Remember back when you were on fire with idealistic optimism and knew you could change the world? When everything was possible and your energy was boundless?
Those of us who stay in the game of changing the world still have that flame, but for some of us that fierce optimism of earlier days has been tempered (or beaten down) by repeated setbacks, challenges and unexpected opposition. And it’s no wonder.
For non-profits, these are perilous times.
Beyond the usual and customary personal sacrifices that have long attended a career of service to the public good — the low pay, the long hours, the never-ending search for resources — non-profit leaders are now facing the additional demands and stress of a radically changing landscape, one that increasingly requires a search for entirely new sources of funding and often a complete re-orientation of long-time missions. In many cases, formerly reliable funding sources are going dry and decades of progress are being reversed while program recipients’ need for services are growing exponentially. Meanwhile, the non-profit sector is undergoing massive leadership turnover at the same time that many senior executives are experiencing delayed retirements.
And we all know the challenges don’t end here. You and your team still have to invent radically new ways to work just to survive, much less deliver on your mission. And there is still so much yet to be done before you can hand the reins of leadership to the next generation in good conscience.
You know this is not a sustainable life for you or your team. You know you can’t keep going like this, but you make one more exception.
Silently, you offer one more sacrifice.
If this is your experience, you are not alone. Among mission-driven leaders, the habit of repeated, unexamined sacrifice is epidemic. The best of the best are seduced by its call and are suffering from it. The question is, are you and your team among them?
Are you becoming Mission Martyrs?
Mission Martyr
/‘mi-shən ‘mär-tər/
noun
1. An individual who uses their own authentic commitment to helping or saving others as the conscious or unconscious justification for an unsustainable lifestyle of repeated personal sacrifice.
Have you seen these Warning Signs?
Planning for Burnout:
“We know that our ED won’t last, but we don’t have enough money to add more support staff.”
Acceptance of Mounting Distress:
“Stress for me is just part of the job.”
Deferring a Life:
“A family reunion will have to wait until we make it through this next funding cycle.”
Survivor’s Guilt:
“How can I possibly enjoy my accrued vacation time when good people on my staff are being laid off?”
Gallows Humor:
“Someday, this job is going to give me a heart attack, ha ha!”
Why do we put up with this life of increasing stress? Some of us have been living this life for so long that we don’t even realize how much of a toll it is taking. Others have accepted the lifestyle as unavoidable, saying “It’s just the price I agreed to pay when I chose a life of service.” Our newer co-workers who haven’t been in the trenches as long may still believe they are immune to the debilitating effects of accumulated personal sacrifice.
Is it even possible to make significant progress towards a more peaceful, joyful and balanced life of service?
Given the reality of the changing landscape, it may seem preposterous to suggest that any leadership program could result in significantly improved organizational effectiveness and personal life balance for you, your leadership team and your organization. And for most programs, it would be. But thousands of skeptical leaders have been empowered and enlivened by these concepts and skills, which have been developed and proven in every sector of the economy for over 30 years.Real change is possible!
By discovering and unleashing the hidden, heroic potential of our teams we can dramatically improve our organizational effectiveness and radically restore work-life balance, and in doing so sustain our organizations, our teams and ourselves in ways we may never have dared to imagine.
- What if you could leave every meeting with your board feeling joyful, inspired and confident?
- What if you had more new donors calling than you could keep track of?
- What if you no longer dreaded walking into meetings with controlling, domineering people?
- What if your team could learn efficiencies so dramatic that you freed up an entire afternoon each week to use however you liked?
What if you could save the world
AND make it home in time for dinner?
Griggs Leadership has developed this curriculum to provide the specific tools and breakthroughs necessary for you to ensure breakthrough sustainability for yourself, your team, and your organization. Traditional leadership training was not designed to create the kind of breakthroughs in effectiveness and stress reduction that we need today. EPIC LEADERSHIP was.
