Transformation Mastery

Next cohort starts October 2024! Early applications start Now!!

The Integral Sensemaking & Action™ Path to Organizational Transformation

Led and Facilitated by Michael Spayd & Randolf Speigner, with additional support and guest faculty.

Context of the Program

It is with excitement and humility that we invite you to apply to our fourth mastery-based Cohort for Enterprise Coaches, entitled Transformation Mastery: The Integral Sensemaking Path to Enterprise Transformation (ICE-EC).

When we coach teams, the basic distinctions of teaching/mentoring and professional coaching/facilitation — embodied in the original Agile Coaching Institute (ACI) Coach Competency Model — are powerful and sufficient. As we move from coaching teams to coaching organizations, however, everything changes: the stakes, the complexity, and the competencies required of us. This passage into the larger organizational sphere is not merely a matter of “scaling”.... Such complexity requires not just a new set of parameters; it requires a whole new range of epistemologies — ways of knowing and perspective-taking on the world — as well as a whole new level of competency and ability to be with complexity — a new way of being-in-the-world. In sum, it takes a different relationship between mind, heart and spirit.

This Cohort program is designed to be an ongoing learning and developmental community, offering you structure, support, challenge and holding in your unique path to mastery.

Our Approach

The Cohort is designed to help you develop a set of enterprise coach competencies, oriented around an advanced set of distinctions founded on an integrated approach that we call Integral Sensemaking and Action™. This new approach draws deeply from Spayd's work (Agile Transformation: Using the Integral Agile Transformation Framework to Think and Lead Differently), the complexity work of Glenda Eoyang at Human Systems Dynamics Institute, the work of deliberate and collective sensemaking (e.g., Weick, Ken Wilber’s Integral metatheory, Kegan & Lahey’s An Everyone Culture, Hamman's Evolvagility, Rebel Wisdom podcasts, etc.), and all pulled together using the Integral model.

Four core ways of knowing — or epistemologies — each grounded in a particular practice discipline, distinguish this framework:

Empiricism: the 'scientific method' applies to observable and measurable phenomena such as behaviors, actions, practices and results. This way of knowing is through observable and repeatable experiments, and action cycles. This is a powerful way of knowing, but tends to be elevated in the business and scientific world as the only valid way of knowing, whereas from an Integral perspective, each of the four epistemologies are partially true, and complementary.

Complexity: applies to much of what we experience as a VUCA world, in which traditional linear causality no longer applies. Further, our inability to make this shift in paradigm prevents us embracing the world as it is. The classical (Newtonian) physics and traditional organizational and management theory, require an entirely new, more highly dimensional explanatory framework. The core skill here is working with the new logic of complex adaptive systems (CAS), and systems thinking.

Phenomenology: a way of knowing based on an acute observation of our subjective, inner experience, including beliefs, feelings, and subtle thought sequences, and relying on the structures and process of our deep inner meaning-making that help us make sense of our world.

Systemic Phenomenology: applies a similar acute observation and understanding to the intersubjective experience of being-in-relationship, being a member of various systems, and the rules and psychological structure of those systems. We examine the values, perspectives and common constraints of our shared relationship consciousness, and what makes relationships satisfying and generative, or dysfunctional, as well as how to distinguish our systemic awareness from our individual consciousness.

Finally, a deeper understanding of sensemaking — in ourselves and in others — is essential as we activate our own capability across these four epistemologies, and as we come to grasp the dynamics of self-organized systems and how to effectively lead in the arena of transformative change.

 

Intent of the Program

The Transformation Mastery Program is a long-term community of practice focused on achieving mastery in our approach to organizational transformation. (The fact that some members of past cohorts continue to meet after the program ends is evidence of the connection created.)

The overall intention of the program is for you to have an experience of yourself as having Mastery in your role as transformational leader, with real-world evidence to support that. Your portfolio of evidence may give a pragmatic solidity to your experience.

To ensure industry integrity, and to allow outside oversight, the program is structured around the ICAgile Enterprise Agile Coach track, culminating in the ICAgile Expert in Enterprise Coaching (ICE-EC) credential. If this cert is not important to you, we can help you customize the program without it, so long as your intention is real-life mastery, not merely a chance to "hang out” with people who are your peers and do some cool learning.

 

Journey of the Program

The underlying structure of the course is designed to facilitate the learning process on multiple levels: informing — with new and challenging concepts, practices, and techniques — and transforming — with new possibilities in your way of being, as well as your inner attitude in taking your next wise action.

The program is designed to provide both the concepts, skills, and techniques, as well as the deeper inner capabilities needed to fully embody the competencies that are at the heart of enterprise transformation. An organic part of the program is that each participant comes face-to-face with those parts of themselves which have historically limited their capacity for genuinely powerful and empowering leadership. We really don’t make this sh*t up — it just happens naturally.

Toward this end, the program is structured as a deliberately developmental environment—a powerful learning environment that provides the support, challenge, and learning tools needed to support your horizontal learning, and also your vertical development. Your integrity and engagement in the program are key to the overall quality of the container. In this program, you are asked to give your all.

