Open Courses at the Collective Leadership Institute › Collective Leadership Institute

Open Courses

Building competence in collective leadership and stakeholder collaboration

Open Courses

CLI’s open course format is ideal for individuals and (small) groups who would like to apply collective leadership and stakeholder collaboration in their daily work. We offer four CLI courses “The Art of …”, each with a different focus.

To choose the right course, feel free to see what other clients usually have chosen before*:

Working area	Recommended training	if applicable: continue with…
International development cooperation: advisor, technical staff	The Art of Stakeholder Collaboration	The Art of Leading Collectively, The Art of Process Facilitation or The Art of Transformative Change
International development cooperation: country director, project leader, team leader	The Art of Leading Collectively	The Art of Transformative Change
International development cooperation: stakeholder dialogues facilitator	The Art of Process Facilitation (formerly: The Art of Dialogue)	The Art of Leading Collectively
Civil society organisation	The Art of Stakeholder Collaboration	The Art of Leading Collectively, The Art of Process Facilitation
University / research	The Art of Leading Collectively	The Art of Transformative Change
Corporates / private sector advisors	The Art of Stakeholder Collaboration	The Art of Leading Collectively, The Art of Process Facilitation or The Art of Transformative Change
Public sector / Ministries	The Art of Stakeholder Collaboration	The Art of Leading Collectively, The Art of Transformative Change

*This information is based on the regular evaluation of our open courses. Of course, your individual training needs might differ (see graph below).

If you wish to participate three courses to become a certfied Collective Leadership Specialist, find more information under certification programme. If you wish shorter introduction workshops instead, find them in the short courses section.

You can find more information on each “The Art of …” training below. The following graph gives you additional help to choose the right foundation course to start with:

Collective Leadership Specialist Certification

Overview of all modules and credits

Download our one pager for a full overview of all modules and credits needed to become a Collective Leadership Specialist

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The Art of Leading Collectively

This course will help you to implement more outcome-oriented and constructive co-creation on a day-to-day basis for yourself, your team, your organisation, and your change initiative with diverse stakeholders. It equips dedicated change makers in the public and private sector, as well as civil society organisations, with a tool for better co-creation. The dimensions of collective leadership can be learned and enhanced – individually and collectively.

Are you starting a complex cooperation project, or are you in the midst of one you want to improve? Do you need to shift the mind-set of stakeholders toward collaboration, or to find new ways to overcome challenges? Do you need to arrive at tangible outcomes in a short time frame?

The tool presented in The Art of Leading Collectively – the Collective Leadership Compass – helps you to keep your collaboration journey on track and to find the necessary course corrections.

YOUR KEY TAKE-AWAYS

Know how to prepare for your collaboration journey
Assess where you are, define what is present and what is missing
Map the path, adjust strategies, and know what to shift, to strengthen, or to focus on
Convince colleagues and partners that leading collectively will ease the management of complex change
Take the content of the book ‘The Art of Leading Collectively’ into the practice of outcome-oriented and constructive co-creation

93%

of the participants assess the relevance of the course for their daily work as high or very high. *

93%

of the participants assess the level of professional expertise of CLI facilitators excellent or good. *

96%

would recommend this training to colleagues or professional partners. *

The Art of Leading Collectively

- 4 days of training
- core methodology: CLI Collective Leadership Compass
- tuition fee: € 2,000 in-person, € 1,500 online
Registration status: CLOSED

24 June — 27 June 2025

Collective Leadership Institute gGmbH, Kurfürstenstraße, Potsdam, Germany

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The Art of Feminist Leadership

- 4 days of training
- core methodology: CLI Collective Feminist Practice Principles
- tuition fee: € 2,000 in-person, € 1,500 online
Registration status: OPEN

7 October — 10 October 2025

Collective Leadership Institute gGmbH, Kurfürstenstraße, Potsdam, Germany

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The Art of Leading Collectively - What particpants learned in the course

The Art of Stakeholder Collaboration

Stakeholder Collaboration has been recognised as critical to finding solutions to the complex challenges of sustainable development. The Art of Stakeholder Collaboration is the foundation course of CLI’s educational programme. In this course, you will build your strategic abilities and implementation skills in stakeholder engagement, dialogue, and collaboration processes for high-impact solutions.

