Live Group Training Programme via Zoom

Beyond a workshop or course ~
Learn by real-life application of knowledge!

 

Do you want to cultivate the awareness and skills for co-creating the beautiful world you know is possible?

Develop readiness for composting structures of domination and authoritarianism ~
and birthing structures of collaboration and sacred leadership

Apply to join our experiential programme!

Following a successful first run, we launch our second run of the SCL Programme!

~ Starts Thursday 10th April 2025 ~
4.30pm - 7pm BST / 11.30am - 2pm EST / 5.30pm - 8pm CEST
(with a couple of sessions on other days: scroll down for all dates)
 ~ Limited Places ~

 

This transformative leadership programme is for those who desire a shift in the world from dysfunctional, patriarchal, structures that we have habituated to and unconsciously perpetuate, to a world where regenerative ways of organising, relating and decision making are commonplace. 

It is for those who are called to learn and awaken the necessary practises, awareness and skills to help facilitate this collective shift.

The collective need is a new paradigm - one of collaboration - as the current paradigm of domination is unsustainable, degenerative and at the heart of the global polycrisis. The mainstream societal structures holding this paradigm are showing their cracks, and collapse is inevitable. We need wholesome alternatives to help us build shared power that will transform our societies.

This programme will be a space for teachings, learnings, experimentation and magical discoveries...

Beyond the Workshop Paradigm

In this unique initiative, we go beyond the workshop paradigm, to learn conscious, collaborative ways of organising and decision-making through direct participation.

While a single workshop can open our minds, deeper embedded learning comes through real-life application over a period of time - not just through solitary, one-off workshops or a short course.

Thus, this initiative offers you applied learning that will help you not only develop core awareness and skills for co-creating just, autonomous communities - it will also help integrate that awareness and those skills into your being, nervous system, and body - so you can more instinctively apply your learnings beyond the programme.



“Relationships change us, reveal us, evoke more from us. Only when we join with others do our gifts become visible, even to ourselves”

~ Margaret Wheatley & Myron Kellner Rogers

 

Developing Key Awareness and Skills

More and more people, including Muslims, are looking at growing or setting up alternative communities, whether land-based, or in towns or cities. We know from years of exploration and conversations - in the Permaculture movement, Muslim groups, Transition towns, Intentional and Co-housing communities - that the challenges go beyond having the right land-based skills.

It is the people-based stuff that is one of the most challenging, yet marginalised, aspects of any community project. Yet when this is approached with awareness, patience and skill, it offers the possibility of beautiful experiences of connection, co-creation, meaning and belonging. Within a more radical vision, it can also help us develop collective power opening up the possibility of an entirely new society where all voices and lives matter.



“Practise stepping for a moment or two into another person’s shoes, and see the world as they see it. This way you bring about change. This way you’ll be a change-maker.”

~ Scilla Elworthy

 

Transforming Conditioning

As a result of our individual wounds, collective conditioning, and traumas through our daily existence in patriarchal, dominating structures, many of us are in the very early stages of knowing “how to do it differently”. Indeed, many groups and NGO’s focussing on a ‘just cause’ are unconsciously perpetuating those very structures and processes of domination that are part of the problem.

Through this initiative, you will see possible solutions in flow, and reflective questions evoked when solutions appear out of reach. We will be grappling towards a collaborative paradigm of relating for which there are few examples.

You will be supported to consciously embrace discomfort as we move beyond our edges. Without this kind of deeper work, any change will be superficial and will lack integration.

We will each also receive loving, honest feedback from one another, and will become more aware of our habitual patterns and conditioning, enabling them to loosen. Our growth will additionally be nurtured through compassionate listening, organising, and taking action together.


“If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be”

~ Maya Angelou

 

Collaborate Meaningfully on a Shared Project

Within the parameters of WiN’s vision and aims, you will pinpoint a focus and organise as a small team of about six participants to deliver an initiative related to collaborative organising and conscious group work. You will be supported by a trainer, who will facilitate small parts of these sessions (Modelling).