An Invitation From The Course Creator
As far back as I can remember I have been impatient, so much so that I got in a lot of trouble as a kid because I refused to accept the usual and customary ways of learning and working. I always believed there had to be a better way and I was constantly looking for it.
In addition, I have always had a deep sensitivity to fairness and justice. For example, when I was growing up the boys on my street tried to get me to go out “hunting” with them. But they were so much bigger than the little squirrels they stalked, and the boys had weapons. Their small prey had none. I couldn’t participate in the hunt because it wasn’t fair.
Today, I am happy to say that this value of fairness and my relentless impatience have become fused into an obsession with finding every possible tool and trick that can sustain those who are working for peace and justice in the world. After over 30 years of sharpening the saws of efficiency and sustainability I am thrilled to make this course available to you. This is why the course in Epic Leadership was conceived: to help you identify and accomplish the breakthroughs you need in both organizational effectiveness and personal work/life balance.
You will not be perfect after you complete this program. You won’t have solved every problem you face. But through this course in Epic Leadership you can learn at least one powerful new skill each week that will allow you to eliminate one nagging point of stress and accomplish one key result that has eluded you. Think of it: 6 powerful new leadership skills; 6 stressors eliminated; 6 priority organizational results. Join us and discover a model of transformational leadership that will have you realize the deepest meaning of sustainability for your organization and yourself.
-Thomas Shelden Griggs, Ph.D.
Here’s What People Are Saying
Dan Edelson
Former Manager, IBM Global Services Strategic Outsourcing
I worked at IBM for nearly 17 years, attending numerous management training classes and assessment sessions. Since leaving IBM I’ve joined several boards and participated in numerous planning and strategy sessions including one just completed by Dr. Thomas Griggs.
The session conducted by Thomas is the gold standard against which all such high level meetings should be measured. His process for conducting a discussion is tremendously effective.
Pana Columbus
Co-Founder, Seven Generations Charter School, Emmaus, PA; Author and Award-Winning Playwright
Our community here in Asheville has been transformed from our weekend with Dr. Griggs. His discernment, power and skill at creating a safe container for intense issues and emotions is extraordinary. The conversations, the work people are choosing to do, everything has been impacted, especially around male/female relationships. Deep, courageous work has begun.
I am deeply grateful for the immediate and profound transformation he has caused in our community. Truly life changing! Thank you!
Jeffrey M. Gimble M.D., Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor, Center for Stem Cell Research & Regenerative Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine
By converting leadership training into something that is practical, Dr. Griggs gains immediate credibility. The training program identifies specific problem situations, reduces them to their fundamental elements, and applies specific, effective tools to help managers find solutions.
I have discovered that I am leading my scientific team more effectively and communicating better. In meetings with my peers and supervisors, I find it much easier to obtain consensus and to be persuasive.
How can any course promise this much?
What’s so special about this approach?
Epic Leadership was not designed to bring about incremental change, or even rapid change. Epic Leadership was designed to provide the framework and tools to produce transformational change, the kind of change that only happens when we radically shift our approach to everyday problems.
This radical shift occurs when we learn to analyze chaotic situations and reframe chronic problems to make them solvable, and when we uncover and engage the previously hidden superpowers in our teams.
In 16 weeks, we will provide you with the knowledge and skills to produce breakthroughs for any organizational challenge you specify, including six of the greatest challenges facing non-profit leaders today.
Here’s What You’ll Learn
Week 1 – Meet the Maegus
Conjuring Sustainability Out of Chaos
Have you ever had the experience of trying to drive in a blinding rainstorm or dense fog? Gripping the steering wheel a little tighter as you strained to see what was ahead, and the relief you felt as you relaxed when you could
finally see clearly again? Leading an organization can be like that these days, only the fog never lifts, and neither does the stress. This lesson contains your first gift: the one map that can show you the way through the complex challenges you face to the balanced and sustainable life you and your team deserve.
