Lead and manage: Best self, great teams, amazing together is an eight-month leadership programme. We aim to support you to learn, develop and grow what you need to flourish in your social change leadership roles.

The programme runs between September 2026 and April 2027 with in-person half day workshops at One Strawberry Place, Newcastle, and online action learning sets and speaker series. It explores the concepts and ideas from our three leadership frameworks – Best self, Great teams and Amazing together. It is faciliated by Robert Laycock and Stephanie Cole.

The cost of each place is £975.

And contact Robert if you’d like more information about the programme.

What we’ll learn

Across the eight months we will explore together

• what helps us be our best selves in our social change leadership role

• what makes a great team, and being part of and leading great teams

• how we can lead with others so we are amazing together and what helps us collaborate and do our best and most ambitious work together

The programme elements

• Eight half-day workshops (in-person)

  • Starting well…we’ll connect and learn about each other, form ourselves as a learning group, set the scene about leadership - 8 September 2026, 12:00 for 13:00-16:00

  • Leadership workshops…we’ll explore the concepts and ideas from our three leadership frameworks – Best self, Great teams and Amazing together – across six sessions - 13 October, 10 November, 8 December, 12 January, 9 February, 9 March, all 12:30 for 13:00-16:00

  • Ending well…we’ll reflect on our learning journeys, make plans for our ongoing learning and how we’ll stay connected, celebrate our achievements - 13 April 2027, 12:00 for 13:00-16:00

• Action learning sets (online)…we’ll work collaboratively in small groups through listening and asking questions to support each other, gain insight and take action on your real work challenges and learn from each other. We’ll ask you to chooce a set to join when we confirm your place. Each set will meet three times for 2.5 hours online, and

  • Action learning set #1 24 November, 26 January, 23 March, all 9:15 for 9:30-12:00

  • Action learning set #2 24 November, 26 January, 23 March, all 13:15 for 13:30-16:00

  • Action learning set #3 25 November, 27 January, 24 March, all 9:15 for 9:30-12:00

• Speaker series (online)…we’ll hear from three guest speakers to learn about their social leadership, their leadership journeys, and what’s most important to them in their leadership. We’ll meet online for 75 minutes - 6 October, 1 December, 2 February, all 10:00 for 10:15-11:30

Our in-person and online workshops, action learning sets and talks are practical, participative and energising for you to learn together — from us and each other — and give you time out of your every day to reflect on your own leadership and what you’re learning, make plans for your ongoing learning, and connect and build relationships with your peers.

What else?

The programme is supported by learning resources, tools and templates. We’ll have s shared lunch before the Starting well and Ending well workshops, and social time together after Ending well. We’ll also invite you to the programme’s network and community of practice to support you to keep learning, developing and growing together with your peers.

Who is it for?

The programme is for those working or volunteering in projects, initiatives and organisations working for social change, and for individuals working independently for social change, in the north east.

This is for you if you are in a leadership or management role already, or want to be. It’s for experienced, new and future leaders of organisations, work, and ideas

It’s particularly designed for those without a formal leadership and management qualification looking for a practical and comprehensive introduction to key leadership and management theories, models, frameworks, tools, techniques and approaches.

Creating cultures of learning, development and growth

Yes We Can is working to create cultures of learning, development and growth in our VCSE sector in the north east. This is one of our contributions to us all having what we need to flourish in our social leadership roles. 

For the next three years – 2026-2028 – we commit to running our A coaching approach and Reflective practice programmes at least once a year, and our main eight-month leadership programme – Lead and manage: Best self, great teams, amazing together – once a year. 

To learn more and about future programmes

If you’re interested in taking part and/or would like to find out more, email Robert or use our booking form to book your place.

We will run this programme once a year for three years - 2026-2028 - and will publish dates for 2027 and 2028 as soon as we can. If you'd like us to tell you about future programmes, drop us a line or fill in our expression of interest form.