Art of Transformative Change

This course is for you if you work across organizational boundaries—leading teams, partnerships, or multi-stakeholder initiatives where getting people to pull in the same direction is both essential and hard.

You’ll benefit most if you are a:

• Project Manager,
• Leader
• Strategist

working in civil society, the public sector, the private sector, or academia.

This course is especially relevant if you:

• Are navigating complex collaborations with multiple partners or stakeholders
• Feel that your team or partnership has more potential than it is currently realizing
• Want to move from managing people to genuinely leading collectively

This course builds on the foundational methodologies of Art of Leading Collectively and Art of Stakeholder Collaboration — the © Collective Leadership Compass and the © Dialogic Change Model (DCM). At this advanced level, you will work with two dedicated lenses on the Compass: the © Network Enablers and © Community Catalysts, which help you navigate complex design strategies that connect people, purpose, and impact beyond individual projects.

The Art of Transformative Change takes the leap from collaborating within a system to influencing and shifting the system itself. It equips you to work on transformation—not just participation.

At the end of the course, you will receive a certification, marking your newly learned ability to use the Collective Leadership Compass and navigate change collectively.
This certificate can be used to continue the learning journey of CLI’s Certification Programme to become a Collective Leadership Specialist.

The Certification Programme is designed for practitioners who want to develop recognized expertise in collective leadership and create meaningful, lasting change in their working context. Through a structured journey of three modules, two foundational and one advanced, you will deepen your practice and apply it in real-world contexts.

Self-paced module: Explore leadership paradigms in your context (online, before the course starts, ca. 75–85 min)

1. Shifting the leadership paradigm (ca. 10 min)
2. Connecting to the core – leadership and collaboration (ca. 20 min)
3. How do I visualize a community or a network? (ca. 15–20 min)
4. Networks as complex ecosystems (ca. 15 min)
5. Identifying the community of practice or transformation network you want to enliven (ca. 15–20 min)

Day 1 (live): Navigating complexity in transformation networks

1. Identify the tasks of a network steward in the Compass
2. How can we best integrate intuitive and rational thinking to navigate complexity?
3. Understand what’s your collaboration ecosystem

Day 2 (live): A pattern approach to complexity

1. The role of purpose in transformation networks
2. What is a pattern approach to complexity?
3. How do we enhance patterns of aliveness in networks using the Collective Leadership Compass’ Network Enablers and Community Catalysts?

Day 3 (live): A pattern approach to complexity (continued)

1. From command-and-control leadership to collective stewardship of emergent change
2. The DCM as a process methodology for emergent networks
3. Facilitating the collective stewarding of emergent processes in transformation networks

Real learning doesn’t happen in a straight line. It happens when you step into unfamiliar territory, make mistakes, try again, and suddenly see things differently. Our courses are designed to create exactly that kind of space, where experimentation is encouraged, failure is part of the process, and genuine breakthroughs become possible.

We offer a (new) blended learning format: three days of live training combined with self-paced learning components.
This approach allows you to benefit from structured group sessions while having dedicated time for personal reflection and integration.

Do you want to learn more about the way our academy works? Read more on our Academy page.

This training is planned as a hybrid event – both in-person participation in Potsdam, Germany, and online participation at Central European Time (CET) are possible. Please choose your format when you register.

CLI reserves the right to change an in-person participation into an online participation if you do not get your visa on time or other short-term notice reasons prevent you from coming to the course venue. Furthermore, the same applies if new pandemic situations occur that do not allow your participation on-site. Registrations remain valid in any of the cases given. We will come back to you individually in such situations and find the best possible solutions together.

Does my time zone matter?
The live sessions run from 9:00am to 4:00pm CET. If you’re joining online, please make sure this works for your time zone before registering. The self-paced pre-course module is flexible and can be completed at any time.

How does the self-paced material work?
Before the live course begins, you’ll get access to an online module called “Explore Leadership Paradigms” via a Mural board, sent to you 3–4 weeks before the course starts. It consists of five short units you can complete at your own pace. We recommend finishing it before Day 1 so you can get the most out of the live sessions.

Do you offer discounts?
Yes. We offer group rates for two or more participants, early-bird pricing, alumni discounts, and solidarity rates for students and grassroots organizations. Contact us for details.

Can I take the course with my team?
Yes! Taking the course as a team can deepen the impact significantly—you’ll be able to apply the tools directly to your shared context. Group discounts are available for two or more participants from the same organization. Contact us to discuss options.

How do I purchase this course?
Click “Register here” at the top of this page. Fill out the registration form and send it to our Head of Academy, Cholpon Aitakhunova, at cholpon.aitakhunova@collectiveleadership.com. After registration you’ll receive an invoice, due within 10 days of receipt—and at the latest two weeks before the course starts. Tuition is €2,000 in person or €1,500 online (7% VAT where applicable).

I can see the registration form when I click on register, but I cannot fill it in. What shall I do?

What is the cancellation or refund policy?
We understand that plans change. If you need to cancel:

• Up to 8 weeks before the course: 30% of the tuition is charged
• Up to 4 weeks before: 50% is charged
• After that, 100% is charged

Charges are waived if you find a replacement participant. If circumstances beyond your control prevent your in-person attendance—such as illness or visa issues—we’ll work with you to find the best solution, including switching to online participation.