LEADERSHIP DELI
Lead with VISION
Christiana Allen-Pipkin, Leadership Deli ’22
Since 2014, Leadership Deli has helped nearly three hundred fifty (350) leaders and one hundred (100) organizations improve their impact. This cohort experience creates space for leaders to reflect, hear fresh perspectives, and gain useful tools. Here, you’ll find a community to nurture your growth and help you activate your vision.
Applications for Leadership Deli 2024 are now closed. Click below to stay in the loop on your next opportunity to join the program!
Why Leadership DELI and why NEW?
Our communities and organizations are stronger when we share our learnings and collaborate with each other. We need space to reflect, strengthen, and build skills that help leaders steward their missions. Leadership Deli drives connections between mission-driven leaders who can support each other in realizing their visions.
“Of all of the professional development opportunities I have participated in over the course of my career, this was by far the best I have ever attended. It was so well run, fully engaging, amazing content experts and it was very enjoyable, actually fun. I learned a lot and I feel the program was an amazing catapult to make my programs much more successful and personally for me, a better leader with a clear vision of how to serve more effectively. I am so grateful for this opportunity and for all of the hard work it took to make this program so special.”
Scott Roubeck, Food Gatherers
Abbey Davis
Organizational Development Consultant, NEW
THE Leadership DELI EXPERIENCE
Leadership Deli is a cohort learning experience for leaders in organizations of all stages and sizes. Across eight (8) four-hour (4 hour) sessions, you’ll try out new ideas, tools, and concepts, and put them to work at your organization. You’ll gain relational tools to challenge and disrupt outdated concepts of leadership. You’ll grow alongside other developing and flourishing leaders. You’ll gain valuable insight from our partners in the social change ecosystem. And you’ll be encouraged to imagine and reimagine how organizations can and should behave in a changing world.
Along the way, you’ll:
- Develop a vision for the future and support one another in moving towards these visions.
- Gain new tools and knowledge to improve your leadership skills, tailored to the realities of mission-driven work.
- Cultivate connections with a community of other equity and justice-minded leaders in Southeast Michigan.
SESSIONS
Visionary leadership takes insight from across the societal ecosystem. Leadership Deli convenes our community’s leading experts to share business and leadership lessons with you. Your facilitators include ZingTrain, Henry Ford Learning Institute, and NEW.
Orientation & Ways of Being
Friday, March 1st (03/01/24), 9am – 11am
In this engaging and fun session, you’ll meet the rest of your cohort. Together, you’ll solidify your aspirations and objectives for the program, and get a sense of what’s to come.
Led by NEW
Soul Care
Friday, March 8th (03/08/24), 9am – 1pm
Strong leaders are self-aware and centered. We’ll start by thinking through how we care for ourselves as leaders. Then, we’ll explore how we cultivate an ethic of compassion and human wholeness in our teams. Together, we’ll examine what’s most important in our work and how we accomplish it.
Led by NEW
Visioning
Friday, March 22nd (03/22/24), 9am – 1pm
Doesn’t it just make sense that if you know where you want to end up, it will be easier to figure out how to get there? We think so too, which is why we are such proponents of visioning. Our approach applies on any scale—from articulating the future of your organization in 20 years to figuring out a successful marketing campaign. Get inspired, and then get going!
Led by ZingTrain
Building Empathy Through Design Thinking
Friday, April 5th (04/05/24), 9am – 1pm
The search for transformational solutions requires us to creatively engage with clients and other stakeholders. In this session, Henry Ford Learning Institute shares their expertise in human-centered design (Design Thinking), a collection of methods that allow us to reframe problems and act on them. You’ll learn to approach problems and relationships with new perspectives and build deeper empathy for your team, organization, communities and/or clients.
Led by Henry Ford Learning Institute
Creating Cultures of Belonging
Friday, April 19th (04/19/24), 9am – 1pm
Important, complex questions lie before today’s leaders. How can we unlock the potential and possibility needed to radically transform our communities? How can we honor the ecosystem and the whole? How can we design and act in ways that bend the long arc of history towards balance and harmony? As leaders, we’re all being called to higher ground. We must help each other, and those we work alongside, to heal from collective harm.
In this session, we’ll explore principles and practices for cultivating cultures of learning and courageous leadership. Please note that this session will require pre-reading.
Led by NEW
After Hours
Wednesday, April 24th (04/24/24), 4pm – 6pm
Come out for an evening of connection, reflection and community-building across cohorts, past and present.
Bottom-Line Change
Friday, May 10th (05/10/24), 9am – 1pm
Whether you love it or don’t, you probably agree that change is challenging. Creating it. Having it “done to” you. Making it stick. Helping it work. After learning that there will always be change to deal with, Zingerman’s came up with a recipe – Bottom Line Change® – that they use to roll out all organizational changes, from moving the office printer to opening a new business. Learn the recipe for making change a lot less stressful for all involved and a lot more likely to stick and, best of all, for getting people in the organization rooting for its success!
