Living Connections: Authentic Leadership As A Relational Practice - OpenArc

Kizuna's Fall 2025 Open Encounter Journey Continues

So many of us know something’s off. We feel it in our teams, our timelines, our mornings.

We feel it in how we rise in the morning and settle in the evening.

The way we lead no longer holds collective trust, and often harms us.

​Our inherited modes of leadership are failing, failing to provide basic security and meaning while extracting more from us and our ecosystems than ever before.

The ways in which we have understood and developed leaders enforce separation, control, and value at a time when connection, reciprocity, and the embodiment of shared and collective agency are more than desired; they are critical to our future.

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁, 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨.

Leadership is a relational stance that sits in the liminal space between the individual and the collective, the imperfect and impermanent.

In order to lead others, in order to shape culture towards a more regenerative and equitable future, we must understand that we are not just connected to the workplace, environment, and people, but in relation with them.

𝗪𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲𝘀 𝘂𝘀.

We may understand that we don’t exist in a vacuum or in isolation from each other, but comprehension doesn’t always give us the tools or path to navigate towards what we can envision for the future.

Even if we have the tools, changing culture in a small, controlled environment doesn’t always feel as though it can have systemic effects.

That’s an illusion, one that keeps leaders from pushing the bounds of what their impact can be.

To break the illusion, you need more than vision; you need resolve and curiosity as well.

The next leg of Kizuna’s Open Encounters journey considers what happens when these understandings meet the cultural narratives, communal dynamics, and more-than-human contexts that give them weight and form.

The answers aren’t mine alone to create, so I’d like you to join me in 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗔𝗿𝗰, a four-week, asynchronous exploration of cross-disciplinary provocations.

Each week introduces a distinct lens for participants to engage in creative and layered modes of response with the question of:

“𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗼-𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁𝘀?”

OpenArc scales that relational understanding, from individual to collective, by bringing the systemic and cultural dimensions of leadership into focus, examining co-creation and shared responsibility as essential practices.

If you’re curious, if you’re uncertain, if you’re searching for something you can’t quite name, you belong in this arc.

Request Entry here

🔸𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗧𝗶𝗲𝗿 pricing closes November 26, 11:59PM PT / 2:59AM ET🔸

🔸𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗢𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗶𝗲𝗿 pricing closes November 28, 5PM ET / 2PM PT🔸

I hope to see you there,

Chris

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Welcome to this space, 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.