Begin your journey or see if our programs are for you.

Who are our workshops for?

Executives and change agents who want to grow and expand as leaders: we offer new ways of thinking that can help you address organizational challenges and drive change
Team leads and People & Learning executives who are running leadership or change programs in their organizations and would like to sample our approach and methods.

Times are indicated in Eastern Time (ET) and Central European Time (CET).

All workshops are virtual, unless otherwise noted.

Workshops fees are $119 per workshop, unless otherwise specified. If you have a discount code, please enter it when you sign up.

November 20, 2024

10:00-11:30am ET

16:00-17:30 CET

Change is Challenging Hierarchical Norms: Navigating Overload and Competing Pressures

Many of the top managers we work with are overloaded. Everyone is looking to them for direction and answers, but as a top manager, you don’t always have them; you need to check with your boss, board, and/or other stakeholders first. Amidst these conditions of overload and crunch, many of us respond with what human systems pioneer Barry Oshry calls “The Dance of the Blind Reflex” – a series of unproductive moves that are especially common in hierarchical organizations. It’s time to break out of these unproductive patterns and learn more effective ways of working and collaborating.

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December 11, 2024

10:00-11:30am ET

16:00-17:30 CET

Change is Challenging – Yourself: Grounding Yourself and Staying Creative Amidst Adversity

The practice of leadership is difficult. Adaptive progress requires mobilizing collective responsibility on a challenge, engaging new partnerships, synthesizing diverse perspectives, and ongoing experimentation to co-create a new path forward. In this session, we want to explore one of the common reasons people struggle to sustain this difficult work: the heartbreak, exhaustion, and anger that arise when we are challenged to make compromises to our ideals, loyalties, or sources of meaning in the name of progress. These moments can take a significant emotional and even physical toll, and many of the aspiring change agents we work with lack the practices to recover and stay in the game.

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Change is Challenging: Your Story Using a Somatic Lens

A challenge at work can feel overwhelming. Yet, we rack our brains trying to find a solution and it keeps us up at night. It’s a habit of ours that we try to solve challenges through mental gymnastics and it rarely occurs to us that our body may hold valuable information about how we go about driving change. In fact, that would be a big change in itself, for us to consult our body as a way to see the bigger picture. This workshop builds from the Kegan/Lahey’s Immunity to Change model and brings a somatic lens to it! Resistant? Then this is a workshop for you!

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Change is Challenging: Your Notion of Leadership

Too often, we think of leadership as a position we hold – team lead, the managing director, CEO, or President. Then we hold back on leading until we assume that role. Or, we think of leadership as a personality trait that some people are born with. Then we hold back on leading because we feel we lack the necessary charisma or gravitas. These are ways of thinking about leadership that are self-limiting. At KONU, we subscribe to the idea that leadership is something you do – it’s an activity (Heifetz 1994). There’s no such thing as a great leader, but there are many opportunities for great leadership. And this can come from many places and people. In this workshop, we will explore the concept of leadership as an activity, drawing on the Adaptive Leadership framework developed at Harvard University.

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The Adaptive Leadership Lab: An Experiential Workshop for Women-Identifying Change Agents

As women, we often receive conflicting messages about how to lead: Hold people’s emotions but be tough. Integrate different perspectives but also don't compromise your vision. Build credibility but be humble about your accomplishments. So how do you lead with greater creativity and self-trust in a sea of competing voices, pressures, and projections? In this highly experiential 2.5-day Lab, we will delve into the root causes of systemic challenges women face in practicing leadership with an intersectional lens and expand our toolkits for responding.

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CHANGE IS TRIGGERING: Gain more freedom and optionality for leadership.

We all get triggered, but our triggers can cause us to react in ways we’re not so proud of (not to mention, in ways that are counter-productive to goals beyond ourselves) – you might lose your temper, when it would be more productive if you asked a question; you might withdraw from a heated discussion, when it would inspire greater progress for you to engage; you might misinterpret a colleague as untrustworthy, when they could be a vital partner. But though triggers are perfectly human, they can also be an obstacle in our practice of leadership if you don’t know how to ‘read’ them and channel them.

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CHANGE IS CHALLENGING – YOURSELF. Grounding Yourself and Staying Creative Amidst Adversity

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CHANGE IS CHALLENGING - YOUR USUAL ANSWER. Diagnosing whether the work needed is technical problem-solving or adaptive learning.