There will be clear aims and processes to guide us. There will be short teaching sessions, both formal and on the go. We won’t have all the answers as we each remain open to new learnings.

We will hold the space through our openness, willingness to be vulnerable, and active participation. We will be supporting one another to evolve and be transformed in ways that may even surprise us.

We will be intentionally co-creating alternatives to the typically top-down paradigm within Muslim and other cultures, with conscious use of and delegation of power as we collaborate together.

Examples of Projects: There are numerous possibilities including an online public event, a recorded event or resource to offer more widely, an in-person event if participants are all in sufficient proximity, and other possibilities. We will say more on this in due course, and the project does not have to be big. A small project may even be a more effective stimulus for practising skills and developing more integrated awareness that you will be able to take forward.


“Building community is to the collective as spiritual practise is to the individual”

~ Grace Lee Boggs

 

Muslims and Friends Learn Sacred Collaborative Leadership
~ Watch Video Clips from the First SCL!

 

 
 


The Scent of Sacredness

In this fast paced world where domination and individualism tends to be a norm, we may be habituated to bypass the richness of relating intentionally to one another in collaborations. Yet there is a sacred quality when we listen deeply, and the wisdom of our diverse experiences is drawn out.

There is a breath-taking beauty when we co-create with patience (sabr) in service to a greater purpose. The work takes us far beyond meetings that simply go through motions, instead into a space that engages with soul.

There is a creative beauty in the process of a community working with curiosity, aliveness and the willingness to step into the unknown, as it co-organises, integrates perspectives, and works towards collective decisions. Even seemingly mundane tasks, when done with reverence have a depth and meaning that warms the heart. There is a sacred quality in the collective decisions we arrive at, and in the responsibilities and actions we take with ihsan (excellence, beauty) as we bring those decisions to life.

In this learning journey of Sacred Collaborative Leadership we will be giving value to our presence together. This will mean moments where we intentionally slow down, and moments where timeliness is critical. We won’t always be perfect. We will stumble and fall forwards into greater understanding as we relate within the scent of sacredness, both in what we achieve together and the process of how we get there.

We will also draw in aspects of the Engaged Surrender foundational strand to WiN’s Five Strand Activism Model.


Key named principles of Engaged Surrender include:

  • Center Process and Not Knowing

  • Process Conflict and Tensions

  • Value Spaciousness and Contemplation

  • Apply Congruence between Word and Action




“Meaningful conversations have the potential not only to transform human relationships, but to transform human consciousness”

~ Kosha Anja Joubert

 


Be Enriched: A Powerful Blend of Approaches

  • We will draw on WiN’s rich learnings over the more than twenty years we have been intentionally applying and refining our work on the ground.

Specific approaches we will draw on include:

  • (Embodied) Sociocracy: Consent-based decision-making with principles for dynamic governance, distributing power and accountability. Our approach will inhabit an intentional embodied quality to sociocracy.

  • Social Permaculture: Holistic nature- based design applied for groups/communities

  • Process Work: Working with awareness of rank and power, while embracing tensions

  • Consensus Decision-Making: Through creatively drawing out the wisdom of the group

  • Nonviolent Communication: Life-affirming communication principles that value everyone’s needs, with a systemic lens

  • Embodied Practises: To connect with the wisdom of our bodies and felt experiences

 

This diversity of approaches helps cater for a range of situations we will encounter, and cultivates an experience that is both practical and transformational.

At the same time, the course is within a spirit of openness to new learnings, further evolution and refinement as we travel forwards.

 

"Far better and more lasting is what God will give to those who believe and trust in their Lord; who shun great sins and gross indecencies...; conduct their affairs by mutual consultation."

Qur' an: 42:36-38

 

Who this training is for?