Led by ZingTrain
Restorative Leadership
Friday, May 17th (05/17/24), 9am – 1pm
Conflict is inevitable, especially when we’re working towards social change and cultures of belonging. Let’s get clear on what conflict is and how it shows up at all levels: internally, interpersonally, and organizationally. Restorative leaders have a clear understanding of how their identities and experiences influence how they build relationships, communicate, and engage in conflict.
Led by NEW and The Dispute Resolution Center
Communicating Your Vision
Friday, May 31st (05/31/24), 9am – 1pm
Throughout Leadership Deli, you’ll be encouraged to develop and refine your vision for the future. This final session will include an opportunity to share your vision with fellow cohort members, and to engage in dialogue around what it means to hold this vision, and where you are heading as a leader, as you move toward this vision.
Led by NEW
A FEW OF OUR Participating peers- Past & Present
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do I know if Leadership DELI is right for me and my organization?
Leadership Deli is open to leaders from across SE Michigan. “Leader,” however, is a loose term. If you have influence and a vision for a just and thriving society, you’re welcome here. If you’re ready for the inspiration, community, tools and knowledge to make that vision real, this program is for you.
Your organization is invited to send up to two (2) team members to join in Leadership Deli. Prior experience has taught us that this is one of the best ways to impact institutional change.
You can do more than pass on management best-practices. Invest in your team!
How much does Leadership DELI cost?
The actual cost of Leadership Deli is $4,500 per organization (for two (2) individuals to participate), which NEW further subsidizes through contributions. These contributions give organizations flexibility to pay a participation fee of $3,000, $2,000, $1,000, or another amount that closely aligns with their financial capacities. We strive to honor the financial circumstances of your organization and will do our best to make it work.
In the application, you’ll be asked to share your organization’s annual operating budget, the budgeted amount of funds available for professional development, and the participation fee that best aligns with your organization’s expectations and ability to pay. This information will help us suggest a participation fee that fits the needs of the overall cohort.
Even if you are concerned about the cost, we encourage you to apply. We will do our absolute best to make it work.
Your ability to pay will in no way affect your application to the program.
We encourage employers to sponsor their staff. Prior experience has taught us that this is one of the best ways to impact institutional change. If you want to sponsor your team, we recommend first reviewing the application criteria. Then it’s best to check in with both members on their interest and capacity to engage. After that, ask them to complete the applications. You can offer more than “best practices” in management. Invest in your team!
How are participants selected?
Applications for the next cohort of Leadership Deli will open on January 5th, 2024 (01/05/24) at 9am until January 31st (01/31/24) at 9am.
Please invite two (2) members of your team to apply to participate in Leadership Deli. Prior experience has taught us that this is one of the best ways to impact institutional change. Having someone to reflect with and bounce ideas off of, both during and after the program, makes a difference.
Decisions: Communicated on or around Friday, February 3 (02/03/24).
To join Leadership Deli you and your organization must be:
- Open to learning, ready to engage, and willing to be vulnerable.
- Ready to grow on your own and as a collective. You must and be willing to lean into discussions that challenge the status quo.
- Committed to deepening relationships in our community. Participants are expected to fully engage in all sessions to cultivate a shared-learning space.
In Leadership Deli, we strive to bring together a diverse cohort of people with a wide range of lived experiences to foster creativity and innovation. NEW centers people and communities that are historically underrepresented or marginalized in our work. This includes people that have been excluded, denied access, or limited in their influence due to unequal POWER dynamics based on their race or ethnicity, age, ability status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and other markers of identity. As we’re building our cohort we’ll consider organizational and prospective participants’ personal identities.
We’ll consider your organization’s:
- Type
- Location
- Size
- Operating budget
- BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) engagement
Your identities, including your:
- Role and experience in the organization
- Race/ethnicity
- Generation
- Gender (identity or expression, beyond the binary welcome)
- Sexual orientation
- Ability status
Interested in joining the Leadership Deli community? Click the button below to sign up for updates
What's the schedule for 2024?
All sessions listed below are required for participants to attend, unless otherwise noted. Sessions will take place in person at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn. Session will run from 9am – 1pm, and include a catered lunch with the cohort from 12pm – 1pm.
We will monitor and adhere to Wayne County and CDC guidelines related to COVID-19 for all in person gatherings.
| Session | Date |
| Orientation & Ways of Being | Friday, March 1st (03/01/24) 9am – 11am |
| Soul Care | Friday, March 8th (03/08/24) 9am – 1pm |
| Visioning | Friday, March 22nd (03/22/24) 9am – 1pm |
| Building Empathy Through Design Thinking | Friday, April 5th (04/05/24) 9am – 1pm |
| Creating Cultures of Belonging | Friday, April 19th (04/19/24) 9am – 1pm |
| After Hours (Social Gathering) | Wednesday, April 24th (04/24/24) 4pm – 6pm |
| Bottom-Line Change | Friday, May 10th (05/10/24) 9am – 1pm |
| Restorative Leadership | Friday, May 17th (05/17/24) 9am – 1pm |
| Communicating Your Vision | Friday, May 31st (05/31/24) 9am – 1pm |