SWoN Training Series: 3-Month Acceleration Program

The Program’s Structure

5 modules of 2 weeks.
Half a day of core content per module.
3 immersive Integration Tracks.
3 cohort-wide meetups.
Online community interaction.

The SWoN Series 3-Month Acceleration Program draws on a combination of Core Content, live Integration Tracks and interactions in the SWoN Community. The Core Content (videos, resources and tools) gives you the knowledge to drive Sustainability-as-the-World-Needs from your current position.

The 3 Integration Tracks help you bring the learnings into your work and life, procedurally, cognitively and emotionally. There will also be three cohort-wide meetups during the Series, to help you connect with your fellow participants.

Core Content

The Core Content entails up to 2 hours of videos and further reading for each module, and practical resources or tools, which may take you about half a day to review.

Integration Tracks

These are designed to help you integrate learnings from the Core Content into your work and life. 

The Practical and Personal Integration Sessions are in a workshop-style format, where you can experiment with different tools from the Series, as well as focus on your personal development. Each session is 2 hours long.

The Community Integration Sessions are a safe space to gather, share thoughts, experiences and emotions that may arise during the series. Each session is 1.5 hours long.

Read more about the 3 Integration Tracks

Cohort-wide Meetups

There will be 3 Cohort-wide Meetups throughout the Series: one at the beginning, one in the middle, and another at the end.

These meetups are an opportunity to ask questions, connect with fellow participants, foster potential collaborations, share resources, exchange knowledge across different businesses and industries, and inspire one another. They are a supportive community environment where members can interact and benefit from mutual inspiration.

Program Outline

The Acceleration Program is newly divided into 5 modules.

The Modules bookended by an Orientation week and concluding cohort-wide meetup, with a one-week breather break half way through. The Series spans 13 weeks in total - just about 3 months.

Each module runs for 2 weeks.

The Core Content entails up to 2 hours of videos and further reading, and practical resources or tools, which may take you about half a day to review.

On the Full Integration Membership, each module contains 1.5h of Community Integration, 2h of Practical Integration and 2h of Personal Integration live sessions.

Participants on the Full Integration Membership would have approximately 5 days to assimilate the core content at their own pace, before joining the first Practical Integration session.

Participants on the Do-it-yourself Integration Membership can take the full two week period to assimilate the core content and work on their prompts and suggested “homework” (suggested practical steps to try-out interventions in your professional life).

Module Example

The core content within each module will span up to 2 hours of videos or equivalent in reading material, with additional recommended resources. This means that a participant who regularly pauses for reflection or note-taking may spend 4-6 hours in total in assimilating the core content - spread over multiple days if you wish. We release each module’s core content on a Friday.

Read more about the 3 Integration Tracks

Cohort 2 Dates

Program Overview

Click on the image below to expand it to fullscreen, or open it as a pdf.

Our Delivery Model

We’ve designed the Series to marry three key elements:

    • We aim to facilitate learning on all 3 levels: Head (knowledge/insights), Hands (tools, skills and practice) and Heart (emotional processing and personal growth) - which we believe to be the best practice for outcome-oriented programs. You learn all: the concepts, how to tactically deploy them, and how to handle yourself and interactions with others while working towards a systemic transformation. This holistic design is reflected in both the Do-it-yourself Integration Membership and Full Integration Membership, although the latter offers substantially more interaction.

    • Acknowledging and respectful of everyone’s hectic schedules, we deliver much of the practical takeaways top-down - so that even if the intensity of your life does not allow for extensive ideation, you still complete the program equipped with actionable tips, tricks and procedures. At the same time, you are encouraged and welcome to co-create.

  • The program format is inclusive in more ways than one:

    • Inclusiveness of different natural predispositions and prior knowledge: While we offer all 3 elements, the Head, Hands and Heart, we don’t force-feed either of them, and welcome people across the Head-Heart continuum: if you’re highly rationally-minded, you’re free to opt-out from heart-first content or activities. And vice-versa.

      You are also free to opt-out from any of the 3 integration tracks that you feel overlap with your existing skills or do not add substantial benefit to you personally (for example, if you’re highly trained in social skills; or if you very easily pick up and apply concepts without prior rehearsal).

    • Inclusiveness of all global locations: We deliver all live sessions (cohort-wide meetups and Integration Sessions) in 2 time zones that span most of the world.

      If your location changes throughout the cohort’s duration, you can attend sessions in the other slot without any notification to us or admin burden involved.