In this session you will…
Meet the Maegus, your first and most important guide, who has the uncommon power to discern the hidden architecture of dynamic change
Be introduced to six everyday superheroes, the nonprofit exemplars with whom we will be working throughout the course
Be introduced to the Six Levels of Leadership which will allow you to perceive patterns within chaos and enable you to recognize and harness the invisible forces driving your results
Learn to apply the Four Essential Keys to Personal Transformation that guarantee true and lasting personal change
Develop your Personal Learning Plan to identify the unique situational stress points, new leadership skills and specific organizational results you will accomplish in the Program
What’s possible…
As you exercise your newfound ability to analyze chaotic situations and reframe chronic problems to make them solvable, you will come away feeling calm, confident and in command of situations that used to confuse and baffle you. You will feel more relaxed and empowered than ever before as you take decisive new action to leap toward your chosen goals.
Week 2 – The Challenge of Balance
Embracing Emotional Wisdom for Health & Serenity
We all have friends and colleagues we are concerned about, whose lives are slipping out of balance. We fear they are working themselves to death — ticking time bombs of emotional distress and ill health. And no wonder. 
We care so deeply about the urgent, often desperate human needs of others that we address that we are easily seduced into making one personal sacrifice after another. This session is about developing emotional authenticity in order to achieve and model a balanced life.
In this session you will…
Meet Mimi, our everyday superhero who has the singular power to create a work/life balance that is genuinely sustainable
Learn the natural meaning and purpose of your primary emotions, and use The Emotional Compass to identify the most effective action you can take in any situation
Learn a step-by-step process to fine-tune your intuition for infallible guidance
Identify your own unique method to access your personal source of greater wisdom and profound peace
Learn how to bring the fullness of your faith to work as a potent, sustaining resource in a way that respects others
Learn the 3-part structure of your core values and how to align them with your actions
Learn how to quickly and completely find your way through any emotional upset, and profoundly deepen your experience of serenity, confidence and joy
Develop the precise emotional vocabulary to never be at a loss for words again
What’s possible…
Knowing the true purpose of your emotions, and with a mind both wide awake and calm, you will confidently access the experience of deep peace essential to sustaining a balanced life. Anxiety, frustration and weariness will melt away and you will naturally find yourself accomplishing more by doing less.
Week 3 – The Challenge of Understanding
Mastering the Art of Perfect Listening
Sometimes attempting to communicate can be like trying to give a pill to a cat: the other person just won’t take in important information and rejects all offers of help and support. 
No matter who the “cat” is in your organization, or who’s offering the pill, it can become so frustrating that we withdraw and avoid each other. Unless we find a way to re-establish communication our relationships are in jeopardy. This session focuses on how to listen with unprecedented precision to what others truly need in order to provide the specific understanding and support necessary for strong, effective working relationships.
In this session you will…
Meet Yuan-Mi, who demonstrates the power of Perfect Listening
Learn the 5 Keys to Perfect Listening and how to use them so others feel fully understood
Learn how to systematically communicate your message unambiguously every time
Learn how to discover what is uniquely and genuinely empowering for every member of your team and how to identify and provide the specific form of motivation that each individual on your team needs to succeed
Learn 5 sure-fire ways to deal with resistant people and provide effective support when someone can’t tell you what they need
Learn to spot hidden competition and quickly turn it into the genuine agreement necessary to form effective partnerships
Learn how to use the Values Integration Process to define and resolve value conflicts between colleagues
What’s possible…
Realizing the fruits of Perfect Listening you will experience the confidence and satisfaction of expressing yourself more precisely and completely than ever before, and the joy of providing understanding and support so complete and real that the people you care most about are motivated to rise to their personal best.
Week 4 – The Challenge of Generativity
Unleashing the Creative Power of Groups
An effective meeting is like a healthy heartbeat: with every beat, essential information and vital emotion are being pumped throughout the organization, defining and inspiring right action. A poorly conceived meeting, on the other hand, can ruin team morale, kill productivity, endanger partnerships and even undo hard-won progress. 
