Guiding Change Training
Part 2: Guiding Groups on a Journey of Change
Limited spots available!
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"In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too), those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed."
Charles Darwin
As a leader guiding your team, organization, or community through change, you face complex challenges—whether it's resistance to the unknown, managing diverse group dynamics, or navigating changes in structures that guide how you work and relate to one another. This intermediate hybrid (online + retreat-based) workshop is designed to meet you at the intersection of these challenges, equipping you with the tools, strategies, and frameworks necessary to foster true collective transformation.
The intensive focuses on the unique complexities of leading groups through meaningful change, offering new insights into how to lead your team or community through transitions that go beyond superficial shifts.
Participants will learn to navigate the common obstacles that arise when guiding collective transformation—such as resistance, fear of the unknown, and the deep-rooted habits that can stall progress. This program provides practical strategies to help you guide your team through these challenges, transforming resistance into resilience and fear into opportunity for growth.
Through a blend of comprehensive online learning and an immersive retreat experience, you will explore how to create environments that support deep, lasting change. Using Open Circle’s frameworks for group transformation, this course provides hands-on experience in guiding teams through cultural shifts, collective decision-making, and fostering collaboration in times of uncertainty. You’ll gain the tools to build trust, facilitate feedback, and ensure every voice is heard as you lead your team toward a shared vision.
By the end of this program, you will be able to:
- Guide collective transformation with confidence, addressing both the surface-level changes and the deeper vertical shifts that foster lasting growth.
- Understand the life cycle of groups and how to recognize when real transformation is needed, moving beyond superficial changes to cultivate deeper alignment.
- Navigate cultural shifts and group dynamics, helping your team or community adjust to change with resilience and purpose.
- Support individuals and the collective through transitions, ensuring alignment with shared goals and fostering adaptability during uncertain times.
- Build group cohesion, trust, and collaboration, using tools to guide teams through conflict, feedback loops, and collective decision-making.
- Foster environments where authentic transformation can occur, developing strategies that empower groups to grow stronger through change.
Whether you’re leading a team through a strategic transition, managing a community in flux, or guiding an organization through cultural change, this course provides the practical tools and insights to help you navigate the complexity of collective transformation. You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of group dynamics, practical strategies for fostering resilience, and the confidence to lead your team through meaningful change.
PROGRAM TIMELINE
Online Curriculum:
Available February 1st 2025
CONTENT OUTLINE
RETREAT:
Dates: October 14-19 2025
Arrive by 7PM, October 13th
Workshop ends: 11AM October 19th
Venue: Lost Sierra Retreat Center
4812 Portola-McLears Road. Portola, CA 96122
Accommodation, food and travel:
Shared or Private Lodging available: $80 - $150 per night
Camping available; $20 per night
Details provided on registration.
Tuition Cost: $1995
Online Course Curriculum Overview
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Welcome to the course!
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Chapter 1: Introduction to Guiding Change in Groups
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Chapter 2: Review principles of Guiding Change
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Chapter 3: Self Transforming Groups
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Chapter 5: The Life Cycle of Groups
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Chapter 4: Ecosystem view of group dynamics
At a glance...
- Comprehensive online curriculum incl. videos, podcasts, books and lessons
- 6 day practicum with Open Circle Founders in the wild mountains and rivers of Oregon
- Invaluable Tools and Skills for Immediate Application Within Your Work
What Do People Say About Working With Open Circle?
“As a leadership consultant and master coach with 30+ years of experience working all over the world and facilitating groups, teams, and circles, I had some trepidation about going into this training as a participant. Would the workshop challenge me? Would it hone my understanding of power relations in facilitation? Would I learn something about myself? Would I develop new and useful skills? Would it embody a truly experiential, dialogical, improvisational and exploratory ethos? Would I find the workshop leaders mature, stimulating and inspiring? The answer to each of these questions was a resounding 'YES!' Miriam and Adam held the space and danced between their different roles with clarity and grace. I found them to be honest, kind, insightful leaders who brought finesse and depth to each moment of the work. I look forward to continuing the journey together.”
Sara 'Zora' Boas, MCC, MA, RDMP, Founding Director, Boas Partners
“I would recommend Open Circle's training because one can learn a creative way of providing a space with care to enter a dialogue that connects participants/trainers in personal ways of finding human commonalities that form conscious ways of challenging beliefs.”
Carolynne Abdullah, Racial Equity and Inclusion Consultant
“Going into this trip, I was hoping for a life-changing experience, but I didn't know the depths of that change and what would be required to elicit it. The guides "lead without leading" and steered me up the mountain. In only 6 days, I came out with a renewed belief in myself and my capabilities. This trip definitely changed my life, and I am now putting in the work to ensure others receive value from the work that was done up there. ”
Antonio DeAscanis, Founder and CEO BlkOps Fitness
“The highly skilled team members at Open Circle have a range of listening and facilitation skills that span from formal to informal, inviting to challenging, easy to highly advanced. They are clearly on a mission to humanize the workplace.”
Don Lubach, UC Santa Barbara Dean of Students
“This in-person nature experience for leaders and facilitators led us to a collective environment where we were challenged to grow in ways I thought were not possible. It was an amazing experience. I describe their work as both mystical and practical, simultaneously and at once both beyond this world and functional preparation for navigating and being in it!”
Mark Funkhouser, Nevada Regional Behavioral Health Manager
“Change inside of organizations is difficult, but it’s also necessary. Our work with Open Circle helped our entire team shift the way we work to create a healthier culture where we could harness the power of the group. This allowed us to find new opportunities, expand, test ideas, and become a stronger organization.”
Brad Pickle
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Meet Your Guides
Adam Rumack
Open Circle Co-Founder and CEO
Adam brings a wealth of experience in driving organizational and individual transformation across diverse sectors, including corporations, large-scale non-profits, and the education and criminal justice systems.
His profound passion for the outdoors serves as a catalyst, offering insights into the interconnectedness of humanity and the wild, shaping his approach to human-driven systems.
In his pursuit of knowledge, Adam has delved into various disciplines, studying under spiritual and religious mentors and exploring the intricacies of economics, human behavior, and performance sciences.
A practitioner of holistic stewardship, Adam applies his insights on his land in Coastal Oregon, USA, where he also oversees a nature-based preschool.
His multifaceted background uniquely positions him to bridge the realms of organizational transformation, ecological mindfulness, and holistic education.
Miriam Jones
Open Circle Co-Founder and COO
Miriam is an experienced entrepreneur and thought leader in the area of transformational education, cultural change, and leadership. She has founded and led several successful organizations, from not-for-profits to corporations and co-operatives.
After developing an interest in business, culture and education, Miriam began designing and delivering leadership programs and cultural change efforts for organizations across the globe.
In search of new perspectives for her organizational work amid rapid global change, Miriam turned her focus to learning forms influenced by indigenous nature-based cultures and societies including circle listening and healing practices, circle governance, rite of passage, and nature-based rituals. Embracing these, she gained an ecological understanding of human systems.
Drawing inspiration from nature's systems, she now guides leaders and organizations beyond office walls, helping them discover answers within their organizational frameworks.
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