Understand how interdisciplinary methods can help you tackle complex problems and lead teams with different expertise.
We believe that leadership education is tired and in need of reinvention. Join us to shape the future of leadership education and cultivate an interdisciplinary mindset.
February 14th
2-month course
May 9th
2-month course
Complex problems require interdisciplinary solutions. Answers won’t come from one subject or specialism. Learn how to tackle the issues that matter to you.
Our community of leaders
Our Cross-Functional Leadership course brings together a diverse group of professionals, all united by their interest in finding new and innovative ways to lead their team towards success.
Previous participants have come from leading organisations like Airbnb, Google, the Cabinet Office, and NESTA, representing sectors such as tech, finance, government, arts, and non-profits. With roles ranging from CEOs to Project Leaders and experience spanning 4 to 39 years, they offer a rich blend of expertise and perspectives.
Our alumni have diverse academic backgrounds, including biology, architecture, economics, law, and osteopathy, holding degrees from top institutions like Oxford, Cambridge, Columbia, University of Edinburgh and the University of Amsterdam. No matter your background, our course is designed to equip you with the tools to thrive in a cross-functional environment, leveraging diverse perspectives to solve complex problems.
Whether you’re from the public, private, or non-profit sector — if you’re passionate about interdisciplinary leadership, you’ll find yourself in great company.
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Complexity
Grow your understanding of different kinds of complexity, resist oversimplification, embrace nuance, & identify the emergent properties of complex systems and problems.
Visualisation
Practise visual techniques for mapping systems and conveying ideas in ways that can be easily understood without the need for jargon or technical language.
Communication
Hone your awareness of how to communicate intentionally depending on your audience, and to manage people with different communication styles or types of expertise.
Systems Thinking
Learn how to think in terms of systemic relationships, seeing beyond parts to the sum of their interactions.
Collaboration
Recognise opportunities for enhancing collaboration within a team by tapping into collective intelligence and running more effective meetings.
Problem-solving
Enable your team to tackle problems by defining and analysing them clearly.
Integration
Master interdisciplinary techniques in a professional context to synthesise multiple findings and various perspectives.
Each course is a hybrid selection of 5 of the below sessions which covers the learning outcomes while providing space for you to synthesise and apply your learnings to your particular work context.
In this session, participants will delve into the core of cross-functional work, focusing on why it’s essential and how it operates. Cross-functional work means bridging distinct work environments, methods, and mindsets to create a cohesive and functional team.This session reveals how each team, organisation, or service has its own unique norms, systems, and values—and how aligning these diverse "paradigms" is both a social and conceptual challenge. Leaders will explore strategies to connect and coordinate different functions effectively, setting a strong foundation for interdisciplinary collaboration.
This session focuses on helping leaders navigate complex problems by “zooming in” on specific elements and “zooming out” to see the broader picture. This skill is crucial when coordinating multiple perspectives and developing an overarching understanding of a system. Leaders will learn techniques to shift fluidly between concrete details and high-level abstractions, empowering them to transform strategic visions into actionable outcomes.
Over two weeks, participants will explore the psychology and science behind successful collaboration. By examining factors that drive productive teamwork, this session provides insight into forming stronger, more efficient collaborative environments. Leaders will leave with actionable strategies for enhancing group dynamics and team productivity in various contexts.
This session dives into interactional expertise—the ability to effectively communicate with specialists across diverse fields. Participants will learn how to bridge knowledge gaps, identify essential “threshold concepts,” and gain insight into aligning team functions within complex, knowledge-driven environments. This session equips leaders with tools to foster collaboration and communication across expert domains.
Discover how “collective intelligence” can turn a group into more than the sum of its parts. In this session, participants will learn how group decision-making processes can enhance individual insights and lead to smarter, more balanced choices. Leaders will explore ways to leverage group wisdom while avoiding pitfalls like groupthink, helping them foster innovation and balanced decision-making in their teams.
Onsite session
Online sessions
Onsite session
Gain the skills to lead people with different expertise and synthesise their different approaches to create maximum impact.
Leader or future leader working for a complex mission-led organisation
Manages teams with different expertise
Looking to grow your personal network
Open to new perspectives
Looking for intellectual stimulation
Want to help shape the future of leadership education
This course has been designed for leaders, and developing leaders, in complex mission-led organisations.