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: 16 powerful new leadership skills; 16 stressors eliminated; 16 priority organizational results.
-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.
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.
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.
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 the greatest challenges facing non-profit leaders today.
Here’s What You’ll Learn
Lesson 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.
Lesson 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
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.
Lesson 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 Six Keys to Perfect Listening and how to use them so others feel fully understood
Learn Five 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
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.
Lesson 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 the essential Guidelines for Effective Dialogue needed to foster collaboration, minimize unnecessary conflict and tame domineering individuals
Learn how to use the technology of Process Design to create uplifting meetings that maximize engagement, draw out reticent participants to ensure all voices are heard and drive ownership of results
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
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.
Lesson 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 understands the extraordinary power of organizational culture and public opinion to attract and engage community resources
Learn to create the climate and image you want by generating positive gossip, taking symbolic action and effectively responding to negative events
Learn how to use the Epic Story Blueprint to craft and communicate your message to your people and to the world
Learn the 3 Secrets to Securing Free Publicity so the media pros will deliver your message to the world
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.
Lesson 6 – The Challenge of Inclusion
Collaborating Across Power and Difference
A sustainable organization depends on genuine collaboration between individuals and groups of different cultural backgrounds and identities, where people are not merely respectful of each other but truly appreciative of the value that differences bring. However, good intentions and inspirational posters are not enough to develop collaborative relationships. Sincere efforts 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). This session introduces a time-tested model of intercultural competency and inclusivity that is guaranteed to make the positive difference you want and deserve.
In this expanded session you will…
Meet Valangwe, who sees the invisible histories we all carry and has the power to create the conditions for healing and genuine collaboration as she navigates the world of cultural differences.
Learn Six Core Competencies essential to systematically develop yourself and your people to effectively lead your inclusive diversity initiative.
Learn the 12 Critical Success Factors that will guide you and allow you to measure your success as you create a respectful, affirming environment in your organization.
Learn to implement the Conditions for Effective Dialogue in order 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 and honor your own cultural identity and invite others into constructive learning dialogues.
Learn how you and your Board can apply Cultural Group Analysis to open up dramatically more productive strategies of fundraising and resource development
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.
Lesson 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 Itienne, our superhero colleague with the power to imagine and build elegant systems that help people grow, thrive and flourish
Learn Process Innovation Guidelines to ask the most important questions, secure essential input and avoid the biggest mistakes when designing new policies, procedures and work systems.
Learn a simple, powerful, time-saving Organizational Decision-Making Process that can be used immediately by everyone in your organization
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.
Lesson 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. Your newfound wisdom and skills may soon be forgotten, however, unless you and your team also create an enduring way of remembering, teaching and applying what you’ve learned. In this session we will focus on systematically integrating the lessons of sustainable leadership into your organization and the lives of your people, as well as realizing the combined power of your newly assembled superhero team to effect lasting transformational change in your organization and the world!
In this session you will…
Assemble your own team of everyday superheroes and practice leading their combined talents to overcome exceptionally complex problems
Ensure your new knowledge and skills are sustained by articulating the Six Levels of Indisputable Evidence that prove your success
Enjoy the profound effects of deeply honoring your team by powerfully retelling the story of your Epic Leadership journey.
We will conclude the course with a special 2-hour LIVE call to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments and learnings of your new Epic Leadership community and together we will create the better world we know is possible!
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
Oct 5th, 2016
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.
Here’s What You’ll Receive
12 Hours Instructional Audio from Dr. Griggs
The core teaching of Epic Leadership will be delivered in approximately 90 minutes of recorded teaching audio for each of the 8 Lessons of the course. Dr. Griggs will cover in depth the most important concepts, tools and skills in these audio lectures, which are supplemented by written content and exercises in the workbook.
150+ Page Course Workbook with Readings and Exercises
Dr. Griggs has also compiled extensive supplemental material for Epic Leadership to accompany the Instructional Audio. The Epic Leadership workbook contains more precise explorations of some concepts and tools presented in the instructional audio, as well as some additional material to provide added context and value. Each Lesson also contains a number of key Exercises for participants to apply the principles and tools presented in each Lesson, either by themselves or with their work group.
16 Live Interactive Application Sessions with Dr. Griggs
Every week of our 16 week course, we will hold an hour-long Live Application Session where participants will bring their challenges, issues, questions and examples of the content of Epic Leadership at work in their lives.
A central principle of Epic Leadership is Learning While Working; that our learning is not divorced from the “other” work we are doing in our personal and professional lives but integrated such that the real challenges we face are the raw material for the learning process.
These Live Application Sessions will be held on Wednesdays beginning with our Welcome Session on Oct 5th at 8:30pm Eastern (5:30pm Pacific) and then alternating between Wednesday mornings/afternoons at 1:00pm Eastern (10:00am Pacific) and Wednesday evenings at 8:30 Eastern (5:30pm Pacific)**.
*Note: Each of these Live Application Sessions will be recorded AND you will have the ability to submit questions ahead of time in the event you are not able to attend live.
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.
Small Group Feedback and Support
An Integral part of the Epic Leadership experience is engaging with a work group. Whether you join as part of an intact work group or are assigned to a new group, you will have the chance to engage regularly with your group on course content and exercises provide feedback and perspective to help deepen your learning.
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.
Private Learning Portal
Everything in the course will be easily available through our private course learning site. You will have convenient access to all of the course materials, including audio recordings and workbook files, discussion forums where you can engage with other members of the Epic Leadership Community, as well as access to live application call sessions and recordings.
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 on the road Thomas lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains north of Asheville, North Carolina, often in the company of Buzz, the Plotthound.
The Power of Teams
We assume that most of you are already working in groups. This course is designed to support intact teams and workgroups, both in the process of learning and in leading organizational change. To that end, we are offering a $200 discount to encourage organizations registering teams or workgroups of 3 or more individuals in Epic Leadership.
In Partnership with ManKind Project USA
ManKind Project is a global network of nonprofit charitable and educational organizations, with the stated purpose to “support men in leading meaningful lives of integrity, accountability, responsibility, and emotional intelligence.” In recognition of both our long-standing relationship and this current partnership, we are pleased to provide preferred tuition in the form of a $200 discount for contributing members of ManKind Project USA.
ENROLL TODAY!
Epic Leadership tuition is $795 per person
$200 discount if registering as part of an intact work group!
$200 discount for contributing members of ManKind Project USA!
Course begins on Oct 5th, 2016
Reserve your seat today!
Money Back Guarantee
If for any reason within 30 days of the course start date you decide the course has not delivered on its promises, we will refund your full tuition less an administrative processing fee.
In the event you need to drop the course for other reasons please contact us at [email protected] to discuss any accommodations that might allow you to continue. If we are unable to find a solution and you need to withdraw from the course more than 30 days after start date, we will work with you on a case-by-case basis to determine refund or transferable-credit options.