Too often, we think of leadership is about “fixing” problems and offering solutions. That’s particularly true for those of us in management roles – after all, isn’t that what we were hired for? The reality is more complex. A key leadership skill is to know when problem-solving is the right approach – and when you need to mobilize learning in others in order to drive progress.

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CHANGE IS CHALLENGING - YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF LEADERSHIP.

Too often, we think of leadership as a position we hold – team lead, the managing director, or CEO. And we hold back on leading until we assume that role. Or, we think of leadership as personality traits that some people are born with – and we hold back on leading because we feel we lack the necessary charisma or gravitas. These ways of thinking about leadership that are both limiting and counter-productive. At KONU, we subscribe to the idea that leadership is something you do – it’s an activity (Heifetz 1994). There’s no such thing as a great leader, but there are many opportunities for great leadership. And this can come from many places and people.

Coming up again soon

CHANGE IS CHALLENGING - YOUR SYSTEM. Building a better map of your leadership challenge.

Are you facing a challenge in your team, organization, or community and are finding yourself stuck in the weeds? Exercising real leadership demands rigorous diagnostic work. You must chart the political landscape to successfully mobilize people to orchestrate real change. This can require seeing past your own perspective on the problem and understand how everyone else understands the shared challenge.

Coming up again soon

CHANGE IS CHALLENGING — Your LOYALTIES. Understanding and managing your inner ecosystem and how it supports and resists your own change agenda.

Mobilizing change requires not only confronting external stakeholders with difficult realities, loss and offering them new possibilities. Sometimes it is our own inner world that gets in the way, generating blind spots and limiting options. In this workshop we will explore ourself as a system bringing multiples voices to the table: wisdom, resistance and even sabotage to the change efforts we care most about. The session will offer you profound new insights into your choir of “inner voices” (Loyalties) and how to manage them as supportive resources rather than be managed by them.

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CHANGE IS CHALLENGING - RESISTANCE. Understand and move beyond the inevitable failed attempts to affect change.

Are you trying to drive crucial change in your team or in your organization – but you are facing resistance? Maybe you are the founder of a startup pushing for real innovations in the climate & sustainability space. Or you are in charge of people development in a large organization confronting the challenges and opportunities of fast-paced technological shifts. Or you are an executive who cares about making social justice not just a catch-phrase, but actually wants their teams to examine what is getting in the way so they can really be a part of the solution.

Coming up again soon

CHANGE IS — MEETING YOUR INNER CRITIC. Shifting Negative Self-Talk Through Presence and Creativity

All too often, we fail to lead not because of external circumstances but because we just don’t believe we can: systemically-imposed imposter syndrome and shame gets the better of us. It’s time to unleash your full leadership potential in this masterclass designed to tackle self-doubt head-on. Taught by leadership development luminary Rosi Greenberg, this transformative, experiential workshop delves into the origins of self criticism and guides you to embrace more powerful self-narratives.

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CHANGE IS CHALLENGING — YOURSELF. Unpack Your Leadership Possibilities for 2024

“How can I be a better leader this year?” We often use the start of a New Year to set intentions for “getting better” at exercising leadership. But it can be challenging to define that goal more precisely – let alone figuring out the path to getting there! At KONU, we believe that a core part of leadership development is stepping back to take an honest look at how we show up. Unpacking how our behaviors, beliefs and patterns enable – and limit – our leadership can help us focus on a meaningful next step toward more effective leadership practice.

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CHANGE IS CHALLENGING — EVERYONE. It's Getting Hot in Here! Strategies for Driving (or Coping with) Change and the Heat that comes with it

Are you the one driving crucial change in your team, organization, or community – but you are facing resistance? Resistance comes in many forms: outright opposition, cynical denial (“been there, done that”), stonewalling. It’s frustrating! Why do people resist change? And what can you do to overcome it?

Coming up again soon

Leadership: It’s not about whether people like you, it’s about how much people learn

Too often, we think of leadership as a popularity contest: A great leader is someone who’s popular – right? Right? That’s far from true. We think, leadership is all about mobilizing people to face complex challenges and unpleasant truths in order to learn and making progress. That often requires helping people face harsh realities, question privileges, manage loss, and build new capacities. “If you want to make people happy, sell ice cream – don’t exercise leadership”, says Harvard leadership professor Ronald Heifetz. Easier said than done – most of us want to be liked! How can acknowledge this need – and redirect attention to the important leadership work and help people through difficult change?

