I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking really deeply about my place in the world.
I need to know that I’m doing everything I can to shift us onto a better timeline.
With all of the catastrophic changes happening and on their way (including the wobbly bloody moon), it can be easy to sink into overwhelm and despair. Some antidotes to those feelings are community and action - which is where the project I’m about to describe comes in.
Here’s a quick video where the fab Sarah Adefehinti interviews me about what I’m doing, and who it’s for. Take a look.
If you
have a project or aspect of your work you’d like to investigate and get off the ground
feel a call to explore who you are as a leader and what your work needs to be for the next few years
want to dive deeply into something that’s going to grow you and your work
find it hard to get going on your own
crave a small community of smart and supportive peers
you might be interested in my Leadership Evolution Learning Marathon.
(Bursary places available)
OK. Here’s the vision.
You, me and 10 other leaders/changemakers spending six months together in a virtual cohort, all individually exploring learning/research questions connected to our work in the world.
I suspect lots of the questions will be themed around:
‘How do I use my skills/experience/heart/soul/power to be part of creating the change that’s needed in the world?’
or
‘Who do I want to be in the coming years?’.
Mine is currently something like,
‘How do use my interview project with climate and social justice leaders to catalyse profound transformation?’
Called a Learning Marathon, it’s a tried-and-tested format that’s more like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure mini Masters for people who can’t find a Masters programme that actually suits their needs (and who can afford a Masters anyway?).
I acknowledge that ‘marathon’ can sound exhausting but it’s more like a combination scaffold/retreat/dinner-with-friends/warm bath? But that’s harder to describe...
A 26-week Learning Marathon (26? marathon!) where we move together, but separately.
Who is this for?
I think you’ll find huge benefit in being part of this learning marathon if you fall into one of the following two camps.
(1) You’re someone who doesn’t really identify as a ‘leader’ but you are, or you deeply want to, make significant change in the world around - you just need some time to figure out what is yours to nurture and build.
(2) You have a lot of experience leading projects or organisations and you know that interdependence and leading from the edge of the circle is what the world needs but all theleadership development experiences out there are cheesy, exhausting or just neo-liberal/NLP/‘Lean In’ blah-blah when, HELLO, the world is falling off a cliff. Welcome to creating your own learning journey!
"It's lonely at the top."
It’s a truism, but heading something up can be isolating. It can be hard to find people who it’s safe to talk to about the challenges ,but who also get it.
Amongst all the unending tasks, it’s also incredibly challenging to prioritise both your own learning and your aspirations to do this ‘leadership’ thing differently.
This is a large part of why I’m looking forward to both hosting and being a participant in the Learning Marathon that kicks off in September.
You’ll get six months to explore a question that’s sitting deep in your bones but, maybe more importantly, you’ll do that work in great company of 11 other people - including me!
As a white, queer, non-disabled, neurotypical trans person, I work hard to make sure that any spaces I host are designed as somewhere where People of Colour, LGBTQIA+ people, women, non-binary people + other non-cis-men and disabled people can relax.
Everyone is welcome, but not at the expense of the comfort of marginalised people. We’ll build in whatever is needed in terms of access needs, for people with both visible and less visible conditions
We’ll talk a lot about how we’re going to work together but this is some of where I start from:
White people BS will not be tolerated, including talking over/for People of Colour or responding defensively when called in/out.
Reverse racism is not a real thing. Racism is a structural and ideological oppression that only goes in one direction.
People are the gender they say they are and we use the pronouns people request.
Sex work is work and sex workers deserve respect and love.
Disabled people are not brave or inspiring for just living their lives and access is all of our responsibility.
No Tories/US Republicans.
If that puts you off, well, this probably isn’t the place for you.
Rhythms
We kick off all together - spending a whole weekend learning about each other, our learning questions, our needs, and about the journey we’re embarking on.
We come together every two weeks for a meetup hosted by one of us on a topic someone has offered and we’ve requested (12 participants = 12 workshops!), which brings an incredible multi-disciplinary richness to the journey.
Just when you might feel like you need a boost, we have two Power Up days. Power Up days you show everyone where you’re at, what challenges you have, and get (nicely facilitated) feedback from the other 11 brilliant hearts in the room (plus sometimes invited guests).
In total, we have two months of exploring, two months of developing, and two months leading to showcasing where you got to. A great rhythm that keeps momentum.
We each have a buddy for three months, who can be your accountability partner/cheerleader/coach/whatever-you-both-decide. You swap to another buddy after three months.
Every few weeks we have a Get Shit Done Sunday, where we all get together, check in with what we’re working on, then work alongside each other, with chances to chat/ask questions/get support, or just, well, get. shit. done.
And, of course, a lively chat hosted somewhere we all approve (like, a WhatsApp group and/or a Slack channel).
