FutureWise Leadership Certification Program
An in-depth, immersive learning experience designed to help us develop the leadership capacity and capabilities required to become more FutureWise.
Why this program, and why now?
A response to the need for accelerating the development of FutureWise leadership
The FutureWise Leadership Program is our response to the crucial need for developing and equipping leaders who can help foster and create a future that is good for all, as we face the challenge of navigating a world filled with ever-increasing complexity and uncertainty, and never-ending flux.
The program explores in detail how we need to think different, be different, and act different if we are to effectively navigate our complex, volatile current reality, and act wisely to shape a positive future.
It uses perspectives, models, tools, experiences, and practices that we have developed over the last several years, designed specifically for the complex, uncertain world in which we now operate. They have proven to foster transformational growth and expanded capacity in leaders from a variety of sectors and in multiple settings.
Who is the program for?
Anyone involved in leadership development who is motivated to explore/learn how to better/ develop enhanced capacity and capability to develop the leadership wisdom required to navigate the turbulent present while shaping a positive future
YOUR ROLE
The program is for people who support those who lead in highly complex environments. You are probably in one of these roles:
- senior leader who wants to develop other leaders
- coach who works with senior leaders
- organizational development professional
- leadership development specialist
YOUR MOTIVATION
You have a sense of hope and possibility in the midst of our obvious challenging present, and you are committed to playing a role in helping shape a positive future. You have an opportunity to do this by supporting and equipping leaders to become more future-wise.
You are keenly aware that something other than the usual leadership development content and experience is needed for this. You are looking for learning that provides deep insight into future-wise leadership capacity and capabilities, as well as practical and actionable ideas on how to actually develop these capacities and capabilities.
You want to be a part of a rich in-depth learning experience you can share with like-minded committed and experienced colleagues who are all interested in helping to shape a positive future.
The Content & Focus of the Program
Our FutureWise Leadership Certification program is divided into two parts. You may choose to complete just the first section, or complete both. Certification, however, is only for those who complete both.
Part 1: Making Sense of Our Current Reality
(3 months)
Explore new lenses and language that help you make better sense of the challenges and opportunities in our current reality. Learn how to think different, and explore ways to be different (cultivating new capacities and capabilities) that will enable you to become more FutureWise.
Part 2: Acting to Shape a Positive Future
(6 months)
Explore how FutureWise leadership requires us to not only think and be different, but also do different. Develop capabilities and learn new processes and tools that will equip you to do the work FutureWise leaders are called to do in our current context if we are to shape a positive future for all.
Program Elements at a Glance
Fully virtual learning experience combining a variety of individual and group learning experiences, supported by a carefully curated and custom created set of written and video materials, as well as extensive enrichment resources.
Full Group Sessions
(2 hours every alternate week – 10:00 to 12:00 PM Eastern time, starting January 2022)
Meet every two weeks for an interactive workshop focusing on key concepts (2 hours, facilitator led)
- Discuss core concepts, models and frames in depth
- Consider their implications for ways of thinking, being and doing
- Explore deeper interconnections among the Future-Wise concepts, models, and frames
On Your Own
(2-3 hours/week)
With access to materials starting January 2022
Explore structured set of readings and videos on your own time
- Learn about the core concepts, models and frames of Future-Wise Leadership
- Engage in own developmental practices, e.g., for enhancing curiosity and compassion
- Reflect on self and learning
Peer Learning
(2 hours every alternate week – time to be arranged by participants)
Meet regularly (ideally, every two weeks alternating with the full group sessions), with a small group of peers (1-2 hours every two weeks) for reflective learning conversations.
- Deepen understanding of key concepts
- Support one another’s development
- Explore application of learning to own practice context.
Program Resources
When you enroll in the FutureWise Leadership Program, you will receive a suite of resources to aid your own ongoing development and your work with leaders. These include:
- Access to a one-stop program website for all course materials.
- Customized articles written by our facilitators to deepen your understanding and growth.
- Exclusive video content to deepen your learning and practice.
- Access to our proprietary models, frameworks, and tools to support the development of FutureWise capabilities.
- Extensive sets of practices to support the development of other FutureWise Leaders.
- Powerful downloadable full-colour visuals for core concepts, models and frames that can be used in your work with your clients to foster their understanding.
- Exclusive online, protected community forum to support communal conversation and learning.
Want more details? Ready to register?
Part 1: Making Sense of Our Current Reality
(3 months)
The first part of the program is designed to help you gain deep insight into questions such as these:
- What exactly are the characteristics of our current reality that creates a challenge for us – as humans in general and as leaders?
- What is it about us as humans that make it especially challenging for us to deal with the nature of our current reality?
- Why is it necessary to learn new ways of thinking, being and doing if we want to be able to shape a positive future – as humans and specifically as leaders?
- What specifically are some of the key shifts in thinking, being, and doing that are required for Future-Wise leadership?
