Two-part online program
1st part: Sep 10 to Oct 10
2nd part: Oct 25 to Nov 21
= Register by Sep 4 =
The Challenge
Today’s rapidly changing world keeps asking more of us than we’re prepared for.
We feel it in the big, obvious ways – climate crisis, political turbulence, pervasive inequalities, institutional breakdown – yet also in immediate, daily ways:
- The complexity you’re trying to navigate with tools and systems that were never designed for it.
- The relationship pattern that isn’t working but you can’t seem to change it.
- The dynamics of your group that often falls short of your aspirations.
The problems aren’t individual failings. They’re an inheritance of cultural blind spots in what we’ve learned at home, at school, in the workplace cultures we inhabit, and in the broader society we’re part of.
Each has taught us a lot, but they were missing crucial skillsets and capacities that we need in today’s world.
The Opportunity
Once we start to see behind the blind spots, breakdown can turn into breakthrough.
Imagine a world where we could …
- partner skillfully with our nervous systems for emotional resilience and expanded cognitive ability
- think systemically, to hold complexity without overwhelm
- navigate through challenges to outcomes that serve everyone involved as well as the larger whole
- collaborate authentically and effectively
- develop and contribute our uniquely human capacities for creativity, intuition, discernment, somatic awareness, courage, and compassion
- design and inhabit organizations and institutions based on these abilities
These are what we call Essential Capacities.
In today’s accelerating world, they aren’t optional; they’re foundational. They can be learned. And AI will never replace them.
Most of the time we move through life unaware of the paradigms that profoundly shape our experience and imagination. This program illuminates those invisible existing paradigms, cohesively articulates a new paradigm for the next evolution of humanity, and provides practical tools to put the new paradigm into practice now.
CG – transportation policy strategist
Our Solution
Here at Context Institute, we’ve designed a pair of 4-week online programs to help you learn, practice, and embody these essential capacities – and then continue to deepen into them in community with others in the program.
We’ve distilled:
- four decades of experience in group process, cultural change strategies, and personal development
- leading-edge knowledge in neuroscience, complexity science, anthropology, organizational development, and related disciplines
You’ll learn to apply practical methodologies to 1) support personal growth and resilience, 2) enhance project and organizational development, and 3) design better systems for responding to a world that’s grown beyond its capacity to cope – all three in integrated, mutually-supportive ways that go beyond our culture’s inherited blind spots.
The Essential Capacities Program
Part 1: Expanding Personal and Collaborative Capabilities
Sep 10 – Oct 10
Upgrade your personal “operating system” to navigate complexity.
- Develop greater self-awareness, emotional agility, cognitive flexibility, and advanced collaborative skills.
- Learn to stay grounded in the face of complexity and uncertainty.
- Practice relating across differences, working in ways that integrate value for yourself, others, and the whole.
The first part is open to everyone and is a prerequisite for the second part.
Part 2: Co-Evolving Whole-System Organizations and Cultures
Oct 25 – Nov 21
Learn how to apply Part 1 skills to groups, organizations, and culture at any scale.
- work with complex adaptive human systems
- design healthier, more productive organizations
- support whole-system cultural evolution in real-world contexts
Together, Parts 1 and 2 help you:
- bring your initiatives into the world with more clarity and momentum
- build your capacity to adapt in a rapidly changing world
- understand your inner dynamics and stay resilient under pressure
- work with others more effectively and more productively
- develop and adopt new “cultural DNA” patterns that make the old ways of business-as-usual obsolete
- train AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT on Essential Capacities program material, for personalized support in your projects
Click here to register
Even the best of our well-intentioned projects, if they’re still rooted in old paradigms, could fall short – but this program provides a platform for truly innovative, higher-level thinking.
KL – entrepreneur focused on community connection
The Investment
How much time will it take?
The program is structured to be deep yet time-efficient:
- Weekly content can be read in 1-2 hours.
- Experiential activities can be integrated into your daily life.
- Weekly Zoom meetings:
- 1 large-group session (under 2 hours) Thursday or Saturday 10 am PT
- 1 small-group triad session (about 1 hour) by mutual agreement
- 24/7 private online community for connection, reflection, and project support
What does it cost?
Part 1 only:
- Individual: $375
- Supporting rate: $475
- Group rate: $325
Both parts:
- Individual: $700
- Supporting rate: $850
- Group rate: $600
Also available:
- Payment plans can be scheduled for up to 12 months.
- Scholarships are available for both parts. Contact us.
The supporting rate registration contributes to our Scholarship Fund and helps us continue our commitment to geographic, age, and background diversity. Group rate is available when two or more people who work or live together register for the same part(s).
Click here to register
FAQs
- Where can I learn more about the background for this program?
- For more depth on the capacities and the program, watch Essential Capacities, a 49-min video presentation.
- For the overall approach to cultural change that this program is part of, read Co-Evolving the CulturalOS, a 5-min read, or watch The Territory Ahead, a 32-min video presentation.
- For more depth on the framework this program is based on, read Foundational Keys, a 19-min read.
- Will you be offering this series in the future? Yes. And if you take only Part 1 now, you can take Part 2 in a later cycle.
- What’s your refund policy? We offer a full refund for each part through the first week of that part. Even if you’ve registered for both parts and decide to drop Part 2, you’ll be refunded the difference between the combined rate and the Part 1 rate.