      From Cohort 2 onwards, all top-down knowledge transfer is delivered via pre-recorded videos and reading material, which you can consume at your own pace and when it suits you best.

    • Inclusiveness of different levels of access to privilege: We offer 2 different price-tiers for self payers. We also offer the much more accessible do-it-yourself version of the Series, without any integration tracks, while aiming to enable this self-facilitation as much as possible with prompts, stimuli, and free non-facilitated options for integration within the SWoN Community.

      From Cohort 2 we newly offer need-and-merit-based scholarships and the possibility to split the fee (at any tier) into 2 instalments. Finally, we’ll seek more active ways to support candidates who may be able to claim employer funding for the Series.

  • We recognize the emotional impact that engaging with existential issues can have on individuals. Therefore, we prioritise fostering a space where participants feel not just safe, but genuinely comfortable sharing their thoughts and emotions. It is also for this reason that the Personal Integration Sessions, Cohort-wide Meetups and Community Integration are not recorded.

    We have a “go-to” team member and trained coach available to provide basic support if challenging emotions surface. They can also guide you to relevant information, therapists, coaches, or community groups for further support, as needed.

    Individual mentoring/coaching sessions are available (at extra cost) for those who feel the need for personal support.

The 3 Tracks of Integration in Cohort 2

Based on feedback from our Cohort 1 participants, we have enriched Cohort 2 design with 3 dedicated tracks of live integration sessions, each serving a specific purpose:

  • These are 2-hour recorded live sessions in which you can practise applying the concepts, approaches and tools covered in each module’s core content focused on technical expertise. This may include discussing examples of real-life companies in breakout rooms, running through mock procedures, or role-playing scenarios with your peers in the cohort.

    The sessions are facilitated by Alice Kalro and/or other members of the SWoN team. They run in two time zones covering most of the globe, like all SWoN live sessions.

    Apart from direct practice, each Practical Integration session will offer room for live Q&A, as well as reflection / discussion within the group.

  • These are 2-hour non-recorded live sessions in which you will go deeper into the models and approaches covered in each module’s core content focused on personal development. They cover the foundational social and emotional skills for bringing SWoN into practice.

    The sessions delve into techniques for nurturing personal well-being, managing responses in challenging situations and balancing a deep understanding of current existential challenges with the capacity to create new possibilities.

    Additionally, they provide insights into alliance building and fostering effective collaborations to drive a transformative agenda.

    The sessions are facilitated by Ffiona Devasabai and/or other members of the SWoN team. They run in two time zones covering most of the globe, like all SWoN live sessions.

    Apart from direct practice, each Personal Integration session will offer room for live Q&A, as well as reflection / discussion within the group.

  • Community Integration is a facilitated practice in which participants are provided with a safe space to open up and share the thoughts, challenges, emotions and/or cognitive distortions that might arise following engagement with the core content and/or Practical and Personal integration sessions.

    Sharing what is on our minds and hearts will make it easier to build and foster a community of allies that finds support and solace while working in a highly convoluted industry.

    By taking part in listening circles, participants will practise deep listening, noticing potential triggers and holding space for dissent.

    The live, non-recorded sessions run for 90 minutes, once per module, in two time zones. The Circle is facilitated by Marcela Scarpellini and/or other members of the SWoN team.

Outside of these Integration Tracks, participants on the baseline package will be able to ask questions and receive answers, discuss content, network and interact with their fellow Cohort members in the 3 Cohort-wide Meetup calls - at the beginning, middle and end of the Series run.

How to get the most out of the Program

As with any learning and development program, the value you receive is a shared responsibility between what we create and offer, and the time and level of engagement you bring.

We invite you to:

  • Participate in the live sessions (Cohort-wide Meetups and live Integration Sessions) as much as possible - get a chance to practise, co-create and bond with your fellow change agents in the cohort - some of whom may be your closest allies in mobilising your company or CEO or driving industry-wide systemic interventions;

  • In between live sessions, tune in into the online SWoN Community forum and/or join the peer-to-peer support and exchange groups, where you are free to discuss ideas, feelings, and/or how your interventions have been panning out with fellow participants;

  • Plan to continue engaging after the Series is over: launching joint interventions with us and your fellow change agents, sharing the lessons learnt, working jointly towards outcome metrics with past and future cohorts and external allies, and helping us to keep improving the curriculum and resources - until we see the theory of change materialise.