Leading in the Tension
A free, 90-minute workshop for social innovators
who feel stuck between competing priorities
You know the impact you want to make. But the decisions keep getting harder. Do you scale the model or stay small? Move fast or go deep? Follow the funding or stay focused?
We’ll get behind the tug-of-war to the stories driving it, then use polarity thinking to map both sides. You’ll leave with a both/and view of the tension, ready to work with it, not against it.
For founders and leaders of mission-led organizations: Social enterprises, nonprofits, purpose-driven companies, and the people steering them through growth or change.
What story are you telling
〰️
What story are you telling 〰️
When tensions pull in opposite directions?
〰️
When tensions pull in opposite directions? 〰️
What is a polarity?
A problem has a solution, and once it’s solved, you move on. A polarity is different. It’s two interdependent aspects of a situation that pull against each other, like growth and focus, or speed and depth. Both have benefits. But lean too far toward one aspect and you lose the benefits of the other. A polarity never resolves. You can only manage it well or badly.
Hello, I’m Alexis
I grew up between New York, Greece, and Germany and I now live in France. Moving between languages meant rewriting my own story more than once, and it taught me that the tensions we can’t resolve usually have stories running underneath them.
I’ve worked as a story consultant since 1998, first with creatives, filmmakers, and producers in the US and France, then with nonprofits, startups, public institutions, and multinational corporations. I have also taught concept design and story to MFA students. Across all of it, I help leaders and teams build narrative intelligence: the ability to see the stories they’re enacting, especially when those stories pull in different directions.
I’m an ICF-accredited coach (PCC) and certified by Andiron in the Polarity Navigator and the Key Polarity Indicator for individuals and teams. These tools map the tensions that won’t go away and build the capacity to hold both sides. I bring them together with story work. Polarity thinking shows you how a tension plays out, and story shows you why it matters to the people trying to manage it.
Leading in the Tension
With Alexis Niki
December 9, 2026
12:00-13;30 CET
-
No. You don’t need any background in polarity thinking or story work. All you need to bring is a tension you’re living with and a willingness to look at it closely.
-
Yes, it’s a hands-on workshop, not a webinar. You’ll reflect on your own situation, work in pairs in breakout rooms, and map a tension of your own. You can decide how much you share.
-
For those who want to go deeper, I’ll share details of Holding the Mission, an eight-week cohort starting in January.
-
No. It’s a hands-on workshop where people share real situations, so I don’t record it, to protect everyone’s privacy. I plan to run it again, though, so sign up to my mailing list below to hear about future dates.
