Collaborative Leadership Lab

Discover and practice how to lead with love

Join the CLL ongoing practice community and explore how to interact, facilitate, and support systemic change through collaborative leadership and nonviolence. The lab centers learning by doing with live coaching, self-organized group practice, real-plays, and navigating emerging situations.

The CLL community culture emphasizes shared responsibility for caring for needs, getting things done, and engaging with challenges. We ask that you only join if you usually have the capacity to actively participate. Calls are recorded and shared with people who participate.

Not ready to join us? Read more below or tell us what support you need to join.

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Top-down decisions or endless discussions. Is anything else possible?

Join our collaborative leadership practice community to build your skills with integrative decisions and taking action that cares for everyone’s needs. Get yourself and others unstuck. Invite creative solutions. Bring energy and hope into difficult conversations.

No formal leadership or facilitation experience is needed.

Network offering: This lab is hosted by the Integration Station collective in partnership with facilitators who may use different frameworks. We engage with different views on how to live nonviolence as an opportunity to deepen our learning and practice integration.

Grow your skills in how to:

We will also explore how to participate in ways that care for the group, even when you are not the leader or facilitator.

How much does it cost?

Join us in making this offering sustainable and accessible for everyone!

As part of transitioning away from capitalism, we are experimenting with ways of sharing money based on needs, instead of using fixed prices based on market value or demand. You might be familiar with this approach, often called gift economy or financial co-responsibility. We ask everyone to contribute as much as they are willing and able, and no one is required to pay to participate.

Yes, you can join our sessions without sending us any money, they truly are a gift. At the same time, we need money to be able to offer them. So we ask for your help with making our community sustainable. You can gift us money (even if you don’t participate), request funding from your organization, or start a fundraiser. You can also support us by inviting more people, taking notes, or helping build our community. We welcome questions about our approach to gifting and how to participate.

Can I get a standard price?

We realize that gifting can be a big leap for some people when most of us live in capitalist societies that value profit and competition. Social norms and habits like “I should get a good deal” or “it’s not ok to pay less” often disconnect people from their needs, sense of choice, and the joy of giving and receiving.

We want to welcome everyone regardless of their willingness or ability to engage with gifting. If you just want an average number to gift, please select between 500 and 800 USD (450 and 720 euros) for a two-month cycle. You can still choose a much smaller or bigger amount; we only offer this simple guidance to support you. We also offer paid registration if you need it to get access to training funds or financial support from your organization.

How much money is needed?

The organizing team currently cares for the costs and all tasks needed to offer the space. This includes the zoom room, file storage, website, registration, materials, recordings, email support, facilitation, and coaching. We need an average of $600-$900 per weekly session to cover our costs and care for the needs of all organizers (3 people).

We are taking on the risk of not receiving enough money because we really want to move away from capitalism. This is a small step towards our dream of a world where resources flow freely to where they are needed. Receiving less than we need means that we do more paid work elsewhere to help us fund the lab, and may eventually lead to pausing or stopping the lab. Receiving more means we would be able to offer more support and give more energy to our nonviolent systemic change projects.

Since we started the lab in 2024, we have received less than $100 per session (in total from all participants), which means we are mostly funding it through other work.

What if I need a paid registration?

If you need proof of a paid registration or a listed price to get access to funds, please use these guidelines and process instead of gifting (for example if you are using a training budget, expense reimbursement, or grant money).

Prices for paid registration:

• Registration for one cycle (2 months): $800
• Registration for a full year: $3800

Process for paid registration:

• Complete the registration form and mention that you need a paid registration
• Include your organization’s or program’s invoice details and payment process
• We will send you an invoice or contact you for additional information

How can I send you gifts?

These money transfer options are only for gifts. Thank you for joining us in moving toward a gift economy!

Please write “Personal gift” in the transfer description or reference.

For gifts in EUR or other currencies: Wise

Use Wise: https://wise.com/invite/u/roniw8
Send to: consultingroni@gmail.com in Euros (preferred) or another currency if it reduces fees for you
Fees: Same currency free, otherwise less than $5 (free first time if you use my link)

For gifts in USD: Zelle

Zelle: direct transfer from your bank (available through most US banks. You can access Zelle directly from your banking app, Zelle app, or use this link: https://www.zellepay.com to find your bank)
Send to: LeslieBecknellMarx@gmail.com
Fees: None

For gifts in USD: PayPal

PayPal: Use this link: https://paypal.me/LBecknellMarx-USD-Gifts-Collab-Lead-Lab
Fees: None when you please select “For Friends and Family” on the second screen

What are the sessions like?