  • You are keen to apply alternatives to top-down ways of working, through processes that integrate shared power

  • You feel a commitment to the idea of self-governing communities with participatory democracy at their heart

  • You may be interested in applying more effective ‘people’ skills for permaculture or land-based projects

  • You may be a therapist, healer, coach, or in a spiritual or sufi community, looking to build collaborative structures and processes with colleagues

  • You may be Muslim or lean towards Islam (You may be involved, or not, with a mosque, organisation, or place of worship).

  • You may not identify as Muslim but appreciate the value of this learning journey. You understand it will prioritise Islamic spirituality and the experience of Muslims (along with occasional space to include perspectives outside of this).

  • You may be anarchist-leaning keen to embody more conscious ways of co-organising together

This programme will be limited to approximately six participants

 

“Simple majoritarianism can easily lead to populism, which in turn might lead to fascism and the oppression of ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, women, the poor, and the socially marginalised.”

~ Abdullah Öcalan,

 

Some Qualities you will experience through participating

  • Emergent processes within a supportive structure

  • Group feedback processes: Multi-directional, gentle feedback for a growthful experience as we travel and evolve together

  • Empowerment through distribution of power: through clearly defined roles integrated with feedback mechanisms

  • The power of Accountability: Experience the power of gentle accountability as you co-organise

  • Prioritising Embodied communication: E.g. prioritising physical hand signals over digital hand signals, embodying the scenario of being ‘elders around a campfire’ while recognising we are also in an online space.

 

“I think the world would function extremely well with millions of little cooperative groups, all in relation to each other”

~ Bill Mollison

 

Outcomes

  • Learn and experience facilitation tools that draw out the wisdom of the group

  • Learn and experience how a group can self-govern more wholesomely

  • Deliver a small shared project related to the programme content using processes you learn

  • Practise deconditioning from mainstream patriarchal patterns, and feeling into a pattern centering individual responsibility and accountability as you step into authentic, collective power

  • Experience a group that functions with less hierarchy and greater equivalence

  • Learn and apply tools for a group to reach an agreement even when everyone has a different position: Going beyond the ‘boss’ and loudest voice wins paradigm, to having a voice that counts

  • This programme, or similar learning journey, is also a pre-requisite and pathway to being part of the WiN team (optional) where there is alignment. This pathway will support your continued growth of skills and awareness in the company of fellow travellers. It will additionally support the emergence of intentional and powerful change-making initiatives through transformational community engagement.

 
 

Course Trainers

Muzammal Hussain (Lead Trainer/Project Co-ordinator)

It was over twenty year ago when Muzammal first experienced the deep connection and creative power of collaborative decision making, shortly after initiating Wisdom In Nature (WiN). Since then he has been passionately learning, applying and refining group processes in the context of grass-root change-making and shared power especially in small groups.

Muzammal is also an experienced Permaculture Designer specialising particularly in social permaculture and organisational change. He designed and delivered perhaps the first Islam and Permaculture course anywhere in the world in 2010, and more recently produced an Islam and Permaculture Online Anytime 10-hour Starter Course.

He has also completed numerous training and applications in group work, community building and conflict transformation, including intensives in Process Work and World Work. Muzammal has also completed the 10-week Sociocracy Leadership Training with Sociocracy for All, focusing on the practical application of dynamic governance, distribution of power, accountability, and consent decision making. More recently, he has engaged in Non Violent Communication (NVC) training and practise especially through the Nonviolent Global Liberation Community.

He has advised a range of organisations, such as mainstream NGO's as well as radical cooperatives, and was a Board member of Peace News for several years.

Muzammal is also a qualified medical doctor and has worked in NHS psychiatry over more than 13 years in both in-patient and community mental health settings. Additionally, he brings the sensitivity and skill of an experienced Essence-Based Emotional Healing Therapist, with 20 years experience with embodied practises, helping clients meet and process anxiety, mood and trauma experiences. He is author of the E-Book, Radical Healing, Wholeness and Islam.