YOUR KEY TAKE-AWAYS

Learn how to successfully implement stakeholder collaboration through the application of the Dialogic Change Model
Understand the business case for co-creative stakeholder engagement
Learn how collective intelligence, commitment, and ownership can emerge
Produce a stakeholder network map to prioritise engagement activities
Develop new engagement strategies to minimise unproductive conflict and a methodology to create sustainable partnerships

93%

of the participants assess the relevance of the course for their daily work as high or very high. *

95%

of the participants assess the level of professional expertise of CLI facilitators excellent or good. *

97%

would recommend this training to colleagues or professional partners. *

The Art of Stakeholder Collaboration

- 4 days of training
- core methodology: CLI Dialogic Change Model
- tuition fee: € 2,000 in-person, € 1,500 online
Registration status: OPEN

11 November — 14 November 2025

Collective Leadership Institute gGmbH, Kurfürstenstraße, Potsdam, Germany

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Project Teams Stakeholder Collaboration Course

- 4 days of training
- core methodology: CLI Dialogic Change Model
- tuition fee: € 2,000 in-person (group discounts available)
Registration status: OPEN

16 September — 19 September 2025

Samarkand, Uzbekistan

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Project Teams Stakeholder Collaboration Course

- 4 days of training
- core methodology: CLI Dialogic Change Model
- tuition fee: € 2,000 in-person (group discounts available)
Registration status: OPEN

21 October — 24 October 2025

The Cape Milner, Milner Road, Tamboerskloof, Cape Town, South Africa

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The Art of Stakeholder Collaboration - Three perspectives on the Course

The Art of Stakeholder Collaboration - Participants' feedback

Free information session Collective Leadership Specialist Programme

Online
10 September 2025
12:00pm - 2:00pm Central European Time (CET)

The Art of Process Facilitation

For experienced trainers and facilitators or for people who participated in one of the other open courses already and who wish to improve their dialogic facilitations skills, The Art of Process Facilitation (formerly: The Art of Dialogue) offers plenty of opportunities. Learn about new tools for dialogic facilitation and develop your own personal leadership and communication styles for Stakeholder Collaboration. Self-observation, peer-reviews, and our professional feedback will guide you through the journey of improving your communication. Come with your (cross-sector) team and enhance the quality of your team communication.

YOUR KEY TAKE-AWAYS

Enhance your current levels of competence for dialogue and communication
Develop your ability to anchor dialogic practices in your stakeholder engagement at all levels
Empower yourself to develop your presence and stay more present, relaxed, and focused in demanding situations

95%

of the participants assess the relevance of the course for their daily work as high or very high. *

95%

of the participants assess the level of professional expertise of CLI facilitators excellent or good. *

97%

would recommend this training to colleagues or professional partners. *

The Art of Process Facilitation

- 4 days of training
- core methodologies: CLI Dialogic Change Model and Collective Leadership Compass
- tuition fee: € 2,000 in-person, € 1,500 online
Registration status: LAST PLACES AVAILABLE!

2 September — 5 September 2025

Collective Leadership Institute gGmbH, Kurfürstenstraße, Potsdam, Germany

Learn more

The 2025 Art of Process Facilitation course date will be announced in October 2024.

The Art of Process Facilitation

The Art of Transformative Change

Do you need to build large cross-institutional or international networks to drive transformative change?

Do you need to diagnose complex systems of actors and identify entry points for change?

Do you need to design a “Theory of Change” that captures multi-level interventions?

If so, The Art of Transformative Change will help you to design and implement strategies for impactful networks of change-makers and future-oriented organizations. It equips dedicated change stewards in public, private, and civil society organisations with tools for driving systems change in networks. Understanding the collaboration catalysts and transformation enablers will help you stewarding collaborative networks for systems impact.

YOUR KEY TAKE-AWAYS

Diagnose your system of actors and identify entry points for transformation
Use the Collective Leadership Compass to develop a transformative “Theory of Change”
Define key action steps to set up a thriving network of actors
Develop your network journey for strategizing transformative change around the six transformation enablers for sustainability
Use the collaboration catalysts to track your progress and adjust your strategies

The Art of Transformative Change is an exclusive training module of the Collective Leadership Academy. It will not be delivered through projects and is especially relevant for network coordinators and stewards of transformative change initiatives.

94%

of the participants assess the relevance of the course for their daily work as high or very high. *

94%

of the participants assess the level of professional expertise of CLI facilitators excellent or good. *

100%

would recommend this training to colleagues or professional partners. *

The Art of Transformative Change

- 4 days of online-training
- core methodologies: CLI Collective Leadership Compass and Dialogic Change Model
- tuition fee: € 2,000 in-person, € 1,500 online
Registration status: OPEN

9 December — 12 December 2025

Collective Leadership Institute gGmbH, Kurfürstenstraße, Potsdam, Germany

Learn more

The Art of Transformative Change - Theory of Change Example from Egypt

* All figures are based on the anonymous participants’ course assessment for our courses in the last 5 years.

Locations

CLI’s open courses always take place at special locations – be it in places like Potsdam, Cape Town, or Siem Reap for in-person formats, or CLI’s Online Academy for online formats. Collective Leadership skills need open spaces to unfold, trust is easier built when all people in the room feel comfortable and safe. That is why CLI is paying attention to providing venues and online spaces that meet these quality criteria. On the world map below you can see where CLI has already implemented open courses. Afterwards, you get some impression on our three standard locations for open courses in Germany, South Africa, and Cambodia. And finally a glimpse in our CLI Online Academy that is especially made for online courses, but also accompanies in-person course participants with extra material.

