Leadership Kitchen Series

Led by Spring’s leadership team, this is a brand new, low-barrier personal growth and practice space. It’s the place to be if you want to work with a mix of the leadership essentials in our pantry.

A nourishing practice space for social justice leaders

Step into the Leadership Kitchen, an online series of 6 sessions over 6 months for anyone working toward social and climate justice.

Archana, Márcia, Kenny - Main Program Page

In each session, your facilitators — Archana Deshpande (Spring Co-CEO), Márcia Kodama (head of our Coaching Program), and Kenny Sajous-Georges (Spring coach and facilitator) — will take you “into the kitchen” and explore essential leadership capacities. You’ll get some hands-on practice and emerge with more confidence, capacity and creativity!

Why do we call it a “kitchen”? Because kitchens are vibrant, communal spaces where we can come together, get real and try new things. The Leadership Kitchen is a global practice space where you can explore different leadership recipes to ignite impactful ways to change the world.

This series is for you if your time is limited but you want to work with a mix of Spring's "essential ingredients" for transformative leadership while learning alongside like-minded changemakers.

Video Podcast

Ready to ignite your leadership superpowers?

Spring's Co-CEOs Ellen Sprenger and Archana Deshpande, along with Coaching Lead Márcia Kodama, break down the leadership challenges they are seeing among social and climate justice leaders today ... and what you can do to feel more ease and abundance.

What to expect?

A place to find the right ingredients for crafting your own recipes for leadership, authentic to your purpose, personality and aspirations for a more just world.

You’ll participate in 6 live virtual sessions that tackle 6 “essential ingredients”: cross-cutting leadership themes affecting human rights and climate justice movements today (see below). Each session will offer a space for learning in plenary and small breakout groups with other participants from diverse backgrounds doing similar (and different!) work around the world. You’ll have a chance to cross-pollinate experiences, challenges and strategies for leading with greater impact.

Throughout the program, we’ll share digital tools and resources in a custom Leadership Lab, so you can practice “in the real world” and connect with your cohort or facilitators.

This Series uniquely blends an approach designed to help you live a more fulfilling life, deepen your leadership capacities and develop dynamic skills for working with groups—all delivered by Spring’s seasoned leadership experts with more than a dash of playfulness, passion and camaraderie along the way.

6 leadership essentials

1. Let’s take a leap

Key principles for collaboration: awareness, listening and sharing stories.

2. How do you lead?

Understanding your own unique strengths … and “edges” for development.

3. Cultivating emotional resilience

Dealing with tension in the body and mind so you can stay resourceful when big emotions surface.

4. Decision-making

Learn transformative principles for leadership: awareness, listening and sharing stories.

5. Feedback and healthy cultures

Practice with perspective-taking, plus giving and receiving feedback.

6. Living leadership in times like these

To celebrate our journey together, finding inspiration and making space for new insights to emerge.

Who is this Series for?

A person wearing a white shirt with blue embroidery speaks confidently into a microphone in front of a group of people from diverse backgrounds.

This series is for anyone working toward social and climate justice who is eager and curious to work on their personal development and leadership capacities.

You might work as an activist, executive, manager, funder or any other role.

Settling into a new role or organization? Heading into strategic planning or developing a new campaign? Navigating a turbulent political context?

Whether you are emerging or established in your field, the Leadership Kitchen Series offers a space to roll up your sleeves, get a little messy and explore the challenges you’ve been stewing over. In line with our values, we've worked to make this offer globally accessible (see details).

Why now? And what makes us different?

The world needs transformative leaders who can inspire meaningful collaboration, smart risk-taking and bold, creative new moves. We’re living through challenging and uncertain times. The scale of injustice calls on us to respond in new, life-sustaining ways.

Each of us has something unique to contribute. In the Leadership Kitchen Series, we build on the unique talents you bring to the table. And at the heart of your learning will be the rare opportunity to get candid with other leaders, disrupt unhealthy patterns and ferment fresh and powerful new ways of being and working, so you can thrive while you make an impact.

More about Spring’s approach

You’ll leave our practice kitchen feeling:

More confident

You’ll sharpen your self-awareness and renew your confidence in your leadership style. You’ll also make progress on your “development edge” (that space where your existing strengths brush up against your potential and thirst for new possibilities).

More skilled and spacious

By practicing with peers every month, you’ll quickly grow your capacities in Spring’s 10 essential leadership areas. These new mindsets and skills will support you to stay resourced on your own and in your team or collective.

More creative, blending your own recipes for great leadership

The best recipes are cooked up with individual instinct and inspiration. Our tools and techniques will help you hone your ability to “flex flow”: make moves as the moment demands to support yourself and others when tension arises or work is complex.

Ready to step into the Leadership Kitchen?

Join our next public cohort or get in touch if you're looking for tailored support for your team.

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Upcoming Cohorts

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Custom support

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