 

Guest Session

Jo Taylor

Session title: ‘Regaining Hope - What we can learn from a truly Democratic, Women-led Revolution in the Middle East’

Jo Taylor has been active in grass-roots political, feminist, ecological, community and internationalist solidarity organising for over 17 years. She works for the Solidarity Economy Association, a small worker-led cooperative working to build up the solidarity economy from below in England, Scotland and Wales as an alternative to capitalism. She co-ordinates their Co-operation in Mesopotamia project, building international solidarity with the Rojava Revolution in North and East Syria, and has visited this region and other parts of Kurdistan on a number of occasions.

 

 

Some Participant quotes from a previous WiN Leadership Training

“There are different types of leadership programmes. There are those that teach how best to navigate the current systems, then there are those which seek to help transform those systems. Wisdom in Nature is definitely the latter.

I sensed what I learned could be applied in a range of different situations – political, organisational, personal – but each time toward the longer-term goal of a more socially just society.

I wish to thank them for an enjoyable but also highly thought-provoking time.”

~ Martyn Rush, DPhil Candidate, Oxford





"I really benefited from the unique approach towards conflict resolution that was outlined in the Wisdom in Nature [training].

[The Course Leaders] encouraged us to embrace and discuss tensions that usually went unspoken, and this state of vulnerability brought out the most interesting discussions and fulfilling resolutions.”

~ Hibba M

 

Commitment and Expectations

Please check with yourself that you are able to a) attend the live sessions, b) can commit the necessary time between sessions (and complete about two hours work before the first one) , and c) have space for absorbing and integrating a new way of collaborating and being.

If not, please contact us stating your availability/capacity before applying, or consider the course on a future occasion.

Dates/Times:

Thursday Dates for regular Zoom: Times: 4.30pm - 7pm BST (UK summer time) / 11.30am - 2pm EST / 5.30pm - 8pm CEST
April: Thurs 10th, 17th
May: Thurs 1st, 15th, 22nd, 29th
June: Thurs 12th, 26th
July: Thurs 10th, 24th, 31st
Saturday Dates for Additional Activities:
Sat 17th May: Special Guest Session on zoom (4.30pm-6.30pm BST/UK time)
Sat 14th June: Optional in-person for those within reach: London/Brighton UK : 11.30am-4pm BST see below

  • Four month commitment

  • Regular zoom gatherings (2.5-hour): Calls are weekly or fortnightly. Day/times: 4.30pm-7pm UK time on Thursdays:
    Typically 1hr - 1hr15 teaching; then 1hr15 applied sessions. In the applied sessions, participants apply learnings through meeting as a circle and collaborating on their project, with trainer support

  • Guest Session: On a Saturday via zoom

  • Possible in-person informal gathering near London or Brighton - UK - (optional) tbc: Sat 14th June: 11.30am-4pm BST/UK summer time: A probable short walk and/or picnic; for those able to join. (Expenses i.e. travel/food etc not covered).

  • Technology: You will need a good screen size (e.g. laptop or equivalent), as we will want to all see each other on video calls. You will need good speed internet.

  • Preparatory work before and between sessions: approx 1 -3 hours weekly, on average: for collaborating together on mini-project; and working through recorded course material within Modules and Lessons on the online course platform via e.g. audios, video, summary handouts, book reading. Starting from before the first live session. You will have digital access to all teaching material.

  • Participants deliver short sessions: Opportunity to share experience or knowledge where this might enrich the group

  • Unlearning and deconditioning: Recognise we each hold conditioning from the dominant paradigm. Unlearning, and opening to new ways requires us to face our own discomfort. We need to be willing to face, feel and process inner tensions. This can be assisted by conscious, supportive group work.

  • Recognise this is a living project: it will evolve and mature through feedback mechanisms built in. Some details will adapt and evolve according to what arises, and what is needed or possible as we travel together in the context of the overarching aim.