We gather weekly to deeply engage with and practice principles for collaborative leadership and nonviolent facilitation. We work with actual challenges people bring or practices they want to try. Everyone is also invited to learn by observing or role-playing in scenarios brought by others.

As we grow our community, we plan to co-create the learning experience by shaping the space and choosing what to do together.

A typical session includes:

• Participant-led practice on real-life examples with support and coaching (observing is possible and active participation is preferred)
• Small group reflection and harvesting relevant learning
• Short (10-15 minutes) teaching of a concept or method
• Optional after-party for debrief, deeper engagement, additional practice, and informal connections

2-month themed cycles:

We follow a 2-month rhythm to support planning and reflection. The first session in each cycle focuses on orientation and how we want to lead together. We end each cycle with review, reflection, and shaping the next cycle. Caring for our community and helping to shape the space is a part of practicing collaborative leadership.

We recommend attending the sessions consistently and watching the recordings of any sessions you miss. This supports everyone’s learning as we create shared understanding and build the trust needed to try new things together and engage with feedback.

Our past schedule (2024-2025)

• Cycle 1: Oct 16 to Dec 18, 2024
• Cycle 2: Jan 8 to Feb 26, 2025
• Cycle 3: Mar 5 to April 30, 2025
• break May-June
• Cycle 4: July 9 to August 27, 2025
• Cycle 5: Sep 3 to Oct 29, 2025
• Cycle 6: Nov 5 to Dec 10, 2025

Ongoing cycles in 2026 follow a similar pattern. The last cycle in 2026 will likely start in November.

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How is a lab different from a workshop?

Workshops and courses usually present a lot of content within a fixed structure.

Instead, you will be invited to:

• Bring and practice with real life challenges and opportunities
• Self-organize and co-create activities
• Re-do situations to experience alternatives
• Re-shape the lab space itself as an experiment with collaborative leadership
• Receive live feedback about how people experience your actions

Is a lab a good fit for me?

You are more likely to benefit from and enjoy this practice community if you are:

• familiar with nonviolence, Nonviolent Communication (NVC), or other alternatives to right/wrong thinking
• willing to practice unfamiliar things and risk making mistakes (with support)
• able to experience some discomfort and stay present
• open to coaching and feedback
• motivated to take action that cares for everyone when your needs are not met

Meet the organizing team

The lab is organized by a few dedicated people who are passionate about supporting systemic change through community learning. The main person behind the scenes is Melissa Jones, who takes care of essential and often underappreciated tasks: she responds to registrations, sends reminder emails, keeps documents and recordings up to date, and provides email support. Roni and Leslie are the main facilitators and coaches.

Roni Wiener (they/them)

I help people discover how to get things done efficiently by caring for each other. I enjoy guiding groups to integrative solutions that everyone can support. I’m currently most passionate about supporting organizations and communities with collaborative decisions and sustainable change. I offer consulting, workshops, coaching, and meeting facilitation.

I use gift economy principles to keep my work sustainable and prioritize the needs of people with less access to resources. I am also co-leading the Integration Station collective, where we organize events for making more collaborative decisions. I love co-creating spaces and communities where everyone’s needs matter.

I draw on diverse sources of wisdom, including Nonviolent Communication, Convergent Facilitation, Sociocracy, Open Floor, Theory U, and my academic education in Psychology, Sociology, and Gender Studies.

With each decision that truly cares for everyone, no matter how small, we help build a future with more participatory government, interdependent communities, restorative responses to conflict, and sustainable economies with needs-based distribution of resources.

Leslie Becknell Marx (she/her)

I help people develop authentic leadership, bringing their unique gifts and perspectives to serve meaningful purposes and care for others. I work primarily with leaders in large organizations to understand their impact and lead intentionally from their vision and values. I design and lead interactive training programs, implement leadership simulations, provide personal coaching, and facilitate meetings and workshops.

I love creative expression, believing it energizes us to contribute to our communities and organizations. My creative outlets include writing, Playback Theater, various dance forms, and storytelling.

I believe learning is more effective when it is active and embodied. To move from head (intellectual understanding) to heart (meaningful integration) and hand (active practice and application), we need to engage and experiment.

I draw on diverse wisdom sources, including Nonviolent Communication, Convergent Facilitation, Creative Problem Solving, and my academic background in International Affairs and Theology. Key influences are Miki Kashtan, Sarah Peyton, Roxy Manning, and Arnina Kashtan.

My purpose is to foster interconnection through expansive conversations and experiences, deepening mutual understanding and opening possibilities for thriving communities of belonging. My hope is that the Collaborative Leadership Lab will be such a community.