- What are some of the means we can use to help ourselves, and others, develop the inner capacity and capabilities to respond more effectively, more wisely, to the challenges of our present, so that we can act in ways that could help shape a positive future?
- What specific practices can we engage in in order to develop these capacities and capabilities?
To help answer these questions and help us “think different," we will explore models and frameworks that can help us make better sense of our current reality—both its opportunities and challenges. We developed these models and frameworks to integrate in coherent, powerful, and practical ways a great deal of scientific research and cutting edge thinking about leadership development in ways that will support us shifting our thinking. They do so by offering new lenses and language for making greater sense of ourselves in today's complex, rapidly shifting world.
You can’t take others where you yourself have not gone.
Helping others become future-wise requires that those who support them be future-wise themselves.
We have been using these frameworks with leaders for several years and in multiple contexts. We have seen how powerful they are for helping people learn new ways of thinking that enable them to work in highly complex, ever-shifting environments, and to engage in new ways with the challenges and opportunities of these environments.
In Part, 1 you will also assess your current state of FutureWise capacities and capabilities, and how will you need to be different if you are to become more FutureWise. You’ll discover the means you already have (and your key opportunities for growth and development). You will gain insight into your core strengths and values — specifically from a FutureWise perspective. And, you will be introduced to a powerful but simple model that integrates a great deal of current research about a fundamental feature of wisdom, namely, the ability to manage your attention in a way that helps you maintain direction and focus in the midst of complexity and flux.
Interested in finding out more about the dynamics of the Leadership Loop? Read our article, “The Leadership Loop: A Leader’s Framework for Wisely Navigating Our Times”
Article DownloadFinally, in Part 1 you will also start an exploration of one of the most crucial components of FutureWise Leadership: the Four Leadership Virtues (Curiosity, Compassion, Creativity, and Courage). These are vital internal capacities that greatly strengthen an individual’s wisdom and effectiveness both now and into the future. But you won’t just learn about the four virtues. Instead, you will be challenged and guided to cultivate them to a much greater degree in your life. To this end, you will learn an extensive set of practices for their cultivation. Section 1 of the program focuses specifically on the first two of the four: Curiosity and Compassion.
Part 2: Acting to Shape a Positive Future
(6 months)
In Part 2 the emphasis is on how, given our deeper understanding of our current reality, we can act in order to shape a positive future. Throughout Part 2 we continue to challenge and stretch ourselves to think different and be different. However, we now also look at the third aspect of future-wise leadership: how we need to do different.
The content and flow of the second portion of the program is rooted in our description of the work that FutureWise leaders are called upon to do in leading others and organizations in a time such as ours. We describe it this way:
The work of leadership is to help people together
make sense of what is,
imagine what could be, and
act to shape a positive future for all.
We use these three key actions of the work FutureWise leaders need to do in today's organizations as the scaffolding for the flow of the concepts, models, and tools you will learn in Part 2.
We will focus first on what sensemaking is, why it’s so critical for leaders today, and what it takes to do it well—individually and collectively.
We then incorporate the second element of the work of leadership, imagining what could be.
In this segment you will learn to expand your imagination and unleash your creativity. And you’ll learn how to help those you work with to do the same.
Interested in finding out more about the full meaning and implications of describing the work of leadership in this way? Read our article, “What’s a Leader to Do?”
Article DownloadIn the final portion of Part 2, we will turn our attention to the third element of the work of leadership, acting to shape the future. This will entail learning frameworks, concepts, and tools that can help you and those you support be wiser and more effective in:
- decision making in the midst of complexity and uncertainty
- collaborating powerfully in a variety of contexts
- experimenting your way to innovation
In Part 1 of the program, we introduced you to the Four Leadership Virtues — crucial capacities for today's work of leadership. In Part 2, along with continuing to developing greater Curiosity and Compassion, you will explore in depth the additional virtues of Creativity and Courage.
One last thing to highlight about Part 2 is the opportunity you will have to work on your own FutureWise Project. We will be asking you to bring to the group a real-life project which will be a primary focus for your application of the concepts, tools, and behaviours you will be learning. You will find out more about the Future-Wise Project towards the end of Section 1 of the program.
NOTE: Completion and submission of a Future-Wise Project Case Study will be required for Certification as a Future-Wise Leadership Practitioner.
NOTE: If you are unsure if you are ready to commit to the full program, you may choose to enroll just Section 1 and leave the decision to process to Section 2 until later. Note, however, Section 1 is a prerequisite for participating in Section 2. Participants may choose to do just the first section if desired.
Program Delivery Details
Dates:
Part 1: January 13, January 27, February 10, February 24, March 10, March 24 and April 7, 2022 - all Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Part 2: April 21, May 5, May 19, June 2, June 16, June 30, September 8, September 22, October 6, October 20, November 3, November 17, December 1, December 15, 2022 - all Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location:
Online (Zoom.us) & Dedicated Program Resource Website
Cost:
Part 1: Our regular price will be $3,000. We are offering a special 50% discount for our program launch: $1500
Part 2: $5000
