Next Cohort Starts 22 September!
Network Leadership Series
What is the Network Leadership Series?
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Next Cohort | Learning Journey | Learning Outcomes | Who is NLS for? | Series Details & Pricing | Facilitators | Participant Testimonials | FAQ
The Network Leadership Series (NLS) is a participatory learning journey designed to build your confidence and capability as a relational leader. Over eight weeks, a small cohort of practitioners from around the world explore strategies that amplify collaboration in networks, organizations, and teams.
Each session models participant engagement techniques and builds depth across three foundations: relational leadership, engaging participants, and catalyzing collaboration. During the series, you’ll share learnings with peers and practice applying frameworks for facilitating collaboration.
NLS is intended for leaders and consultants and conveners who actively support a network, systems change initiative, cross-sector collaborative, community of practice or coalition. If your success hinges on people connecting, coordinating, and co-creating, join us for NLS!
In addition to mixed cohorts, NLS can be customized for your group and delivered in-person or online.
Next Cohort Starts 22 September, 2026
Tuesdays, 4:00-6:30pm GMT / 5:00-7:30pm SAST on Zoom
Learning Journey
“A very big thank you for facilitating such an inspiring and well-designed Network Leadership Series. I truly enjoyed the journey. The sessions were rich, practical, and deeply reflective. In honesty, it was the most useful professional development I have participated in.”
A Relational Approach
Life organizes in networks, and change happens through relationships. At this time, we need leaders who can unleash the collective creativity necessary to address complex challenges. Circle Generation’s NLS fosters capacities and capabilities to facilitate collaboration for collective flourishing.
Relational leaders see relationships, spot patterns, tend processes, and cultivate conditions for emergence of desired outcomes.
This series embodies global perspectives. Our practices draw upon many ways of knowing. We value the dignity of all beings and are committed to making network leadership accessible to all.
The series includes the following three focus areas:
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1. Leading Relationally
Focus on the sensibilities and mindset shifts needed to foster a network approach to collaboration. Understand the network theory of change and how we leverage the key differences between organizations and networks to create impact.
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2. Engaging Participants
Explores the different ways network members engage and how creating opportunities for people to connect and collaborate generates value.
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3. Catalyzing Collaboration
Focus on coordination roles and how network weaving, communications framing, and project support contribute to network vitality.
Learning Outcomes
By completing the Network Leadership Series, you will:
Grow capability to steward impact networks and multi-stakeholder collaborations
Customize frameworks and practices to fit your context
Curate generative spaces for connection, participation, learning and co-creation
Frame communications to invite engagement and contribution
Continue exchanging with practitioners in the field
Who is NLS for?
The series is designed for leaders who are:
Serving as network steward, weaver, facilitator, manager, consultant or funder
Convening partners, stakeholders or grantees
Engaging diverse people across organizations and communities
Addressing complex challenges collectively
Facilitating systemic learning, healing, and change
Supporting decentralized teams to coordinate implementation
NLS is generally a fit for network stewards with 6 months to 6 years of experience—long enough to see patterns and share stories, and ready to translate frameworks to practice.
“The course was fantastic in understanding different aspects of network building: creating invitations, noticing patterns, connecting energies, connecting interests, and connecting people.”
Schedule & Details
NLS Schedule
All sessions will be held on Tuesdays at 4:00pm GMT / 5:00pm SAST. See what time this is in your time zone.
Week of 14th September: 60-min Weaving Call
(optional, to be scheduled upon registration, see below for more info)
22 September: Orientation & Learning Culture (90 minutes)
29 September: Relational Leadership (2.5 hours)
6 October: Relational Leadership (2.5 hours)
13 October : Engaging Participants (2.5 hours)
20 October: Engaging Participants (2.5 hours)
27 October: Catalyzing Collaboration (2.5 hours)
3 November: Catalyzing Collaboration (2.5 hours)
10 November: Culmination (90 minutes)
Weaving Calls
All participants will be invited to join one of five weaving calls the week of 14th September. These optional 60-minute conversations offer a chance to share about your work and learning objectives with a small group of participants and the facilitation team. What we learn in these calls help us adapt our examples to be relevant to participants' contexts. Participants also have an opportunity to experience weaving calls, which are a key part of network practice.
Can't make this cohort? Contact us to discuss custom Network Leadership trainings for your organization or one-on-one coaching designed around your schedule and needs.
Pricing
Our pricing is tiered to ensure accessibility across incomes and industries. Please choose the level that aligns with your resources.
Standard Pricing - $2,200.00
(This tier is intended for corporations, foundations, government leaders, or similar.)
Accessible Pricing - $1,250.00
(This tier is intended for NGOs, community based organizations, or similar.)
