Collaborate across boundaries

Increase your capacity to collaborate and break down silos for greater success. 

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Key information

Who's it for?

Senior leaders

Duration

Asynchronous: 6 hours (12%)
Synchronous: 20 hours (40%)
In-person: 24 hours (48%)

Cost

R 42,500 + VAT as per NPC

Format

Experiential and blended

Dates

4 March 2025

Accreditation

45 hours of CPD Credit

Senior leadership is tough and can be lonely. We face problems in our organizations that are complex and interconnected, problems that can only be solved by people who see the bigger picture and adapt to an ever-changing context.

The Common Purpose Programme is designed to create the shift in leadership needed to get results in an ever more demanding world. Are you ready to re-energize yourself, build Cultural Intelligence, collaborate across boundaries, and manage change to drive your organization forward?

Who we work with

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Who is it for?

Senior leaders who want or need to:

  • re-energize their leadership
  • lead diverse, distributed teams and workforces through ambiguity and uncertainty
  • collaborate with diverse stakeholder groups
  • formulate new approaches to tackling complex challenges
  • accelerate change with a renewed confidence

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Criselda Bunu
Assistant Director, Jo'burg Child Welfare
"The programme has given me an insight into myself and I believe it will help me to lead in a more effective way. The lessons learnt will be translated to my work, professional space, and personal and interpersonal relationships."

The programme experience

What you can expect on your programme

Active transformational learning

Highly interactive, hands-on format, experiential, social learning offering an opportunity to practice new behaviours and learn by doing.

Real world

Rooted in real and live issues in a local context. Explored through the eyes of inspirational leaders who share how leadership works in their world.

Powerful networks

Access to ongoing support from a diverse peer group and where you can work together on personal leadership challenges that matter to you.

World class facilitators

Our facilitators co-design an experiential journey and psychologically safe space for learning in partnership with you, creating the conditions for rich feedback, open sharing, and experimentation

Skills, mindsets & knowledge

We explore the three conditions needed to thrive in an ever-changing world, from attitudes and perspectives, to taking an actionable approach

Practical tools and tactics

Real takeaways that you can continue to practice and apply in your everyday work

Watch the trailer

How it works

The programme themes

How to lead successfully in the changing world of work

1
Introduction to Cultural Intelligence (CQ)

Consider what is multi-faceted culture, how it anchors people and what might we consciously choose to adapt/flex in our approach or behaviour to adapt and thrive.

2
Embracing difference

Explore what differences people can bring to leadership, and the importance of becoming comfortable in unfamiliar environments.

3
Actively seeking feedback

Consider how to increase the quality of feedback we receive and how we respond to it.

4
Adapting our approach

Explore what we can do differently in our leadership when we are faced with different contexts and experiences to what we might be used to.

How to work with others in a positive way

1
Practising Cultural Intelligence (CQ)

Consider the complex nature of working with people who are different to us.

2
Unlocking diversity

Explore the ways in which we can empower teams to deliver results by effectively leveraging the diversity that makes people unique.

3
Suspending assumptions

Consider the importance of challenging assumptions to become more open to wider possibilities, to improve how we can make decisions and how we work with other people.  

4
Thriving in uncertainty

Explore how to lead teams through an ever-changing world of risk and uncertainty, and how we support team members to cope, adapt and thrive in times of big and small change. 

How to lead beyond a direct circle of control

1
Leading Beyond Authority

Explore some fundamental principles on how to influence outside of our remit and better understand context as you grow within a role/organization. 

2
Seeing the bigger picture

Consider & identify the key habits of a systems thinker and how to set and deliver on a core leadership vision.

3
Growing our influence

Explore how to increase your influence using a variety of soft power techniques as well as clarify the impact you want to have that’s connected to your purpose.

4
Collaboration in action

Consider the nature of complex challenges faced in leadership and how to better break down barriers and collaborate across boundaries to tackle them effectively.

95%

are better able to adapt to new environments

96%

work better with people who are different from them

92%

act more courageously in difficult situations

93%

are better able to influence beyond their circle of authority

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Mischa Walmsley
Consultant, Lanimlaw Consulting
"My experience with the Common Purpose Programme has led me to invite a stronger process of reflection into my day and week. I'm exploring new ways of providing and gathering feedback, helping me to broaden and deepen my understanding of my personal and professional self."
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Nicola Fleetmilne
CEO, FleetMilne Property, Chair, Colmore Business District, Co-Chair JQ Neighbourhood Plan
"​This online programme hosted by Common Purpose brought together a community of professionals at a time when we were facing the same life-altering situations, the same intense pressures, but a multitude of different challenges. I enjoyed the course immensely and over the past eight weeks, I have developed in leaps and bounds."
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Aesha Francis
Co-Founder, Urban Mindfulness Foundation
"As a person of colour, I’m used to working with people who are different from me, in diverse cultural contexts. However, the Common Purpose Programme supported my confidence to work with people in different positions of power more skilfully by balancing humility and self-belief and by suspending my assumptions."

