Hello Everyone,
The participants of Kizuna’s fall 2025 OpenThread untangled some fascinating ways of understanding authenticity and leadership, it was an enriching experience that helped me understand more of the tangles that need unraveling.
After Tuesday’s session, I find myself wrestling with a particular question:
A reminder, that this weeks Cultivar Coffee Chat livestream, will be on Friday, 11.21.2025, at 11:00 AM EST. Subscribe for notification!
How does one discern between relational authenticity and relational enmeshment?
I may have to host a roundtable discussion on this in the future.
My first thought, is that we have to be fully aware of ourselves, even if we may not understand ourselves completely, or feel as though we belong in a place and time.
If our sense of Self vanishes within relation, rather than finding form through it, perhaps we are enmeshed rather than in resonance.
Perhaps we must look at this question from less of a analytical standpoint, and more of an somatic one. How does authenticity within a group setting feel versus enmeshment in the same?
Have you ever decided to throw a get-together with friends that have never met, or been put in charge of a group project where no one has ever worked together before?
What makes those types of gatherings impactful (in a good way) is setting the space for people to show up and be authentically themselves, and to have the freedom to engage with others, absent fear of being seen as not belonging in a place they may have had a choice as to whether or not they came.
When people feel as thought they have no choice but to come, even at the expense of their authentic self, where engagement or being part of the “in” group is the concern, and all of these are higher in importance than what is authentic … that is enmeshment.
Once that space is opened, though, it’s a group effort to steward these new relations towards an experience that resonates through empowerment, brings people back without coercion, encourages others to join without falsehoods, but also, to carry this new perception of self across many thresholds - to resist enmeshment.
Yesterday, I was moved by the resonance of feeling in right relation to fellow leaders and emergent thinkers as the Invited Voice for Kizuna’s fall 2025 OpenThread session.
Both during and after collectively exploring the question of “How does our understanding of authentic leadership shift when we reframe it from a cultivated inner trait to a relational conversation between entities,” it was such an enriching and rewarding sight to see the participants find new angles of understanding themselves, new depths and contexts with which to shape their organizational ecosystems.
The thing that resonated the most with me is seeing the same willingness in others that I strive for in myself: to sit in complexity, to resist stagnation of mind and perspective, and to share the joy of exploring the understanding of Self.
That energy is unmatched, and when attuned together, allows for separate horizons to join together.
And still, I wonder...
What parts of us are braided too tightly to see, so tightly they constrict us individually and collectively. Is the recognizing of enmeshment something a call to be more rigid, or to loosen?
Kizuna fall 2025 OpenEncounters:
If you want to join us in the next leg of the journey, I invite you to OpenArc, where over a four-week sequence of cross-disciplinary provocations, we will explore the question of:
“How do we co-create authenticity in the liminal space between self and collective across scales and contexts?”
While OpenThread broadened our perception of authenticity within ourselves and in relation to others, OpenArc considers what happens when these understandings meet the cultural narratives, communal dynamics, and more-than-human contexts that give them weight and form.
Community Tier pricing closes November 26, 11:59PM PT / 2:59AM ET
All Other Tier pricing closes November 28, 5PM ET / 2PM PT
Request Entry here
I’ll see you tomorrow,
- Chris
Welcome, and thank you for your presence!
I am a leadership ecologist rooted in Appalachia, raised through environmental respect, military service and Western educational institutions. I use an animistic lens to better understand the relationship between individuals, organizations, and systems.
When working with leaders and organizations, my approach not one of doctrine, but of guidance and tending to: to memory, to culture, to systems and people. I believe leadership is not a fixed role, but a living, relational practice.
My work draws from my lived experience and research into myth-making, insurgency and business strategies, regenerative philosophies, creative works, the landscape I inhabit, and the mundane, because the ember of humanity is often nurtured in and between those spaces.
If something resonates, leave a comment, or reach out to chat - I always love hearing people’s stories.
You are always welcome to book a free call to either get fresh perspective or see if we’d work well together in cultivating your capacity to lead.
I offer a variety of services, 1:1 coaching, group programs, leadership training development, and culture consultation.