Beginnings, inspirations, and contributions

Update - During Covid-19

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 13:35:03 GMT

How our offer is evolving

There is much disruption and suffering because of the Covid-19 crisis . May you and your loved ones be healthy and safe in these times.

Krisis is derived from the Greek verb krino , which means "to divide", "to choose", "to judge", "to decide" but also "to measure", "to argue", "to fight". Crises are decision-making situations, existential struggles for the future. We contemplated on how we might contribute and arrived at:

Individual support during this crisis
Leadership coaching services for organizations
Online meetups for change leaders

1. Individual support

Some of the coaches in our network have made their support available for free or on a donation basis. If you are interested or in need of support, send us an email: info@homecomingacademy.com .

2. Leadership coaching services for organizations

The Homecoming Academy has started to serve as a platform for leadership coaching services. Well supported leaders make better decisions in securing the future for their organizations and staff, cause less suffering, and become more effective with each challenge they overcome.

For this, we are expanding our network of coaches . If better decision-making for less suffering resonates with you and you have personal leadership experience, robust psychological, coaching or therapeutical training, and a sustained personal contemplative practice - reach out to us.

3. Online Meetup for Change Leaders

Bi-weekly, we are offering an online meetup for change leaders. Below you find some impressions from our session with Rakesh Jain (Head of HR and business school professor from New Dehli, India) on "Unlearning."

Our aim is to support those who instigate, lead and facilitate change in organizations and provide:

Social and mental inspiration for less suffering and more joy
Mental models, frameworks, tools , practices for better decision-making
Support people in supporting each other across borders and affiliations

Each meetup features an international experienced change practitioner, who is interviewed on a topic of their choice. You can sign up for the meetups below. If you are interested in being featured and interviewed feel invited to write to us at info@homecomingacademy.com .

2020 Offer

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 10:40:11 GMT

Opportunities going forward

We met and co-created as a group of experienced consultants, coaches, therapists and academics at the beginning of the year at Kloster Lehnin. See above a beautiful scribing by Vivien Leung for some impressions.

We met online with our extended international network and continued to shape the offer. We went public during our second virtual open house (see picture below for some impressions).

In 2020, we will build and deliver:

Continuous Change Camp - Online Academy for personal, professional and spiritual development for change leaders. These might be business and functional managers leading change initiatives, HR Business Partners, Communication Manager, Organisationsentwickler, Agile Coaches, Project Managers. We will kick off with our first Monthly Change Leader Online Meetup on March 23. Register here now. For infos on the series visit here .

Coaching offer and pool – Better decision-making. Improved collaboration, resilience and mental health. Trauma-informed transformations. Robust maps for organizing and leading in complexity, harnessing psyche and body, spiritual and philosophical grounding. A unique offer and network of coaches is growing, which we will bring to companies in Europe and beyond. More on this soon.

Co-created workshop series – Creating together while contributing to “better decision-making” and less suffering. Growing and demonstrating the strength of our diverse network. The first workshops are coming together. More on this soon.

Regular events - Monthly public evening workshops in Berlin. Monthly social meeting in Berlin.

This is all becoming possible through people like yourself joining in, creating with others and supporting each other. Thank you very much! If you are interested in our offer or in joining us, send an email to: info@homecomingacademy.com

First Virtual Open House

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 16:14:36 GMT

Connecting people and dots

Our first Homecoming Academy - Virtual Open House took place yesterday. Thank you to all 14 people who joined us and contributed to the way forward. Most of us were consultants and coaches. We are happy that we were also joined by entrepreneurs, a filmmaker and an actress and painter. We are very grateful for your joyful and focused attention, questions, and comments.

Our mission “ Better decisions for less suffering ” resonated. This needs people who are connected with themselves, others and the world at large. For us to become helpful we need to live this; how we collaborate with others and how we organize ourselves are important for this. Working with leaders and organizations it is key to integrate artfully individual, group, and organizational / structural aspects.

Together, we explored some of the Homecoming Academy counseling offers (beyond tailored consulting):

Continuous Change Camp – In 2020, we will kick off our online offer for change makers, project managers, and leaders in organizations to continuously develop and support each other. During our call the idea came up to make this a “ Virtual Monastery ” – a well-structured community for continuous development on a personal, professional and spiritual level.
We are putting together “ Master Classes ” and modular development programmes. These face-to-face programmes will help change makers and leaders build their individual resilience, collaboration ability and (organizational) decision-making. One topic especially dear to Jonas is “ Resilience for change makers .”
We will provide targeted development offers to management consultancies . Management consultants face tremendous complexity, responsibility and pressure. Our expertise around psyche, body and spirit can help them to bring less pain to themselves and the organizations they work with. Mindful facilitation is something that Felix wants to bring into the world.
Counseling and coaching . We will provide online and on-premise coaching for companies who want to ensure that their leaders make good decisions dealing well with complexity on an individual, group or organizational level.