Please note and check you are okay that during programme calls, we may record or take a screenshot for our platforms, to illustrate a flavour of the programme to potential future participants. (If a video recording, we will not share publically unless we have your specific consent).

 

Exchange/Fee

The anticipated total minimum we aim to raise is £3.9K British pounds. You can propose the amount you will pay. The programme will be limited to approximately six participants. While if each participant offered between £600-£700, we would hope to reach the minimum amount that would cover our needs, please do not assume the amount to propose would be an equal fraction of the total minimum. You may propose more, even £1K or beyond, or you may propose less. We ask that you propose an amount that gives a sense of felt commitment and feels like a stretch (without feeling overstretched).

Everyone’s needs and capacities are different. Thus, please use the principles described in this section as a compass.

Please be generous where you can. If we at WiN gain more than the minimum, we will invest it into our further work.


The following guide may also help

We want it to be an amount you can give without feeling resentment. We want to offer this course in a spirit whereby the exchange resonates with your heart - knowing that those who give less will be supported by those who give more, and the needs of the course providers, who have provided far more than is visible, will also be met with ease. There are also finances needed for platforms and tech aspects, as well as cushioning for unanticipated costs. Where you are financially able, we ask you to consider an amount that will help this work to grow beyond just this round, if you feel such a resonance for the wider vision.

We welcome those from less financially privileged backgrounds. The important factor is that

  • this programme and its wider vision excites you

  • you appreciate the value of this sacred collaborative work

  • you have a commitment to participate as fully as possible, and

  • you are willing to embrace your ‘edges’, face discomfort.. and grow with others.

At the same time, anyone who wants to support our work is invited to give if they have capacity, whether or not they participate in the programme. You can gift our work here.

We have a basic set of terms and conditions for the SCL programme here.

 

“Decide what is sacred to you, and put your best life energies at its service. Make that the focus of your studies, your work, the test for your pleasures and your relationships. Don’t ever let fear or craving for security turn you aside”

~ Starhawk

 

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A little bit about WiN

Impactful history: Wisdom In Nature was established in 2004 originally called ‘The London Islamic Network for the Environment’ (LINE). LINE made a strong impact in a short space of time, and without ever applying for any external funding.

Over the years WIN has engaged through a range of ways: monthly forums, mobilising for demonstrations, land-based projects, art initiatives, skill-sharing, resource cycling, reflections through the Qur’an, and numerous multi-faith events. It’s focus has crystallised around trainings and transformative experiences.

WiN has collaborated with dozens of organisations and also gained media coverage from local newspapers to TV, and The Guardian newspaper covered our iconic stunt on Brick Lane.

WiN’s approach is holistic - knitting together the relationship between issues, rather than being reductionist.

Meeting the revolutionary Zapatistas: WiN was also honoured to have been amongst a handful of grassroots groups and the only Islamic one, that in early November 2021 - had the honour of a full-day private meeting with a group of six revolutionary peasants, the Zapatistas, from Southern Mexico. We share our experience here.
We have also hosted an online forum on Islam and Anarchism.

According to a researcher who studied Islamic ecology groups both in the UK and in the States, she wrote: “…the UK group Wisdom in Nature offered the most sophisticated solution. They argued for transformative structural change that put justice, equality, “deep democracy,” and sustainability at the heart of a new world..." and another researcher wrote “perhaps the most promising example of sustainability in the Muslim community in the UK, in terms of tying together the political, economic and cultural challenge… is Wisdom in Nature… aimed at changing the way not just nature is conceived, but the way political decisions are made and how community activism is done.”

 

Apply to Join the Programme!

 

Please complete this form if you wish to apply for a place. We will also typically arrange a video call (about 1hr 15) where we can also discuss if it feels like a good fit for both of us.

Note: Please also keep an eye on your junk/spam folder as well as inbox, in case due to circumstances beyond our control, any reply from us lands there.

 
 
Header Image is by skeeze from Pixabay - Used with gratitude