This session presents the essentials of group dynamics and teaches us how to design and facilitate meetings that unleash the creative power of your team while simultaneously enlivening and sustaining its members.
In this session you will…
Meet Grupus, the superhero who can unleash the wisdom and power of groups
Learn three techniques that are guaranteed to get twice the work done in half the time, including how to tap the best wisdom of the group mind in 10 minutes or less
Learn how to maximize engagement and drive ownership of results
Learn the essential Guidelines for Effective Dialogue needed to foster collaboration and manage conflict
Learn how to use the technology of Process Design to create meetings that are uncommonly efficient and uplifting
Learn how to tame domineering individuals and draw out reticent participants to ensure all voices are heard
Learn a proven process to bring teams through difficult transitions by achieving true closure on the past so people can embrace change and move fully into their future
What’s possible…
Empowered with the principles of intelligent meeting design and collaborative facilitation, your team will experience a new level of trust and productivity. When work is done in a good way you will enjoy the satisfaction of knowing your colleagues are sustained. Each meeting will be more than an assembly of people, it will be a gathering of souls.
Week 5 – The Challenge of Reputation
Engaging Community Resources through Inspired Storytelling
Donors give to causes they love, but only when they hear a compelling story that moves them to act on what they value. When President Kennedy promised to put a man on the moon he inspired an entire nation to action. Likewise, the best board members and volunteers are attracted to serve and contribute when they are inspired
by the promise of making a meaningful difference. Without a powerful message to convey your vision and mission you risk being invisible or forgotten by those who would sustain you. This session focuses on the art of the Epic Story to bring people together, inspire them and move them to action.
In this session you will…
Meet Medio, who knows the power of Epic Storytelling
Learn how to use the Epic Story Blueprint to craft and communicate your message
Learn the 3 Secrets to Securing Free Publicity, including how to get someone else to put your story on television
Learn the power of symbolic actions to broadcast your message
Learn how to generate positive gossip within your organization and in your community
Discover how to effectively respond to negative events in the life of your organization in order to gain respect and improve your social capital
What’s possible…
With your Epic Story in hand, your Board will be on message and your staff will be communicating confidently with the public. You and your team will experience the satisfaction of knowing that your reputation in the community is strong and you are easily attracting the best people and the greatest possible contributions to ensure that your organization continues to thrive.
Week 6 – The Challenge of Inclusion
Collaborating Across Power and Difference
Sincere efforts to develop collaborative relationships across cultural differences such as race and class all too often result only in continued doubt, 
misunderstanding and unresolved conflict. It is notoriously easy to devote time and energy to a diversity initiative, only to end up right back where we started (or even further behind). Good intentions and inspirational posters are not enough. This special 2-hour session introduces a time-tested model of inclusive diversity that is guaranteed to make the positive difference you want and deserve.
In this special 2-hour session you will…
Meet Valangwe, who has the power to understand and speak all languages
Learn to use the six-point Inclusive Climate Matrix to systematically develop the kind of environment you most need and want
Learn the essential Conditions for Effective Dialogue to create and maintain a safe space to learn about modern racism and other forms of contemporary injustice
Learn how to use Cultural Introductions to discover your own cultural identity and open learning dialogues that others feel good about
Learn to apply Cultural Group Analysis to strategically diversify your board and dramatically improve resource development
Learn how to avoid the five mistakes that offend people who are different from you, even when those differences are invisible to you
Learn the three things you must do to meet the expectations and win the respect of people who are different than you
PLUS! Special guest this week…
With this session you will meet Baba Wekesa Olatunji Madzimoyo, an old friend and one of the nation’s leading experts on diversity and inclusion. Wekesa is Co-Founder of Aya Educational Institute, a ground-breaking African-centered school and the creator of the Warriors, Healers and Builders Training.