Learning outcomes

Get ready to improve your decision making and become

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So that you can better adapt to ever-changing situations and priorities.

So that you can better empower diverse and inclusive teams.

So that you can better tackle complex problems.

The takeaways

The Common Purpose Programme will give you

  • A toolkit of resources to help you lead now, and into the future
  • Techniques to work more effectively with difference
  • Tactics for building trusting relationships
  • A variety of active listening techniques
  • Processes for effective questioning and deep curiosity
  • Methods to facilitate better conversations

Next steps

Apply

Take that next step to invest in your professional success. Learn to lead more strategically at a global level and navigate your next leadership transition with real conviction.

Brochure download

Curious to know more?

  • Learn about the programme
  • Explore the learning journey and modules
  • Hear what our alumni have to say

Apply

Applications now open

Programme details:

LocationDateCost
South Africa4 March 2025R 42,500 + VAT as per NPC

Convince your manager

Need to make the case?

Speak with us

Have more questions about the programme?

Important information

We run a limited bursary scheme for remarkable global leaders with a proven track record of social change. Reach out to your local team to find out more. 

We are also committed to and accountable for advancing equity, diversity and inclusion in all its forms. 

We actively encourage applications from people of all faiths, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, economic circumstances, backgrounds, and those from disabled communities.  

If you require adjustments to take part in the application process or to participate in the programme due to a disability, neurodiversity, caring responsibilities, or any other reason, you will be able to provide details in the application form or contact us by phone or email to discuss further.  

Frequently asked questions

We run a limited bursary scheme for remarkable leaders, with a proven track record of social change. Reach out to your local team to find out more.

We are also committed to and accountable for advancing equity, diversity and inclusion in all its forms.

We actively encourage applications from people of all faiths, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, economic circumstances, and backgrounds, and those from disabled communities.

If you require adjustments to take part in the application process or to participate in the programme due to a disability, neurodiversity, caring responsibilities, or any other reason, you will be able to provide details in the application form or contact us by phone or email to discuss further.

Common Purpose offers participants two alternative methods of payment options so we can cater to all needs.

  • By invoice: This can be issued directly to yourself or your organization.
  • By credit card: Please contact a member of our local team who would be happy to facilitate this payment.

Yes, if you have any further questions or would just like to discuss the programme in more detail, please reach out to a member of our team in your specific location who would be delighted to help.

Get in touch

We are a global not-for-profit leadership development organization on a mission to develop people who can cross cultural, social, and institutional boundaries. We work passionately with people to help push the boundaries of what is possible, all so that they can become those who can help us to work better together, be the connectors of our unique lived experiences and lead, with a difference.

Yes! The Common Purpose Charitable Trust was established as a charity in 1989. It is registered with the Charity Commission under the Registered Charity number 1023384.

The benefits of Common Purpose leadership programmes include gaining increased:  

  • Agility in adapting to changing circumstances and environments.  

  • Empathy to what other people feel, think and need. Seeing things from their point of view.

  • Influence in leading change with limited decision-making power.  

  • Openness to new ideas, possibilities and perspectives, including views they might deeply disagree with.    

  • Purposefulness in leading with intentionality, determination, commitment and resilience.

  • Self-awareness to their behaviours and outlook, and how they interpret and respond to situations.

When it comes to learning, there is no substitute for the power of real experience and fresh perspective. Our approach uses a robust behaviour and mindset change philosophy rooted in real life leadership challenges and experiences. To turn those experiences into real learning we follow five tried and tested steps that lead to habitual change in how people think, feel and act.    

  1. Experience: Being presented with new experiences. Engaging with leaders across multiple boundaries and being immersed in new environments.   

  1. Reflection: Learning activities to gain a deeper and more personalized understanding of the learning.    

  1. Translate: Exploring how to relate new ideas and thought processes back into the learner’s role or context.

  1. Practice: Developing a set of leadership practices that can be used to turn new behaviours into habits.

  1. Assess: Embedding numerous assessments to help learners track their progress pre, during and even beyond the programme.

Experiential learning is a core component of our programmes.

Our programmes create a carefully constructed microclimate to explore real-life leadership challenges in a safe environment, often leading to the types of purpose-driven conversations needed to achieve transformative change.

We also focus on the importance of active learning, by getting people out of their comfort zones and into the world, seeing things, meeting people, taking part, and taking advantage of processes that stimulate multiple neural connections in the brain and promote memory.

We are Common Purpose

A global not-for-profit devoted to good leadership

  • We deliver unforgettable and transformative learning experiences
  • Programmes for people at all levels of their careers
  • Gain the confidence, skills and mindset to be a purposeful change agent, with a difference

Who we are
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