Coming up again soon

Leadership: It’s not about offering solutions, it’s about driving progress

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Leadership: It’s not your role - it’s what you do

Too often, we think of leadership as a position we hold – team lead, the managing director, or CEO. And we hold back on leading until we assume that role. Or, we think of leadership as a personality trait that some people are born with – and we hold back on leading because we feel we lack the necessary charisma or gravitas. These are ways of thinking about leadership that are self-limiting. At KONU, we subscribe to the idea that leadership is something you do – it’s an activity (Heifetz 1994).

Coming up again soon

Withstanding the Pressure for Quick Fixes and Easy Answers – Leadership Strategies for Navigating Disruption and Fostering Innovation

Learn how to look deeper and address the underlying leadership challenges facing your community.

Have you ever tried to fix a problem only to have your solution backfire? Have you ever spent weeks crafting a 7-point strategic plan with your team, only to see it filed away while business continues as usual? Or maybe someone in a position of authority in your community consistently over-promises and under-delivers? This session will help you discover why.

Coming up again soon

Humanizing Complexity – Applying Systems Thinking to Teams, Organizations, and Stakeholders

Learn how to step back from a challenge to get a bird’s-eye view. How to step up to the balcony to observe the whole dance floor.

Exercising real leadership demands rigorous diagnostic work. You must chart the political landscape to successfully mobilize people for change and make long-lasting progress.

But once you have a diagnosis, how do you act? What moves should you make? What roles do you and others in your community need to play to tackle the challenge and move the work forward? This session offers a concrete approach to mapping the key players so you can engage them in the difficult work of adaptive change.

Coming up again soon

Leading with and Beyond Your Authority - Mindset Shifts for Leading from Any Chair

Reboot your understanding of leadership and authority and learn how to engage in the dance of real leadership in a complex world.

Today’s volatile and unpredictable world cannot be navigated by a single hero who promises to save us all. We need people to exercise leadership in every sphere of society, no matter what their roles are. Organizations, businesses, and communities require leadership that is ongoing, systemic, inclusive, and courageous.

But if you’re going to lead change that is impactful and sustainable, you need to properly understand the resources at your disposal, while also identifying the constraints and limits of your authority. This knowledge is critical to help your community learn and make progress together.

Coming up again soon

Something Has to Change - Uncovering Obstacles to Self-Care Amidst a Crisis of Overwork

We know that in order to thrive as leaders, we need to cultivate resilience and self-care. Yet it is common for mission-driven leaders to give everything they can to their cause: every possible waking moment, every iota of energy, every brain cell. Even when we know how important anchoring practices are, and yearn for more balance in our lives, we can sometimes find it extraordinarily difficult to actually change our habits of work and life. It’s easy to see this as a failure of our own will or effort, but when we look closer, we often find that widespread cultural mindsets and practices are significant factors preventing change.

In this session, you will have the opportunity to dig deeper into your relationship with self-care: identifying the anchors you can connect with, unpacking the pressures you’re under that make change so difficult, and exploring ways to find some freedom from the mindsets and power structures contributing to our epidemic of imbalanced work.

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Enrolling for the Job to be Done - Frameworks and Tools for Thriving in a Role Transition

One of the most complex experiences in professional life is transitioning into a new role. We often look to role transitions with excitement, thrilled about more responsibility, impact, and influence. We think we might have a lot of room to shape the roles and to deploy the resources and people that come with it only to see how overwhelming, frustrating, and constraining new roles can be.

Roles are shaped much more by the context than by us. Organizations create roles because there is a job that needs to be done. And people do not relate to you as the complex, wonderful, thoughtful human being you are, but as the role you play.

Role transitions often are demanding experiences. They require learning new mindsets and behaviors that match the demands of the new role and setting aside long-held paradigms that served us previously. They require (re-)setting expectations and managing disappointments and boundaries.

This session will explore that learning challenge. Manager and Leadership Development often underestimate the developmental aspect of role transitions and overfocus on skills and tools. We will offer concrete exercises and discussions you can use to organize the deep learning and growth that is demanded by a role transition. This session is ideal for individuals experiencing imminent transitions in their roles at work, or managers and people professionals who are supporting staff through these transitions.