Essential Format & Logistics

·  Virtual Intensive - for this our fourth cohort, we have decided to conduct the 5 day virtual intensive after the initial 3 cohort sessions (see below). The Intensive is split across two weeks. Full attendance for all sessions is essential.

·  Leadership Circle debrief - during the intensive, you will receive the results of your Leadership Circle 360 assessment, which we will guide you in setting up to get invaluable feedback on your leadership. This becomes the basis of your personal leadership development plan, a core component of program effectiveness

·  Cohort Sessions - Fifteen 2-hour sessions for the full Cohort will be scheduled on Fridays, approximately every other week. The program completes in October 2024. In order to preserve the quality of the developmental container that is at the heart of this program, you must attend all cohort sessions, and can miss no more than three sessions in total.

·  Triad Praxis Pods - there will be 10-12 sessions required, self-scheduled by the triad, for skill practice, shadow work, accountability and support.

·  Mentoring – You will have up to four 1-on-1 sessions with a mentor who has been through the ICE-EC process, who will guide you through the process of building your competencies and act as an advisor as you prepare the artifacts (recordings, documents, interviews, etc.) you will need for your final assessment.

·  Competency Assessments – At the end of the program, you will be assessed by the two program leaders (Michael Spayd & Randolf Speigner) on your real enterprise coach work, against our program competencies (which meet and exceed ICAgile enterprise coach competencies). These assessments require that you have a "focal system" where you can work at an organizational level (not necessarily the CXO level, but also not just lots of teams with no real organizational scope).

The Competencies

The following are the Integral Sensemaking competencies, which map to those from ICAgile’s Expert in Enterprise Coaching (ICE-EC) certification.

Developing Self & Others

1. Coach holds their own sense-making complexity as their most important tool of transformation (self as instrument).

2. Holds Leadership capability, at all levels, as key to the transformation process.

Organizational Agility

3. Given the organizational client is a complex adaptive system with fractal properties, is able to catalyze the emergence of organizational agility from that perspective.

4. Can effectively teach, mentor and advise in business agility and business mastery.

Working with Systems

5. Holds the organizational client as a system (takes a systemic view).

6. Has multiple enterprise coaching stances available to them, and fluidly shifts between such stances based on client need.

7. Holds their transformation work as worldwork.

Integral Change Practitioner

8. Is fluent in Integral Sensemaking Theory & Practice

9. Holds change as a natural but essentially uncontrollable human and organizational process.

10. Is a skilled Integral & Adaptive Change practitioner (OD).

 

Who Would Benefit from This Program?

1.     Current (or aspiring) Enterprise Coaches wishing to extend their skills / competencies and embodied presence as transformational leaders, gaining a broader, more systemic picture of organizational agility, and seeing how their own sensemaking can be used to increase the possibility of transformation.

2.     Organizational Change Agents such as Transformation Leads who wish to gain deeper insight, and develop deep skillfulness, in helping create the leadership and organizational culture needed to fully succeed with catalyzing organizational agility.

 

Outcomes from Your Participation

By participating fully in this program, you can expect a significant upgrade in your actual competence in exercising the tasks of Enterprise Coaching. This is not a program for novices; it is a mastery program. Passing the assessments will be challenging, but rewarding and deeply satisfying.

·  You will learn and gain facility in key practices of organization development (e.g. systems entry, readiness assessment, change design, etc.) and how to bring about their application within an adaptive frame.

·  You will have immersed yourself in — and have practical ways to integrate — the distinctions and practices of adaptive action complex adaptive change at the organizational level, as a way to equip organizations in which you lead with an expanded ability to perform in the face of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

·    You will increase your skillfulness in the arena of relationship, communication, and group dynamics, finding yourself more effective in your ability to facilitate groups and teams toward increased relationship intelligence and high performance.

·    You will have gained a more expanded vocabulary, through immersion in Integral Theory and Sensemaking, for understanding and more effectively dealing with the kinds of challenges you face as you endeavor to expand agility capability across your organization.

·    You will have established a deep community of shared learning, insight and connection from which you will be able to draw support and inspiration for months, if not years, to come.

·    You will experience a significant upgrade in your own inner leadership, which you will be able to readily observe and even measure for yourself. Along the way, you will find yourself with an increasing level of confidence and manifested ability in your leadership,

·    Assuming full participation in all sessions and "passing" of the required assessments, you will achieve the ICAgile "Expert" designation in Enterprise Agile Coaching (ICE-EC).

·    Assuming the above — plus basic mastery of our Integral Sensemaking approach — you will also receive The Collective Edge's Integral Sensemaking & Action Certified Practitioner (ISCP).

Expectations of the Program

Transformation Mastery is obviously a deep and demanding program. We want you to be clear about the expectations for entry into the program. Here’s what we expect:

·   You have been granted the relevant ICAgile Enterprise Coaching credentials: ICP-ENT and ICP-CAT (exceptions can be made as to timing of these credentials, as long as they are completed).

 ·   You have some previous exposure to the Integral framework, preferably to the Integral Agile Transformation Framework as articulated in the book Agile Transformation (Spayd & Madore). It is also recommended that you have some exposure to ideas about sensemaking, individual and collective.

