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Practical Leadership for People-Powered Movements

Practical Leadership for People-Powered Movements is an online course by Social Movement Lab for leaders, organisers and coordinators within social movements, NGOs and grassroots organisations. It tackles the core challenge of movement leadership: how do you stay on course while growing, facing pressure, or navigating complex challenges?

The course consists of six concise online evening sessions, combining live peer exchange, reflection and exercises with self-study and practice, all geared towards real behavioural change. It’s designed for leaders who want to strengthen their leadership and self-awareness, connect strategy with people and team dynamics, build engagement and ownership within their teams, and learn from and share experiences with fellow leaders and coordinators.

The six sessions cover:

  1. Who am I as a leader? – discovering your personal leadership style, values and motivations, crafting your “story of self,” and reflecting on what drives you as a people-powered leader
  2. Who are my people? – mapping your organisation and your position within it, analysing your team and surrounding roles, and understanding what makes a team effective
  3. Strategy & Leadership – connecting your organisation’s mission and strategy to your own role, applying strategic thinking in your team or campaign, and refining your strategy plan with feedback
  4. Building engaged teams – understanding how engagement grows, designing your team’s engagement journey, and identifying actions to deepen involvement and ownership
  5. Activating conversations – learning to have conversations that move people to action, practising the full structure (issue agitation – plan – ask – commitment), and strengthening ownership and initiative within your team
  6. Moving through resistance – recognising and handling friction, objections and internal tensions, exploring decision-making models for collective leadership, and reflecting on your personal growth as a leader

What you take away: clarity on your personal leadership style and the story behind it, practical tools to navigate movement friction and lead confidently under pressure, skills to build engaged teams that turn strategy into action, methods for activating conversations that inspire ownership and participation, and a sustainable leadership plan for continued growth, for yourself and your movement.

Practical Info

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  • Type

: Training session for leaders of people-powered movements

Designed for changemakers and organisers who want to develop practical leadership skills within people-powered movements.

Customer Testimonials

Our courses are designed to be practical, reflective, and relevant to real-world challenges. Participants value the balance between insight, structure, and space for discussion.

Emmy spent six months as interim lead for growing our community. As a small organization, we needed someone who could handle both practical day-to-day work and tackle strategic challenges. Emmy excels at both: she’s refreshingly hands-on and entrepreneurial, but also an experienced strategist and leader who isn’t afraid to tactfully put her finger on what’s not working. Our organization is now in a stronger place, both operationally and strategically, and we already miss her energy and humor!

— Founder & Chair Ten Procent Club- Jochem Wieringa

, Non-profit Organisation

Emmy has helped us dare to dream and act bigger. She has advised us on the further development of our movement. By systematically guiding us from vision, to mission, values and objectives. Emmy proves herself to be a reliable sparring partner who is always ready with great ideas and a wealth of experience as a builder of meaningful movements. We are grateful for her contribution, which has brought us many steps further!

— Founder Kwekerij – Guy Wijnen

, Grassroots Initiative

I genuinely enjoyed the Social Movement Leadership Course. The content was structured very logically and focused on human-centered leadership which really resonated with me. It gives a lot of grounding in leadership theory, while combining it with real-life examples. The course really developed my understanding of how to strategically approach the organic growth of our movement. I feel a lot better equipped to direct my energy in a much more effective way. Definitely big recommendation to starting leaders who struggle to move their organization further but are full of idealist ambition!

— Founder Feel and Rise – Finn van den Ijssel

, Social Impact Organisation

A Valuable course on how to become a better board member. Emmy and Frank complement each other well. A solid combination of theoretical foundation and real interaction with them and fellow board members.

— Board Member – Jeroen Brouwers

, Social Impact Organisation

Just read your advisory report. Absolutely excellent! I basically agree with everything in it. This is a must-read for our new director, communications lead, and board members. A great guide for everyone thinking strategically within TPC.

— Founder & Chair Ten Procent Club – Jochem Wieringa – Blue Print

, Grassroots Initiative

The course gave us a clear framework to understand our work and make better decisions as a team. It was both practical and reflective, exactly what we needed.

— Board Member

, Non-profit Organisation

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Price

Pricing (tiered)

To keep the training accessible, we use tiered pricing based on available budget:

€ 0,00 / participant
For organizations with available training budget (from €500 and above)

€50

/ participant

For participants or organizations with limited or no budget (up to €1,000)

Get in touch

If you’re unsure which tier applies, feel free to get in touch.

Need a tailored session?

The training can be adapted to your organization, sector, or specific challenges. We’re happy to explore the best setup together.

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