What’s possible…
You will enjoy the confidence and peace that comes with knowing precisely who you are as a cultural being, exactly what is expected of you in mixed groups and what your best contribution to an inclusive environment can be. You will experience excitement because you trust that you have the skill to connect in a meaningful way with people who are different from you as well as to build alliances and partnerships that were not available to you before.
Week 7 – The Challenge of Efficiency
Designing Simple Systems for Breakthrough Sustainability
You don’t start a campfire by holding a blowtorch to a log. A single match flame on a piece of tinder is all you need to start a fire to keep you warm and cook your food. 
So why waste time with 6 people in a 1-hour meeting when 2 people for 10 minutes will suffice? An elegantly designed procedure is like finding the match instead of always reaching for the torch. Our focus in Week 7 is the discovery and design of the leanest possible systems that both work effectively and enliven the good people who use them.
In this session you will…
Meet I.T., our superhero colleague with the power to imagine and build elegant systems that help people grow, thrive and flourish
Receive a simple, powerful, time-saving Organizational Decision-Making Process that can be used immediately by everyone in your organization
Learn the biggest mistakes people make when designing new work systems and the most important questions to ask to avoid them
Learn when, where and how to secure the input and feedback you must have to effectively design humane policies, procedures and work systems
Learn how the 3 Secrets of Supervision will enable you to conduct genuinely empowering performance reviews in the shortest possible amount of time
What’s possible…
You will marvel at the creativity and artistry you and your team are employing to create efficient, empowering work systems. You will experience joy as you witness people feeling enlivened by simple policies and procedures that truly support them. Because of the foundation you have laid, and assured of your capability to continually create exciting new efficiencies, you are confident that your people and your organization will endure.
Week 8 – The Promise of Remembering
Applying Wisdom for Lasting Change
Congratulations! You and your crew have completed your heroic journey, returning home at last safe and sound, to share your story of 
hard-earned experience born of challenges overcome and problems solved. However, your newfound wisdom and skills will soon be forgotten unless you and your team also create an enduring way of remembering, teaching and applying what you’ve learned. In our final session you will learn how to systematically integrate the lessons of sustainable leadership into the fabric of your organization and the lives of your people.
In this session you will…
Identify the full set of hidden superskills available to you that are currently dispersed among your staff and colleagues
Learn how the powers of all six superheroes can be combined to lead culture change and resolve especially complex challenges
Develop a plan of action for the continued and enhanced sustainability of your organization
Define your preferred path and supports for continued learning and mastery
Identify and engage your personal peer-learning community to reinforce your practice in applying new knowledge and skills
What’s possible…
Having uncovered the previously hidden superpowers of your team and the potential of the Maegus in yourself, you will experience joy and relief from the burdens you were previously resigned to accept. You are thrilled and delighted by your ability to solve problems you did not know could be solved. You naturally bring out the best in everyone around you by consciously modeling heroic service without needless sacrifice.
Epic Leadership begins on
June 1st, 2015
Epic Leadership is a highly interactive, cohort-based program in which you will join a diverse, engaged learning community and build connections with other non-profit leaders across North America and the world.
You are invited to participate in our first live online course and help launch the Epic Leadership community. Here is your opportunity to meet other nonprofit leaders, share your emerging learnings, provide moral support, locate specific resources and more.
REGISTER NOW!
Regularly $1295
Join the BETA for $250
Course begins on April 28, 2015
Reserve your limited seat today!
Here’s What You’ll Receive
8 Live, Interactive Learning Sessions with Dr. Griggs
Through the 8 weekly sessions you will be introduced to the foundational pillars of Epic Leadership, how problems can be defined to make them solvable and how to make best use of resources. Each week Dr. Griggs will introduce you to an everyday superhero, a nonprofit avatar who will share with you a special skill you can use immediately to overcome real and specific obstacles that challenge you day in and day out.
Seven of the sessions will be 90 minutes in length and one will be a special 2 hour session with guest teacher Baba Wekesa Madzimoyo (Week 6), with the last ~30 minutes of each session reserved for interactive Q&A.
