Leading by Convening: Habits of Collaboration across Roles and Settings

In an era defined by complexity and interdependence, traditional governance roles are evolving. This workshop offers a transformative space for board members and leaders to step into a new mode of leadership - one grounded in convening rather than commanding.

Using the “Leading by Convening” framework, participants will explore how to build and sustain social learning spaces that foster trust, transparency and collaboration across boundaries. You’ll engage in deep dialogue, real-world case clinics and hands-on practices designed to build leadership capacities rooted in systems convening and value creation.

This is not about adding more to your plate, it’s about doing the work differently, together.

What Is Systems Convening?

Systems Convening is a leadership practice that intentionally brings together diverse stakeholders across roles, sectors and levels to address complex challenges. It creates purposeful social learning spaces where collective dialogue, shared ownership and co-creation drive sustainable, system-wide change beyond traditional silos. It's a mindset and practical approach for leading by fostering connections and collective action in interconnected environments.

What You’ll Experience:

Over three days of immersive sessions, reflective dialogue and collaborative learning, you will:

• Explore the mindset and practices of systems convening as a leadership strategy
• Learn how to create value through stakeholder engagement, not just oversight
• Engage in real-world case clinics, Fishbowl dialogues and storytelling exercises
• Design a value creation agenda that brings systems convening into your organisation
• Develop a practical action plan to build and sustain social learning spaces

This workshop is designed to be strategic, experiential and deeply reflective.

Who Is This For:

This retreat is designed for:

• Board members and trustees
• Senior and mid-level leaders committed to collaborative leadership
• Change agents, conveners and team leads across sectors
• Leaders in education, healthcare, tech, public service and mission-driven networks

You’ll find this valuable if you want to:

• Lead by building authentic, cross-functional partnerships
• Create social learning spaces that generate real value
• Shift from hierarchical control to collaborative influence
• Support systems-level change with practical tools and reflective insight

Key Outcomes:

You will leave with:

• A clear understanding of systems convening and its leadership potential
• A working value creation agenda tailored to your context
• An actionable plan to convene and sustain learning spaces across boundaries
• Real examples and tools to communicate the value of this work to your board or leadership
• Access to a peer learning network and optional post-retreat coaching

Contextual Foundations

The retreat draws on 25 years of experience in authentic stakeholder engagement, rooted in the “Partnership Way” developed through the IDEA Partnership and the U.S. Department of Education. It embraces a hybrid leadership model that balances top-down authority with bottom-up influence, promoting systems convening as a critical leadership strategy for navigating today’s interconnected and complex systems.