 ·  You have Agile Coach experience with multiple teams, and have done at least some work at the organizational level -- e.g., HR, Leadership Development, cross-organizational work practices and prioritization, coaching/advising senior management (in other words, beyond working solely with the first level manager of an Agile team).

 ·  You have reasonably significant exposure to professional coaching training, such as what you might have had in an ICE-AC program, or a professional coach training program. At minimum, some exposure to professional coaching, such as that which you may have encountered in the Coaching Agile Teams class or some similar program which integrates professional coaching in a non-trivial manner.

 ·  To start, you need to have a focal client where you can begin working at an organizational level. We also realize that you may change jobs/clients during the program. To become certified, you MUST have demonstrable evidence of competent work at an organizational level. In a worst-case scenario, you could provide this evidence after the program end when you get a new client (within six months of program ending). We will certainly work with you if this happens, and others have survived this transition. To certify you, we need clear evidence of competence as an Enterprise Coach.

Virtual Format

All Intensive and Cohort sessions will be held on Zoom. You will need good internet access and a reasonably quiet environment. Please plan to be available during all these times.

With a virtual offering of a transformational program such as this, there are certain basic protocols which will assure a safe container, such as each participant having their own video camera, staying fully present during sessions, and scheduling other work to not interrupt program hours.

 

Program Details

Overview of the Intensive

·      Day 1 - "Sensemaking & the Self / Self as Instrument"

·      Day 2 - "Integral Deep Dive & Becoming an Integral Change Practitioner"

·      Day 3 - "Complexity & Self-Organizing Systems"

·      Day 4 - "Integral Disciplines & Working Across Quadrants & Altitudes"

·      Day 5 - "Realizing Organizational Agility"

Overview of Biweekly Cohort Sessions

·  Fifteen sessions (2 hours each, except first & last which are 3 hours) will be convened approximately every two weeks.

·  The sessions break down into the following three phases:

·   Phase I (Sessions 1-5): Foundations: Deliberate Sensemaking, Leadership Development Plan; Systemic Awareness; Systems Entry & Assessment; Approach to Complexity

·   Phase II (Sessions 6-12): Praxis. During this phase you will be bringing the context of your focal system into the cohort in terms of what you’re specifically grappling with: What challenging? What are you beginning to see that you didn’t see before? And each session, we will hold in awareness one of the competencies, either as foreground or as background. During this phase, you may gain the greatest depth of learning, primarily through the challenges you face with your focal system — all of which becomes fuel for the overall learning journey of the entire cohort.

·   Phase III (Sessions12-14): Integration. During this phase, you begin to bring the bulk of your self development and practice with your focal system together into an integrated learning.

·   Close (Session 15): This session is dedicated to completion of the program for us.

 

Cost

$7,800 ($2,400 Initial Payment - paid in registration system (invoicing also possible), plus 8 monthly payments of $675, paid by monthly invoice). For students who take our Mastercamp, we offer a $1000 discount for a total of $6,800. There will also be a fee if you wish the ICAgile competency certification (paid to them) of $500.

Cohort size is 14-20.

 

Cancellation Policy

Due to the nature of this program, if you cancel more than four calendar weeks prior to the start of the program, a full refund will be offered, minus an administrative fee. If you cancel within the four-week timeframe, refunds will be considered based on circumstances, assuming your spot can be filled. A cancellation can always be used as a credit for upcoming programs.

 

Entry into the Program

Entry into the Transformation Mastery Program is by application only.

If this program feels right for you, please apply online (here: https://www.the-collective-edge.com/transformation-mastery-info-and-application). Take your time filling out the application. And feel free to request a brief coaching session to explore the possibilities and whether this is the right fit for you.

 

Your Program Leaders

Michael Spayd has been a pioneer in the Agile world for over 20 years, bringing in thinking and methods from professional coaching, leadership development (LD), organization development (OD), and deep Integral and systemic methods relevant to the transformation of self, culture, and leadership in service of organizational agility. Michael is known as a transformational teacher and practitioner, with a deep ability to facilitate both compelling and transformational learning environments.

Michael is a serial entrepreneur, having co-founded the Agile Coaching Institute, Trans4mation, and most recently, The Collective Edge. He has taught, coached and mentored several thousand Agile coaches, managers and leaders in his 20 years in the field. He is the coauthor of a highly anticipated book, Agile Transformations: Using the Integral Agile Transformation Framework to Think and Lead Differently, which was published December 2020.

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Randolf Speigner - In his commitment to human transformation, Randolf co-founded cogrow.space, after two decades of working with leaders, teams and business units in global enterprises, to bring a different voice to enterprise transformation work. As a global citizen, he collaborates with thought leaders in human transformation. Randolf takes great satisfaction in offering his guidance to practitioners as they realize their full potential and capacity in regenerative transformation. He is committed to design and lead cohorts for teams of leaders and change agents to enable effective change in their organizations. Randolf was a participant in the first ICE-EC cohort, and is happy to be a member of The Collective Edge

teaching team.