this very lonely place of self-assessment. The uninitiated might call it depression.... But as we practice going inward, we come to realize that much of it is not depression in the least; it is a cry for something else, often the physical body's simple need for rest, for contemplation, and for a kind of forgotten courage, one difficult to hear, demanding not a raise, but another life."
To me this speaks beautifully to the longing to set out on (or remember) the journey of awakening. I have found that eastern meditative traditions fill in the profound view and practical details of how to travel this journey, while the western stories and archetypes touch a different but deeply personal chord. No doubt this is simply because of the historical and cultural fabric I am part of.
So to echo Adam's question--what are the new stories we could summon and tell about the journey of authentic leadership, as a journey of awakening, that are right for this time and place, and this community?
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This is helpful, Susan. So again, why tell stories? In Laura's storytelling workshop, she said she tells stories to interrupt the stories we're already in.
I'm wondering how ALiA as a container and community interrupts the stories we're normally in? Or maybe, why ALiA effectively interrupts the stories we're in (if there already are so many (possibly untold) stories of awakening). The why piece might contain the foundational and marketing stories Aftab suggested, while the how piece might contain the stories of individuals or organizations that have already experienced some level of awakening because of ALiA; stories that could serve as maps for others within the community who might set out on a similar journey.
Is this making any sense?
To that last point, when I said "guiding signs" I was thinking of this Campbell quote: "We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path. And where we had thought to find an abomination; we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another; we shall slay ourselves. And where we had thought to travel outward; we shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone; we shall be with all the world."
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