At the end of the six months, we have a public showcase to show how far we’ve gotten with our learning question, whatever it has morphed into. You can invite friends, family, colleagues, funders to see what you’ve actually been up to for the last half a year!
Pretty much everyone ends up with a different learning question than they started with, and, indeed, in a different place and maybe as a different person, then they expected at the beginning).
Fees
Fees are between £1650 - £750, for the whole six months, depending on what you’re earning. That works out to be between £275 - £125 a month, if you’re paying monthly.
Partial and full bursaries are also available, plus I’m open to other, non-monetary types of exchange.
Basically, if you have the buffer, you’re partially paying to allow people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to be part of the group.
If you don’t have the cash, don’t let numbers get in the way of applying. We’ll work it out between the two of us!
Full details on logistics and fees are in the info pack. See below!
Magic
I have participated in a Learning Marathon and, honestly? It totally changed my life.
Utterly shifted my perspective on who I am and what I’m able to do. And, yes, I was at times grumpy, reluctant and (thought I was) lost along the way, because I’m actually not great in groups, generally. But the magic carried me through. Not all who wander are lost, and all that.
The relationships we forged are still going strong, several years later.
It’s magic. It’s just magic.
My role
My role is two-fold.
To be a member of the cohort, alongside everyone else, contributing to and receiving the peer-to-peer magic.
Initially, to carefully curate the cohort - making sure we have an amazing mix of brilliant people who are in it for the long haul. Then it’s my job to hold the rhythms of the Learning Marathon as the host, supporting you in planning your workshops, exploring your learning question and generally negotiating the whole six months.
Unusually for me, I’m not teaching or training, but a peer amongst peers.
Curious?
If this all calls to you, download a
detailed information pack with dates and costs and stuff by clicking this button >>>
If you’re ready to apply, click this button which will take you to a Google form >>>
If you’d like to book in a call with me to talk through if this is right for you, go here.
And if you’d like to invite other people to apply, feel free to share!
Applications for the 11 places are open now and close midnight on 16th August (in your timezone!)
FAQs
“I’m not sure I can afford the fees. Can I still apply?”
Yes! The fees are organised so those currently with more access to funds pay more and those currently with less, pay less. I’m super chilled about the fee. It’s important you pay something every month (or in a lump sum) so that you have some ‘skin in the game’.
It’s more of an energy thing than an economic thing. What I think is important is that you pay the maximum you can that doesn’t cause you stress or tension. I am TOTALLY AGNOSTIC about the number. Just type it into the application form.
I get that how much you value the Learning Marathon might not correspond to how much ‘money’ you can pay right now. It just needs to be more than nothing.
“My learning question isn’t totally clear. Can I still apply?”
Yes! Your initial learning question is just a starting point. If you’re like pretty much everyone on every Learning Marathon, as you move through the first few weeks and months,, your question will shift and change. This is totally normal. You just need a place to jump off from, a direction to head in.
“I’m neurodiverse and/or have access needs which affect how much I can read, or how much time I can spend on Zoom. Can I still apply?”
Yes! A bunch of people with different access needs have applied and I will make sure it’s as accessible a space for everyone. There’s very little reading required by the way, and, if that’s a thing for you, very few boring bits. For me, doing a Learning Marathon is being able to just do the juicy bits of what you want to look at, and nothing else.
“The thought of a ‘buddy’ makes me go cold.”
Does thinking of them as a ‘peer coach’ help? Because that’s what they are. Basically after meeting everyone, you privately let me know who you’d be open to working with, and I match you up. You then work out your relationship with them - how much you want to check in and and how. Then after three months, we all swap over.
“What’s the commitment?”
There’s two ways of looking at this.
First the infrastructure:
There’s the Kick Off Weekend (18th/19th September) which will be most of two days, 11.00-6.00 pm UK time.
At Month Two and Month Four, there’s a Power Up Day on either a Saturday or a Sunday, where we share our progress and ask for input.
Every other week, there’s a 3-hour workshop run by one of us (6.00-9.00 pm UK time).
At the end there’s a Showcase (format to be decided by us!) and a Finish Line Weekend (a mirror image of the Kick Off).
Flexible elements are your relationship with your Peer Coach (see, that’s better isn’t it?), two coaching sessions with me, and ad-hoc Get Shit Done co-working sessions.
So those are the different elements that combine to make your commitment to the group journey.
Secondly, well, there’s the time you spend actually exploring your learning question. And that is entirely up to you and your life. This is your journey. You get to choose.
Including everything we kind of say five hours a week on average, but that’s the roughest of rough guides.
The one thing I would say is that you need to be as sure as you can be that you’re all in for the full six months.
Interested?
I’m Meg Lightheart, and in addition to being the service manager for a new NHS trans healthcare pilot, I’m also a coach who specialises in the ways that interdependent leaders handle complexity and mess.