The live course sessions will be on Tuesdays at 8:30 pm Eastern Time / 5:30 pm Pacific Time beginning on April 28, 2015. The recording of each session will be made available within 24 hours so you won’t need to worry if you have to miss a live session.*
Mark your calendar now! Save these course dates:
April 28
May 5, 12, 19, 26
June 2, 9, 16
*Note: Each session will be recorded and you’ll have unlimited access to recordings of all of the course sessions following the live broadcast (listen online or download the mp3 files to your computer, iPod or other audio player).
Comprehensive Multimedia Course Workbook
Your comprehensive Course Workbook, prepared by Dr. Griggs, contains 75 pages of reading material, weekly homework exercises and accompanying instructional audio. As you move through the Epic Leadership Course, you will use the material in this workbook to enhance your understanding of the course content and help you put it into practice.
Dr. Griggs has also compiled over 100 pages of supplemental learning material for you to take the course concepts and teachings deeper, providing lasting value for your continued learning after completion of the course.
Personalized Learning Plan
As one of your first assignments in the Epic Leadership program, you will develop a detailed 5-page Personalized Learning Plan. Using a template developed by Dr. Griggs, you will specify in detail both the outcomes you would like to achieve for yourself, your team, and in your organization as well as the specific skills you or your team need to ensure those outcomes.
Collaborative Learning Community
A unique benefit of the Epic Leadership program is your access to a dedicated, cooperative learning community of your peers. As you go through the course, you will be able to gather and connect with other like-minded, service-oriented leaders to share your breakthroughs and insights and support each other in applying the principles and teachings.
You will also have convenient, one-click access to all of the course materials, including recordings of course learning sessions, through our custom online learning portal and social platform.
SIGN ME UP!
Regularly $1295
Join the BETA for $250
Course begins on April 28, 2015
Reserve your limited seat today!
Your Course Facilitator
As Founder and Principal of Griggs Leadership, Thomas Shelden Griggs, Ph.D. designs and facilitates high engagement executive leadership development programs
as vehicles to work with intractable organizational challenges and troubled executives. He is a specialist in conflict resolution and culture change with particular expertise in multicultural and cross-cultural dynamics and the application of chaos theory to organizational change. Thomas currently directs both on-site and online programs that serve organizational and community leaders around the world.
For over four decades Dr. Griggs has worked in every sector of the economy, from inside Fortune 50 companies to hand-in-hand with community organizations in the most impoverished regions of the United States. His unique expertise derives from study and experience in a variety of disciplines, including family systems therapy, acute psychiatric inpatient wards, Employee Assistance Programming, threat-of-violence management, critical incident stress debriefings and extensive training in the use of cultural group analysis. He has created and led three successful businesses prior to entering the distance learning field. He also knows how to play and loves to dance.
Dr. Griggs was formerly Area Director of Employee Assistance and Managed Mental Health Programs for Aetna Life & Casualty. He is currently President and CEO of New Science Consulting Group, Inc., and a Senior Consultant with VISIONS, Inc. for training and consulting in multicultural process in organizations across the U.S. and abroad.
After graduating from Duke University he received a Rockefeller Scholarship that permitted two years of graduate study at The Divinity School at Duke. He completed his first Masters degree in Psychotherapy and Social Change in a ground-breaking clinical psychology program funded by the Lilly Foundation in partnership with the University of San Francisco. He gained a second Masters and his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology of Palo Alto University, where he received an Ark Foundation grant for peace research and the Murray Tondow Outstanding Dissertation Award for his doctoral thesis, Moral Judgment in Opposing Responses to the Nuclear Arms Race. He has been on the adjunct faculty at Duke University and the University of Richmond.
When he is not in a writing retreat up in the Blue Ridge mountains he lives in downtown Raleigh with his faithful but eccentric cat, Makula.
ENROLL TODAY!
Regularly $1295
Join the BETA for $250
Course begins on April 28, 2015
Reserve your limited seat today!