Institute for Zen Leadership

We are here to supercharge leaders – by which we mean people committed to making a positive
difference – to face the critical work of our time from deeply embodied, connected
consciousness and leadership skill so that they can care for people, the planet, and the
future with greater wisdom, success, and energy.

Through our training programs, we supercharge people who are committed to making a difference with Zen practices and leadership skills for selfless, fearless, boundless impact.

Our strategy focuses in 3 areas:
• Leaders at all levels: We offer open and custom programs in Zen Leadership, as well as courses and webinars in resonating a better world.
• Healthcare: We offer CME-accredited HEAL programs for healthcare practitioners/leaders to help them become a resilient, healing force for their patients, practices and systems.
• Instructor / Coach Training and Services: We train the next generation of Zen leadership instructors and coaches, as well as certify coaches and trainers in the mind-body personality instrument, FEBI. We provide coaching services to accompany people on their Zen Leadership journey or as a standalone offering.
• Summits: Organizing summits to help build community, education, and action plans around the concept of Perma Leadership

With our 15-person faculty we conduct 10 or more of our Zen Leadership and HEAL (Healthy Embodied Agile Leadership) programs annually, training between 30 and 100 people each year. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have moved these programs online and are experimenting with new formats ranging from shorter webinars to serial versions of our open-enrollment programs. Many of our faculty donate their time to each in these programs.

Our founder and CEO, Ginny Whitelaw Roshi, is a thought leader in mindful, embodied leadership and presents at numerous conferences and seminars each year. We have a highly engaged Board of Directors including award-winning physicians, entrepreneurs, Zen teachers, and change agents.

Our sister organization, Chosei Zen, expands our capability by providing the primary training center we have used for our programs, the Spring Green Dojo in Wisconsin. It also includes a training center in Madison and a Virtual Dojo for online training. By working closely with Chosei Zen, we’re able to offer ongoing, unparalleled training in Zen for our graduates and instructors.

For most of our 10-year history, our multi-day programs were intentionally limited to 10-15 people in order to create an intimate cohort of a size supported by our Zen training center at Spring Green, WI and other similarly-sized retreat centers. Thus, the number of alumni is still relatively small, around 500, with about 70 of those being what we call “superfans.” Additionally, we’ve reached thousands of people through shorter programs, conferences, webinars, and custom corporate programs.
We’ve grown through the passions, purposes and geographies of our alumni, adding our HEAL program in 2013, programs in Europe in 2014, and in Asia in 2015.

In 2020, the global pandemic curtailed our in-person programming, but we pivoted to move our programs online and have been exploring how to best use online platforms for our uniquely physical training. This is opening up new ways of teaching (both synchronous and asynchronous) and opportunities to scale. We’ve also linked into programming from our sister organization, Chosei Zen, which offers online meditation every 12 hours. We’ve hosted a well-attended webinar series on Resonating a Better World highlighting applications of Zen leadership to anti-racism, healthcare and climate action.

We’re expanding our virtual offerings to include coaching services, which individuals can access in follow-up to our programs, or as a standalone service. In 2022, our curriculum is further expanding to include Zen Leadership translated and adapted to the LatinX community, an online course on Leadership that Resonates, and further applied programming in social justice, healthcare, and climate action.