End of January, we are meeting to explore these and additional projects for 2020. Stay up-to-date and sign up to our newsletter here or join our upcoming events, which you find here .

The next opportunity to grow with us is Felix Richter’s lecture and workshop on: “Bewusster Führen - Impulse aus Traumaforschung & Neurowissenschaften.” It will take place January 23, 19:30-22:00 in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg. Sign up and reserve your place here .

We wish you all the best and look forward to connect with you.

On the road

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 19:34:52 GMT

Thank you!

The picture above was taken during the latest Homecoming Open Meditation Weekend at the Baltic Sea (see our Facebook page for details). I continue to spend one weekend a month in meditation. This is a lot of time but I found the investment to be more than worthwhile. Every time, I reach more clarity, questions resolve, deeper foundations are built and new doors open soon afterwards. I am grateful to my partner who enables me to spend this time away.

For four weeks the Homecoming Academy lives in the world. Many people sent messages and shared how the Academy resonates with them. Also, I received many messages of encouragement and support. Thank you very much. It is encouraging to see so many sharing the vision. Thank you for sharing your personal stories of living with or overcoming crises, depression, exhaustion and addiction. There is a need for better support for people in positions of responsibilty. Support, which enables them to use crises and exhaustion as doors to evolve. The many f2f and online conversations helped me to improve and shape the concept.

Most messages were shared in private conversations but you find some examples in the comments to the article below published on LinkedIn. The article provides an overview of the impediments to good decisions and what we can do about it.

Building the Academy has begun. We are progressing in four ares:

Ecosystem - Connecting with individual and organizational partners, supporters, and experts
Offer - Developing conceptually the offer and finding the right people for key positions
Resources - Planning the Homecoming Academy and securing financial resources
Space - Finding the right space and designing the physical aspects

Sign up for the newsletter to receive an insight look each month and stay connected. You can also come and meet me at the first Snow Globe Salon - Democracy in transition . More information here .

Inspirational examples

Tue, 03 Sep 2019 08:15:32 GMT

What will the Homecoming Academy become?

The Homecoming Academy is inspired by:

Monasteries and monastic academies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_monasticism
Psychological science and treatment centres, and
Academies as places for learning and exchange, e.g. the Platonic Academy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_Academy#Old_Academy or the House of Wisdom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wisdom .

This might all be a bit abstract. Thankfully, there are great concrete examples , which let you experience how the Homecoming Academy will work and look like. Interested in your reactions and reflections.

The Monastic Academy - Center for Mindful Learning in Vermont, USA is a big inspiration when it comes to combining "traditional monastic practice " and "modern project-based learning and leadership training ." It demonstrates successfully how it can be done. We will adopt many elements keeping in mind that our main target group are "middle aged" leaders.

The U Center near Maastricht , Netherlands is an inspiration for how to provide therapeutical support in times of crisis and for overcoming exhaustion, depression, addictions, and other mental illnesses. We will start with a more focused offer. If the combination with the monastic approach works well we might expand the offer over time.

Rural coworking like the great Coconat has become popular in Berlin and other large cities. Leaders will come to the Homecoming Academy to work on their professional projects or prepare for their next challenge / leadership role. Working on your own project will be supported in a more structured way in comparison to coworking spaces. We will hold each other to high standards of integrity and discipline. This includes participation in parts of the daily schedule, e.g. morning and evening meditation practices, meals, and elements of community service.

What places have you stayed at, which made a positive difference to your development? What was it that made the difference?

Who has built places like the ones above? Please write to us so we can get into contact .

Mission clarity

Sun, 01 Sep 2019 08:00:09 GMT

The birth of the Homecoming Academy

After 20 years , a next and crucial phase has begun. Years of studying psychology and working in multi-national corporations. Understanding organizations and leadership. Leading people and groups. Mastering how our society, organizations and communication works. Consulting and coaching leaders. Being a father and husband.

This summer, I meditated alone at the Baltic Sea for extended periods of time. After fasting for 8 days and my last meditation weekend retreat, things started to roll and took me with them. The project of the Homecoming Academy took form and hold.

Clarity, focus and energy. We are creating our lives. Liberation is our inheritance.

I look forward to engage with you to build this place, which is needed by those who take on responsibility in this world.

The Homecoming Academy - Secular monastery, Sanatorium for the mind, Leadership Academy. Brief outline of its concept: Link .

Interested in your thoughts and reactions. What resonated with you?