You’re Leading from the Middle—And It’s Hard as Hell

You’re the hinge between vision and reality.

Between the institution and the ground.
You hold the strategy, the people, the tension, and the urgency to evolve—all at once.

You’re expected to rebuild trust, shape culture, and spark innovation—often without the direct authority or the pause to get your bearings.

You don’t need more theory.
You need design tools. Shared language. Real allies.

They Saw the Barrier Was Culture. Now We Design What Comes Next.

Earlier this year, Canada’s boldest deans co-created the Strategy for the 2.5%—a framework for leading resilient, values-driven change across higher education.

They named the biggest barrier to progress not as policy or funding, but culture—the legacy patterns, fractured trust, and disconnection that keep innovation from taking root.

The Strategy calls for:

Visionary stewardship.
Rebuilt trust.
Shared leadership.
Radical relevance.

But strategy doesn’t implement itself.

That’s where you come in.

This retreat is where we begin designing culture and activating the Strategy — from the middle out — transforming ideas into daily practice.

While the Strategy for the 2.5% was co-created with Canadian deans, the challenges it names—and the leadership it calls for—cross borders. This retreat welcomes leaders from the U.S. and beyond who are ready to reimagine what higher education can become.

“This was the best workshop I have attended, maybe in my entire career.”

~ Tammy Hopper, Dean, Faculty of Health, University of Victoria

(Participant, Dean’s Resilience Summit at the Faculty Club, contributor to to Strategy for the 2.5%)

This Is Not a Conference.

A Capacity-Building Retreat for the People Designing the Future Culture of Higher Education. It’s a high-trust, purpose-driven retreat for the real architects of change in higher education — deans, associate deans, academic directors, and strategic staff who move institutions forward between bold vision and lived reality.

In this capacity-building retreat, we’ll engage you in designing the cultural conditions where trust, collaboration, and innovation can take root — conditions that make strategy actionable, leadership shared, and resilience possible.

Over Two Immersive Days, You’ll:

• Cut through the noise and clarify your role in shaping culture and enabling innovation.
  Surface the institutional fault lines you’re navigating — and design new ways through them.

• Workshop real challenges with peers who understand the work and the stakes.
  Learn and apply practical tools for building resilient, trust-centered, and forward-looking academic cultures.

• Build a cross-institutional network of allies committed to reimagining higher education.

• Leave with the clarity, language, and confidence to lead what comes next.

You’re a Right Fit If…

• You’re ready to move beyond performative initiatives toward purposeful, systemic culture change.

• You want to explore how trust, collaboration, and design can unlock meaningful innovation.

• You value frameworks that strengthen collective leadership — not just individual performance.

• You want peers who share your curiosity, courage, and commitment to building something better.

• You believe the middle layer isn’t just a pressure point — it’s the engine of transformation.

“A rare opportunity to work through big, complex issues with an amazing group of leaders.

The day was facilitated brilliantly.”

— Miles Turnbull, Dean of Education, University of Prince Edward Island

(Participant, Dean’s Resilience Summit at the Faculty Club, contributor to Strategy for the 2.5%)

What You’ll Walk Away With

A framework for designing resilient academic culture, grounded in the Strategy’s core values: Curiosity, Courage, Care, Collaboration, and Integrity

• Tools to rebuild trust, foster relevance, and lead change—even in complex systems

• New language and strategies to activate the Strategy’s four opportunity zones:

• Build common cause

• Reconstruct trust

• Rearticulate the value proposition

• Shift from reactive survival to visionary stewardship

• A national peer network of the 2.5%—your people

• Space to reset, realign, and return with purpose

Because resilience isn’t a title—it’s a system.

And culture change doesn’t scale from one office.

It moves when the people closest to the work have the clarity, backing, and tools to act.

This retreat is how you build that capacity.

The Setting

The Millcroft Inn & Spa sits in Ontario’s headwaters region—a tranquil place of origin and flow.

Just as headwaters give rise to powerful rivers, this summit is designed to spark ideas and momentum that will carry your leadership forward.

With an award-winning spa, hot springs, and natural surroundings, it’s the ideal setting to reflect, recharge, and build capacity to shape the future of higher ed.