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Breaking the Zoom Barrier – Leading in Virtual and Hybrid Spaces

The COVID-19 pandemic had drastic implications for organizations around the globe: well-functioning teams have suddenly needed to sustain effective collaboration without being able to meet in person. Working remotely and collaborating in the virtual "space" of email and teleconference makes it harder to exercise leadership and navigate complexity. To further complicate the matter, the next year promises to bring new “hybrid” experiences, where some have returned to the office and others have not.

The challenge to lead in virtual and hybrid spaces is twofold: Many of the tried-and-true strategies for building connection don't work or lose their depth, and it is often more challenging to achieve alignment and accountability around the work of the team. So, exercising leadership in the virtual space requires learning new ways both to foster connection and to maintain the quality and sophistication of your team's problem-solving.

This session introduces you to conceptual and practical tools you can use to address these challenges. This session is ideal for anyone who is in the position of leading meetings or other activities for their team and would like to strengthen the team’s engagement and problem-solving capability.

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Anchoring Yourself: Sustaining Leadership in Turbulent Times

Reconnect to the practices, spaces, and mindsets you need to sustain yourself for long-term leadership.

Leadership is a difficult act. Too often we see acts of brave leadership end in burnout, firing from a position, or marginalization. To avoid these requires deep stability in the face of uncertainty. It requires creativity, patience, and persistence in the face of constant setbacks and challenges. To sustain in this way requires a set of ongoing practices for self-care and re-connection to purpose.

If you’re going to lead change for the long-term, you need anchoring practices and mindsets to keep you going. This session will help you gain new understandings of your role in leadership and take actionable steps toward sustaining yourself for the long term.

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Communities and Collaborative Support

Bring a challenge you would like the group's support on!

In this time of uncertainty and crisis, we don’t have a shortage of challenges - both individually and organizationally. How to help my team go virtual? How to get through the crisis sane and healthy? How to keep attention on my important initiative when everyone is only thinking about Corona? How to take care of myself and my team members?

Whatever your challenge is - in times of crisis it is even more important to not be alone. Our session will offer you support through peer-coaching practices to gain new perspectives, explore insights, and create new options for what might feel an intractable situation.

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The Crisis Challenge: Skills for Leading in Moments of Loss, Uncertainty, and Threat

Deepen your leadership practice for this crucial moment.

The current moment confronts us with a special kind of leadership challenge, the Crisis Challenge. As citizens, family members, change agents, executives, health workers, and elected officials, we are all tackling a lot -- an imminent health and economic threat, the longstanding issue of systemic racism, the anxieties and the anger around and within us, and adaptations that we and our groups, communities, and organizations need to make short-term and long-term. Given what is at stake, this can be overwhelming.

In this workshop we will explore the work required for the practice of leadership to address the imminent danger, to hold people through their emotions, to address the deeper issues, and build new capacities.

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The Inner Struggle: Introduction to Immunity to Change

Why is change so hard?

Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution? Several years in a row? With no success? Have you ever received the same feedback several times? Have you ever faced other people’s resistance as you work to drive an important change initiative in your community?

The Immunity to Change process underscores why our most stubborn and persistent behaviors are difficult to change by illuminating our competing commitments and big assumptions. Only once those blocks have been identified can we truly develop strategies for overcoming resistance and pushbacks.

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Resist the Temptation: Leadership and Seduction

Know your personal tuning and learn to avoid common traps that endanger your valuable work.

There’s a reason why leadership is so damn attractive. Power and influence appeal to almost everyone on a primal level, drawing us towards the people who wield it. At the same time, those people in authority roles are often lonely and desperate for intimacy. Unfortunately, these needs and temptations often result in disastrous consequences.

You have seen it before: A supposedly funny innuendo devolves into egregious behavior, or even an indecent assault. Or an innocent flirtation morphs into an inappropriate affair. Or office gossip pollutes the social atmosphere, distracting people from important work and negatively impacting morale.

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Your Next Big Thing: Unpacking your Leadership Practice to Open New Possibilities

“What’s your leadership style?” We often hear that understanding our unique style is the key to leading more effectively. However, in the busyness of our day-to-day, it’s difficult to take a step back and reflect on the deeply-held beliefs and assumptions that drive our behavior. At KONU, we believe that understanding how these mindsets enable — and limit — our leadership is a core part of developing a more effective leadership practice. In this workshop, we will use the Leadership Circle Profile (LCP), a comprehensive tool grounded in adult development research, to explore how your beliefs and behaviors impact your leadership.