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

You’re the hinge between vision and execution.

You hold the strategy, the people dynamics, the trauma, the misalignment, the skepticism, and the urgency to change—all at once.

Meanwhile, you’re expected to fix culture, align your team, build trust, and deliver impact, without the playbook, the power, or the pause to get your bearings.

You don’t need more theory.
You need sharper tools. Clearer language. Real allies.

The Strategy Is Set. This Retreat Is How You Start Using It.

Earlier this year, Canada’s boldest deans co-created the Strategy for the 2.5%.

It’s a framework for leading resilient, values-driven change across higher ed—calling 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 start operationalizing the Strategy—from the middle out.

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

This Is Not a Conference.

It’s a high-trust, no-fluff retreat for the real architects of change in higher ed:
Deans, associate deans, academic directors, and strategic staff who move things forward between bold vision and bureaucratic reality.

Over Two Immersive Days, You’ll:

• Cut through the noise and clarify your strategic role

• Name the institutional fault lines you’re navigating

• Workshop real-time dilemmas with peers who get it

• Learn and apply tools for designing resilient, trust-centered academic cultures

• Build a national network of co-conspirators across institutions

• Walk away with the confidence, language, and courage to lead forward

You’re a Right Fit If…

• You’re done with performative DEI and bland “leadership development”

• You want to be real about what’s working—and what’s broken

• You want frameworks, not fluff

• You want a peer group who care as much as you do—and are building something better

• You believe the middle layer can lead transformation—not just absorb pressure

“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.