The Courageous Wholeness Organizational Pilot

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The work of the Center for Courageous Wholeness is grounded in the Flame leadership development model.  Most organizations have thoughtful approaches already in place to develop staff at the “DO” and “KNOW” levels of the Flame, and many also already focused on cultivating and sustaining a positive and productive ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE.  But very few organizations have a thoughtful approach to developing staff at the innermost “BE” level of the Flame.  The Courageous Wholeness Method exists to address that blindspot. 

The Courageous Wholeness Method is an approach to developing staff at the innermost “BE” level of the Flame. It involves guiding individuals through a powerful process of connecting with purpose, confronting shadow, and engaging in daily practices focused on working skillfully with inner wholeness.  It is designed to complement exisiting approaches to training and development and performance management.

By helping staff connect more deeply to their own sense of purpose, this work has a proven ability to strengthen engagement with organizational life and individual resilience in the face of constant change and uncertainty.  It’s an innovative approach to deepening self-awareness and personal responsibility, and it provides language and frameworks that make it possible to address blind spots and weaknesses in productive ways.  It’s a proven approach to building a new organizational capacity to guide large numbers of staff through a meaningful process of inner development that includes a focus on confronting shadow

The Center for Courageous Wholeness recently created an AI-powered app that guides users through this process in ways that are both highly personalized and scalable.

The Courageous Wholeness Organizational Pilot is an opportunity for a carefully selected cohort of three organizational leaders to integrate the Courageous Wholeness Method into their talent development work.   

Here’s what you need to know:

  • The Courageous Wholeness Method draws on more than two decades of leadership development work with thousands of servant leaders at organizations including City Year and the New Politics Academy. At its essence, it involves the following experiences: 

    -Crafting a Personal Leadership Mission Statement
    -Crafting a related Shadow Mission  
    -Completing daily “Return to Presence” activities focused on building skills related to working with light and shadow within the self

    It is a highly personal and deeply meaningful approach to leadership development that has been designed to complement other approaches that focus more on building skills, strengths, competencies, and other facets of self-awareness. text goes here

  • This method and the related app were both developed by Dr. Max Klau, a Harvard-trained expert in servant leadership development, Integral Master Coach, author and speaker.

    Dr. Klau received his Ed.D. with a focus on adaptive leadership in 2005 and then built his career in the national service movement.  Over the course of ten years, he worked his way up to becoming the Vice President of Leadership Development at City Year, the education-focused AmeriCorps program currently operating in 29 different U.S. cities.  He then became the Chief Program Officer at the New Politics Academy, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on recruiting and developing servant leaders–military vets and alumni of national service programs–to run for elected office.  In that capacity, he designed the entire pipeline of NPA leadership programs that have graduated more than 2,500 servant leaders to date.  

    The approach is described in detail in Dr. Klau’s new book, Developing Servant Leaders at Scale: How to Do It and Why It Matters.

  • The pilot is an opportunity for 8-12 experienced organizational leaders to integrate the Courageous Wholeness Method into their work with a carefully selected cohort from their organization.  

    Perhaps it is just their direct reports, or a full department, or perhaps a full staff. 

    We are hoping that participants will engage somewhere between 8-20 staff in this work. As part of the application process, we invite organizational leaders to tell us who in their organization will be involved in the pilot and why they believe that cohort is strategic. 

    We are intentionally keeping this inaugural cohort small so we can provide personalized support and gather deep feedback from participants.


  • This pilot is for senior organizational leaders who have some level of responsibility for staff development within your organization.  This may include Executive Directors, HR leaders, talent-development leaders, or department heads.  You have the authority required to initiate this kind of pilot with a strategically selected cohort of staff at your place of work. You recognize the importance of shadow work and inner development, and you are excited about the chance bring this work to your people.

  • -You will access a proven and sophisticated framework for helping staff members connect with purpose, confront shadow, and engage in daily practices focused on working skillfully with their wholeness

    -You will get an opportunity to integrate this Courageous Wholeness Method into the talent development work at your organization through use of the app, in a process that provides high levels of support and guidance

    -You will connect with a community of practice of fellow organizational leaders learning how to do this work

    -Organizational leaders who complete the pilot will be certified as members of the Founding Cohort of Organizational Leaders trained in the Courageous Wholeness Method. 

  • -The Center will gain invaluable knowledge regarding how best to support organizations in integrating this method and related app into their approach to talent development

    -Insights into how best to promote usability and engagement with the app and how best to support skillful integration of the method into organizational life

    -Begin building the community of organizational leaders working skillfully with the Courageous Wholeness Method

    -Acquire experience and evaluation data to inform all efforts to scale up use of the app in the years ahead. 

  • The pilot is a three-month commitment that includes the following elements:

    -Pilot Launch Call
    Over the course of a 90-minute Zoom call, we’ll get to know each other, experience the Center’s approach to working with light and shadow, and learn how the app works.


    -Organizational Leader Learning Period
    All pilot participants will spend a week interacting with the app on a daily basis themselves before sharing it with staff in their organization.  This will involve completing a 2-5 minute reflection activity every day. 

    -Organizational Roll-Out
    Each pilot participant will then formally roll out the app to the selected cohort in their organization.  This will be done with support and close collaboration with Max and the Center for Courageous Wholeness. 

    -Organizational Leader Community of Practice
    Pilot participants will gather once a month for a one-hour community of practice call focused on learning from each other’s experiences integrating the app into their organizations

    -Ongoing Support for Participants
    Max will be available via emails and phone calls throughout the duration of the pilot to provide support to individual participants as needed

    -Final Debrief Call
    At the conclusion of the pilot, we’ll gather for a one-hour final debrief call to share learnings and bring the experience to a meaningful close

    -Pre- and Post Online Evaluation
    Both organizational leaders and the staff who are involved in this pilot will be expected to complete a brief 5-7 minute online survey at the very beginning and at the end their work with this method.           

  • The pilot will run from July-Sept 2027.  Exact dates for the Launch Call and Community of Practice calls will be determined based on the availability of organizational leaders accepted into this pilot. 

    Organizational leaders have a great deal of flexibility in terms of how to integrate the app into their work with their colleagues.

  • There is a sliding fee for organizational leaders to participate in this pilot, based on the number of staff who will be involved in the pilot:

    $199      3-8 staff
    $299      8-15 staff
    $399     15-20 staff
    TBD      20 or more staff

  • Complete this brief application form to express your interest in getting involved with this pilot. 

    The deadline to apply is midnight on FRIDAY, JUNE 26th.

    Participants will hear back from the Center by Friday July 3rd regarding their participation in the pilot.

  • Reach out to maxklau@courageouswholeness.org with any additional questions.

Apply to participate