Shaping the Seeds of Collective Leadership
Growing individuals' capacity to be the relational leaders the world needs now.
How do we foster collaboration across sectors, geographies, and silos when so much in the world is pulling us apart?
We live in a time of unravelling. Institutions are being reshaped, and familiar systems are dissolving. Many of the challenges we face today are volatile, have multiple root causes, and are imbued with uncertainty.
Amidst all the change and unravelling, there is a rising hunger for connection, meaning, and creative ways of working together to change the systems of our organizations and communities.
The Bopa DiPeo Fellowship is a response to that hunger.
“Finding our way in the complexity of a changing world requires leaders who hold spaces for people to shape change together. ”
Every day, we see evidence of systems out of balance, hear calls for action, and witness unnecessary suffering. Often, the challenges we navigate cannot be addressed by single solutions or spearheaded by a few heroes. In these times, finding our way in the complexity of a changing world requires leaders who hold spaces for people to shape change together.
Bopa DiPeo means “shaping the seeds” in SeSotho, a language native to South Africa. This is a fellowship that centers African Network Leaders and collaborative networks generating impact with people on the continent.
The Bopa Dipeo fellowship was catalyzed by the direct experience of Circle Generation co-founder, Nono Sekhoto. While convening a network of network leaders across Africa, Nono recognized that building effective networks required more than just theory—it demanded immersive learning, hands-on practice, and mentorship. Guided by fellow Circle Generation co-founders Carri Munn and Elsa Henderson, Nono embarked on a co-designed learning journey tailored to her professional development. This process focused on strengthening existing capabilities, acquiring new skills she had identified as critical, and addressing real-time challenges in her work.
Nono’s transformative experience revealed that the most essential capabilities for collective leadership and facilitating multi-stakeholder collaboration are cultivated through embodied, collaborative practice. Walking alongside leaders like Nono has shown us that deep learning emerges not in isolation, but through intentional, lived experience and applied practice —an insight that lies at the heart of Bopa Dipeo.
Bopa Dipeo is about growing individuals' capacity to be the relational leaders the world needs now.
In the fellowship, we will share tools and practices for working in circles—to imagine with care, to collaborate with trust, and to shape the seeds that will become collective flourishing for current and future generations. Rooted in the art and practice of network leadership, the fellowship invites experienced systems change practitioners, those working across silos, sectors, and stakeholder groups, into a space of immersive learning, collective sensemaking, and practical experimentation.
It is a space where fellows can gain support with their existing work, hone their facilitation skills, expand their capabilities, and connect with others to feel more resourced in their role. Over the course of 10 months, fellows will shape the seeds of collective leadership, the practices and sensibilities that support a relational, strategic, and regenerative way of leading.
This is the kind of leadership needed to facilitate groups of people seeing the bigger picture, navigating uncertainty, and engaging collectively in complexity while coordinating action in service of a shared future.
The Design of the Journey
Twelve fellows will embark on a journey of individual and shared learning from September through June. Together, they will develop the practices, mindsets, and inner capacities needed to sustain effective cross-sector collaborations.
All learning will be grounded in practice through a variety of participatory engagements. The fellowship journey includes: two in-person convenings with the cohort, one-on-one coaching, online workshops, conversations with peers, and guidance from experienced facilitators and mentors, who are working in networks and multi-stakeholder collaborations around the world.
The fellowship is intentionally designed to integrate with fellows' existing work and responsibilities. Each fellow creates their professional development plan, guiding their practice and the focus of their fellowship experience. The learning journey also provides opportunities for support on key milestones, such as designing convenings, creating a Theory of Change, or developing a playbook for their network.
During the fellowship, participants will have opportunities to bring real-time challenges, get input from others, gain insights, and test new approaches in their context. As a network itself, Bopa Dipeo provides a participatory learning environment where fellows can learn through their direct experience and engage in a dynamic curriculum.
The curriculum blends action learning with network practice and centers around three pillars:
Design & Facilitation – Craft participatory processes that foster emergence and a sense of belonging.
Network Health – Track the health of your system. Understand how connection, coordination, and collaboration can work together to foster long-term impact.
Communication & Weaving – Communicate the value of your network, engage others, including funders, through storytelling, strategy, and data.
Throughout the fellowship, we will draw from a wide range of disciplines and sources, including systems thinking, complexity science, Indigenous wisdom, collaborative governance, nonviolent communication, and decades of lived experience in multi-stakeholder networks. The design principles that we employ for immersive, relational learning are: ecosystem approach, depth education, tacit skills, and reflective practice.
After cultivating the capacities and capabilities needed to foster collaboration in the face of complex challenges, fellows will be able to:
Quickly recognize interaction patterns and spot possibilities for collaboration within their ecosystem.
Confidently design engagements for connection, learning, and action.
Cultivate healthy networks, generative collaborations, and a culture of reflective learning.
Communicate narratives that empower many participants, partners, and funders to contribute to shaping change together.
Upon completing Bopa Dipeo we envision fellows advancing network practice within their fields. Fellows will be in positions to elevate the value of relational work, mentor colleagues to scale out network practice, and make a case for relational leadership and systemic collaboration worldwide.
Becoming A Fellow
Bopa DiPeo is for practitioners with a desire to engage as a community of co-learners. We are seeking people ready to share their experience and continue exploring with others. Do you know inspired leaders who are ready to grow and learn? Our fellows will gain:
Capacities, tools, and practices to meet the complex challenges of our times.
A deeper understanding of networks that can only come from engagement and lived experience, not just book learning.
Opportunities to integrate diverse network practices in the specific context of their work.
Language to communicate about their leadership role and the process of navigating complexity collectively.
Ways of encouraging participants, organizations, and stakeholders to embrace collective work.
Individuals who resonate with these possibilities are invited to apply. While the Bopa DiPeo fellowship centres on African Network Leaders and collaborative networks generating impact with people on the African continent, leaders worldwide are also invited to apply.