Potsdam, Germany

Potsdam is the capital city of the German province of Brandenburg. It is located 24 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of Berlin. Potsdam was the former residence of many kings and queens and thus offers impressive historic buildings, parks, and other famous tourist locations. Potsdam is a city that offers a great variety of activities, while also retaining the ambiance of a typical small German town.

CLI’s trainings take place in the city of Potsdam. Due to its convenient location, most of the sights in Potsdam are in walking distance, and Berlin is easily accessible by public transport. The venues offer many facilities for seminars in a special atmosphere and a historical surrounding. There are plenty hotel options in walking distance.

2 km from Potsdam’s Central Station (5 min by tram)
35 km from Berlin Central Station (40 min by local train)
45 km from Berlin-Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt (60 min by local train)

Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town is one of South Africa’s three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the oldest city in the country, and the second largest (after the city Johannesburg). The city is known for its harbour, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point.

CLI’s trainings take place in calm and attractive parts of the city with plenty hotel options nearby. You are adviced to use the taxi for transport from the airport to the venue and hotels, as well as to the city’s tourist attractions. Our venues in Cape Town always offer a special seminar atmosphere that will stick with you even after the course.

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Siem Reap is the second-largest city of Cambodia. It is home to the famous Angkor Wat temples and has French colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old French Quarter and around the Old Market. In the city, there are museums, a Cambodian cultural village, souvenir and handicraft shops, and much more. It is a popular tourist destination—has many hotels, resorts, and restaurants.

CLI’s trainings take place in such hotel resorts that are ideally situated between Siem Reap Airport, Angkor Wat, and major attractions in the city. You are adviced to use the taxi (or tuk tuk) for transport from the airport to the venue and hotels, as well as to the city’s tourist attractions. The venue of our partner Borei Angkor provides a high quality standard for seminars – both large and small groups.

CLI Online Academy

CLI offers for all of its Potsdam trainings the opportunity to participate online (intensive trainings) in a hybrid format (in combination with an in-person format). Other trainings are either in in-person formats (project teams courses), or purely online. The CLI Online Academy is a good companion in all cases: it is not only the platform where you register for a course and get your certificates. It also offers additional features like:

Pre-reading and course preparation material
Opportunities to interact and stay in touch with fellow course participants
Course documentation and repository for those who want to become certified Collective Leadership Specialists

Information on pandemic situations and cases of short-term cancellations

CLI is regularly evaluating the Covid-19 pandemic (and – if applicable – other pandemic situations), including in terms of holding in-person vs. digital workshops. Therefore, CLI’s open course policy is as follows (latest updated on 10 January 2024):

The course description specifies if an open course will take place in an in-person, online, or hybrid (in-person and online combined) format.
In all cases where a planned in-person training needs to be replaced by an online workshop because of the pandemic situation, all participants who have already registered for an in-person training will be contacted by CLI. Changing in-person formats into online formats will always be based on the national and local rules in the country and the time where the course would have taken place. We do not want to put CLI staff, partners, and workshop participants at risk. Registrations generally remain valid unless CLI cancels the alternative online course or starts it at a different date than originally booked by the participant.
1. Participants’ feedback from CLI’s online open courses conducted since May 2020 have proven a similar satisfaction rate with the course contents and facilitation like our in-person workshops (see satisfaction rates in the online intensive training section). While the content and individual reflection parts of the training are at the same level in CLI’s online trainings, the knowledge transfer even works better for most participants than in classroom trainings. Only group dynamic processes are less developed in the online formats, due to less socializing possibilities. However, all participants so far felt strongly connected to the training group and appreciated peer learning activities. So feel free to make best use of tried and tested high-quality stakeholder collaboration and collective leadership methodologies in new formats while the world keeps changing.
2. If you cannot participate because the technology does not work out for you, of course you get your money back or a voucher for the next course. The best way to ensure a smooth online experience is to request a test session with us in advance or to participate the free information sessions for each online course. This also gives you the chance to talk in advance on your projects, challenges, skills, etc. that you would like to address with the CLI training.
In all cases where a registered participant for a hybrid training who booked in-person participation cannot make it (such as e.g. strikes, being sick, not getting your visa on time, or reasons beyond CLI’s control), CLI reserves the right to change an in-person participation into an online participation. Registrations remain valid in any of those cases. We will come back to you individually in such situations and find the best possible solutions together.
Registrations for CLI’s open courses are binding and the cancellation terms given in the course flyer that can be downloaded for each course apply.

You might have to organize more online lor hybrid stakeholder dialogues and meetings than before the pandemic. CLI is your trusted partner in offering you methodologies and know-how, as well as conceptualizing and supporting such sessions. Feel free to contact us at germany@collectiveleadership.com should you have any questions. Stay tuned, stay curious, stay well!

The CLI team.