GameChangers: Regenerative Leadership Programme February-July 2025
'Essentially, ‘regenerative’ is to attune with the way nature works...a way of leading that creates life-affirming conditions.' Laura Storm & Giles Hutchins
GameChangers is an invitation to learn to create better futures.
Deadline for Applications Extended to Friday 24 January
So, we know things are not working very well right now. And we know we don't need business as usual greener and fairer: we need different models, different ways of doing things. Ways that combine old wisdom with the latest innovation; that can see into the assumptions that make the normal normal and understanding why we think change is needed. We need life-affirming systems at every level - personal, social, ecologically, global. This is a huge task, but there are ways to do it.
How are you going to influence systems? How will you make small and large change? How will you direct your precious energy and humanity to things that matter? And how will you become someone who is part of the transformation for good?
Regenerative leadership offers one set of tools and perspectives that will help usher in this transformation. Leadership doesn't always mean corporate climbing or becoming a founder or CEO. It means:
- knowing your deep motivations and your power
- having serious tools in your kit for getting things done, including relationship building and influencing; knowing where levers of change really are
- a large-minded perspective, including regenerative design principles, a practical long-term view, and an understanding of the interconnectedness of things
The GameChangers programme works in these three areas - yourself, tools and system-change - to hone your capacity for substantive regenerative leadership, in any field. It offers an immersive & challenging experience, led by people who are demonstrably committed to changing their part of the world.
Structure
Strand I Selfhood & leadership: selfhood and authenticity; weaving self, society and world; introduction to regenerative principles
Strand II Tools for regenerative practice: influence & persuasion; dialogue across profound differences; futures literacy
Strand III A global, regenerative view: regenerative design and living systems in practice; warm data; immersion in a case study (Eden Project)
Commitment
- A 2-day residential @ Homerton, 22-23 February
- 2 seminars @ Homerton, 7-9.30pm (Lent and early Easter, tbc)
- A 4-day field trip to the Eden Project, Cornwall 16-19 June [the schedule will be similar to GameChangers' 2024 field-trip]
- pre-sessional reading and a final self-reflection exercise
Faculty
- Johnnie Moore Unhurried Conversations
- Evelyn Gilbert-Bair, consultant in elite university admissions, educator, PhD candidate (Cambridge) in education
- Dr Loes Damhof UNESCO Chair Futures Literacy
- Juliet Alexander Guyanese-born British educator, journalist and television presenter
- Richard Good Catalyst and educator, Eden Project
- Pam Horton Eden Leadership Manager, Eden Project
- Dan Ryan Ecologist, Eden Project
- Dr Alison Wood Changemakers, Homerton College, Cambridge
Logistics
- Apply by 24 January using this short form, including a short paragraph on why you want to participate.
- GameChangers is open to all current Homerton students whatever your year level, subject or degree.
- The cohort is kept to 20-25 places each year, and places are awarded by application. The programme is offered annually.
- As GameChangers is relationally-based participants are asked to commit to attending all programme sessions.
- Alongside structured sessions there will be prompts for thinking and self-led exercises to support your journey through a programme that draws on substantial academic and professional experience. Please note, however, that GameChangers is not only academic - it asks you to explore other ways of learning and experiencing. Many sessions will be experiential, relational and reflective, with minimal powerpoint or lecturing. Our time in Cornwall will mostly be outdoors - in woodlands & on the coast - and the biomes of the Eden Project. The field trip will require capacity for walking in wilderness and on steep coastal paths.
- Participants will be asked to contribute £75 towards the cost of the programme. If this will be a difficulty, please contact Changemakers’ Academic Director Dr Alison Wood in the first instance.
- An application to the programme means you agree to the best of your ability to attend all programme sessions. If - due to illness, family emergency etc - you are not able to attend a session please contact the programme convenor Dr Alison Wood as soon as possible. 90% attendance is required to earn a certificate of completion.
- All costs, less £75, will be covered by Changemakers, including travel to and accommodation at The Eden Project.
Post-programme reflection
You will be asked to create a reflective piece on your experience of the GameChangers programme. Reflections can take on any form you like - a short essay (500 words), photo essay, a poem, a diary entry, a video, an object - and will be due 1 July 2025