ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
Leading from Aliveness is a five-session online lab for people who carry responsibility in their work, their relationships, or their lives, and who sense that familiar ways of leading, deciding, and taking responsibility no longer fully meet the realities they are part of.
This founding cohort is designed for professionals, practitioners, founders, consultants, team leads, and individuals navigating complexity, transition, or increasing responsibility, especially when clarity is partial and control no longer guarantees direction.
In a time where complexity deepens faster than certainty, learning to lead without relying on control becomes a core professional and personal capacity.
Rather than offering tools to optimise performance or predefined answers, the lab supports a shift in orientation: from control to participation, from certainty to responsiveness, from managing complexity to learning how to stay present within it.
Leading from Aliveness is currently not offered as a scheduled public programme. We keep this page as a record of an inquiry and a possible programme concept that continues to evolve. If these ideas resonate with you or your organisation, we'd be delighted to explore how they might take shape in your own context.
WHY THIS LAB
Many leadership and professional development approaches assume that clarity, control, and strategy are always available. In practice, many people experience something different: situations where effort does not lead to the expected outcome, where influence does not ensure traction, and where responsibility feels heavier than authority.
Leading from Aliveness creates a structured yet open learning space to explore these moments. It invites participants to develop capacities that support meaningful action even when answers are incomplete: presence, relational awareness, and creative agency within complex, living systems.
THIS LAB MAY BE ESPECIALLY RELEVANT IF YOU:
• carry significant responsibility but increasingly sense that control-based approaches fall short
• navigate ambiguity without reliable maps or predictable outcomes
• feel that your role is shifting, even if you cannot yet fully articulate how
• want to lead or act with integrity without performing certainty
• are interested in integrating personal and professional dimensions of responsibility
WHAT PARTICIPANTS TYPICALLY LEAVE WITH
• greater steadiness in uncertain situations
• clearer distinction between responsibility and control
• deeper awareness of relational and systemic dynamics
• renewed creative agency in complex contexts
• practical ways to integrate reflection into real-world decision-making
THE FIVE‑SESSION ARC
The following five-session arc illustrates one possible learning journey through the ideas behind Leading from Aliveness. It serves as an example rather than a fixed curriculum and may be adapted to different contexts and purposes.
Session 1 – When Control Stops Working
Recognising the limits of control-based leadership and exploring constraint as a creative condition.
Session 2 – Decision-Making Inside Living Systems
Understanding decisions as interventions within relational fields rather than isolated commands.
Session 3 – Creativity Under Uncertainty
Practicing responsiveness and creative agency when outcomes cannot be fully predicted.
Session 4 – Presence and Relational Impact
Exploring how presence shapes group dynamics and possibility.
Session 5 – Responsibility Without Control & Purposeful Action
Clarifying what you are responsible for - and what you are not - and articulating how to continue practicing beyond the lab.
FORMAT AND FLOW
The lab takes place across five live online sessions. Between sessions, participants are invited to reflect on lived situations and experiment with small shifts in how they engage with responsibility, leadership, and collaboration. Short reflective prompts support integration without requiring extensive additional time.
Leading from Aliveness is conceived as a flexible programme concept. While the overall arc provides a coherent learning journey, the precise format, duration and emphasis may evolve depending on the people, organisation or context in which the work takes place.
FACILITATION
The lab is facilitated by Markus Stefan and Joanna Furgał.
Their combined backgrounds span facilitation, systemic coaching, learning design, artistic practice, and experiential education. Together, they create structured yet spacious learning environments grounded in presence, dialogue, and practical integration rather than abstract theory.
PRACTICAL DETAILS
Tailored to context (online, in-person or hybrid).
Duration and group size depend on the aims of the collaboration.
INVESTMENT & LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Investment depends on the specifics of your requirements.
The programme is offered under the Smart Germany Bildungswerk and is exempt from VAT (umsatzsteuerfrei). Invoicing is handled administratively via Smart Cooperative.
Administrative and legal details of participation are outlined in the Legal Framework & Placement Guide (PDF) (relevant once participation is confirmed).
YOUR NEXT STEPS
If this way of working resonates with you, we'd be happy to explore together whether these ideas could support your organisation, team or community. Every collaboration begins with a conversation rather than a predefined offer.
HAVE A QUESTION?
If you are curious about the ideas behind Leading from Aliveness or would like to explore a possible collaboration, feel free to get in touch. We'd be happy to start a conversation and explore together what might be meaningful in your context.