All participants receive:
20 hour program
Ongoing secure access to video recordings of each session
Ongoing secure access to NLS Foundations summary and resources for each module
Impact Networks book by David Ehrlichman (encouraged pre-read)
Weekly recap reflection questions and practice suggestions
Connection to practitioners in your cohort
Co-Learning & Scholarships
Collective learning sinks deeper and ripples father! We offer a 20% co-learning discount if you’d like to join with one or more colleagues from your network or team. Please contact nls@circlegeneration.com prior to registering for details.
To ensure equity and include diverse perspectives, we offer a limited number of partial tuition scholarships, reducing payment to 20-50% of the affordable price. Please contact nls@circlegeneration.com to inquire.
Network Leadership Series Facilitators
Network Leadership Series was originally developed by Carri Munn and collaborators from the Converge Network in 2020. Informed by their work in the field and the practitioners in each cohort, Nono Sekhoto and Carri have been iterating and refining the curriculum to bring you the most relevant learnings and up-to-date practice methods.
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Carri Munn
Carri is a systems strategist and masterful facilitator who partners with systems change leaders to cultivate thriving organizations and networks. Her clients include regional and global networks, coordination teams, and executives. She brings a bright spirit of generosity, detail-orientation, and a patient, caring essence that facilitates a relaxed state among individuals while navigating change.
She is based in Portland, Oregon and enjoys working globally. Carri holds a BA in Political Theory and a MA in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management. She is certified as a True Purpose Coach for individuals and organizations.
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Nono Sekhoto
Nono is an experienced network coordinator, facilitator, and stakeholder engagement manager leading in the intersection of Africa’s agri-food system and systems change. Her work leverages building relationships to collaborate on curating enabling environments that foster co-learning, resources, and opportunity sharing, around shared value. Nono had the unique pleasure of attending the NLS as a participant in 2020 and had time to implement the learning in her work as a network coordinator. Since 2022 Nono has joined NLS as a facilitator incorporating her work experience into the curriculum. She is based in South Africa with access to a global network in agriculture and the network practice ecosystem.
She holds a BCom in Financial Accounting, a few certificates in business management and development, and holds a Masters in international agribusiness.
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Iman Bashir
Iman is a Kenyan foresight researcher and facilitator with an interdisciplinary background in law and environmental science. Her systems-oriented work explores how social, economic, and environmental forces shape how we understand the present and imagine the future. Grounded in research and guided by people, she designs and facilitates spaces that help individuals and institutions engage meaningfully with long-term systemic questions, with a particular focus on how power and participation influence who gets to shape the future.
Iman works globally, with a strong focus on African contexts, through collaborations with the School of International Futures, UNICEF, and other partners. Her recent projects include rethinking migration governance with the International Organization for Migration, supporting sustainable energy planning in Kenya, and managing a global network of young climate futurists that brought futures tools into the climate negotiations at COP27.
What Participants Are Saying
Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions? Take a look at the FAQ or reach out anytime. If you’re feeling ready, go ahead and apply.
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NLS is about relational leadership, and collaboration happens through relationships. If you are working with people, you can apply network principles to engage people and coordinate work. With regular practice you’ll become better at reading situations and applying principles in context. Over time you’ll embody the practices, and, like a football player making passes to teammates while running down the field, these capacities will become a seamless part of how you contribute to the teams you play.
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You’ll join a temporary network where we can model and experience working relationally while learning together. Like all networks, the wellbeing of the group is made possible by the commitment of each member to be present, participate, listen and share from experience. When you join a learning journey you become a participant – part of the team, not a spectator.
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Please let us know you won’t be attending. We provide a password protected video archive for each cohort. You can access recordings, usually within 48 hours, to catch up on a missed session. The videos are available long term for reference. We see alumni revisiting recordings years after the completion of their learning journey.
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No. There are no required readings or assignments between sessions. Growing relational leadership capacities is much more about trying out different ways of working than acquiring knowledge. It's up to you to practice applying what you’re learning in as many circumstances as possible. We provide resources and encourage you to practice in teams, networks, organizations, and communities. People often tell us they are also using network practices with friends and family.
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There are a variety of resources available to support your learning. Each cohort has a private online webpage. The videos, articles, module summaries, and slides are organized by module. Resources shared by participants in the learning journey will be added along the way. We encourage everyone to read Impact Networks by our former Converge colleague David Ehrlichman and have free access codes to this foundational book for all participants.
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Yes. Learning is more fun and lasts longer with friends. We support co-learning with a 20% discount for each participant who joins as part of a pair or small group. Please contact Ethel@circlegeneration.com for a discount code to use at registration. If you have a large group, we also offer dedicated NLS Learning Journeys for teams from 8 to 80.
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Yes. Please apply here. Acknowledging the importance of both equity and reciprocity, we invite you to propose a contribution toward the accessible tuition that reflects your circumstances while also supporting our ability to continue offering NLS in the future.
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Yes. We are able to invoice you directly from Circle Generation in South Africa or via a ticketing partner in the United States. Please contact Ethel@circlegeneration.com to request an invoice and receive the discount code to bypass payment at registration.