Rogue Leadership
You can't lead out there, until you lead in here.
A hands-on course + community to master the inner work of leadership
Too often, leadership development focuses only on external performance—strategy, communication, productivity, execution. But beneath many leadership challenges lies something deeper: the self-doubt, the pressure to always have the answers, the exhaustion of holding everything together, the patterns and reactions we carry into how we lead.
Rogue Leadership goes deeper. It begins with who is doing the leading—because the most powerful work a leader can do is often the work no one else can see. This programme helps you pause, reconnect, and strengthen the inner foundation from which you lead, so you can show up with greater clarity, emotional steadiness, authenticity, and self-trust.
This course doesn’t just help you understand leadership differently. It helps you lead differently.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
By the end of this course, you will have:
Your inner critic quieted, and your sense of worth reclaimed: Move beyond the belief that your value must constantly be earned, proven, or performed.
A practical understanding of the five sites of inner leadership: Develop deeper awareness of the patterns, beliefs, emotions, and behaviours influencing how you lead.
Greater emotional steadiness under pressure: Learn practices to navigate uncertainty, complexity, and high-pressure environments without losing yourself in the process.
Increased self-trust and leadership confidence: Strengthen your ability to lead with clarity and conviction, even when answers are not immediately clear.
Practical tools for conscious leadership: Gain hands-on experience with reflective and actionable tools you can apply directly to your real leadership challenges and context.
More aligned and intentional leadership: Learn how to lead in a way that is grounded in your values, purpose, and authentic way of showing up.
A supportive community of leaders: Join a community of thoughtful leaders committed to doing the inner work together, sharing reflections, challenges, insights, and growth in a supportive environment.
Find out the complete details about this course when it launches
in early 2026.
Find out the complete details about this course when it launches in early 2026.
Join Rogue Signal and be first to know when it drops.
THE MODULES
Rogue Leadership is a hands-on, reflective journey for leaders who want to lead more consciously in a world that constantly demands more.
Built from real experience with leaders navigating uncertainty, pressure, and change, this programme gets to what actually matters: the beliefs, emotional patterns, ego structures, and inner narratives shaping how you lead, and the awareness and tools to respond with greater intention, resilience, and alignment.
Here are the modules that you will learn in the course and community:
1. Reclaiming Your Worth, Waking Up from the Trance
2. Ego and Essence, Who Is Leading?
3. The Power of Attention, Shaping Your Inner Narrative
4. Emotions as Messengers, Befriending Your Inner World
5. The Practice of Stillness, Rest, Renewal and Reconnection
What the Time
Commitment Is
What the Time
Commitment Is
This course is designed to fit into your real life
—without sacrificing depth, creativity, or impact.
5 modules across 5 interconnected sites of inner work
Bite-sized learning designed for busy leaders
15–30 minutes of simple but powerful practice per module
Practical tools you can apply immediately in conversations, decision-making, team dynamics, and moments of pressure
Your Rogue Mentor
VOICES FROM
THE ROGUES
"I’ve been lucky to benefit from Kriz‘s ideas and advice over the years so I shouldn’t be surprised at how amazing the course is. It’s a great introduction to futures—- it distills so much wisdom and knowledge into a framework that is easy to apply and incredibly useful. Even better is being part of a community of amazing fellow ‘Rogues’ to carry on my journey with. It’s often a challenge to put what I’ve learned on a course into practice but you’ve created the perfect framework to enable that to happen. More power to your elbow!"
James Logan
Independent Consultant to NGOs & Philanthropies
"More often than not, it’s the people you meet who change you. For me, Kriz is living proof of that. She introduced me to people and ideas that permanently changed how I approach my work. What makes Kriz unique for me is how much she brings who she is into her work — mindful, creative, and deeply attentive to nuance and detail. In her Future Readiness course, she gently blurs the boundaries of personal and professional, as she takes you on a journey into a meticulously crafted world that dares you to step out of your comfort zone, make the effort, honor your constraints, and imagine new futures with grounded, joyful courage."
Kerem Çiftçioğlu
Communications Director, Hafiza Merkezi
“Guided by creativity, this course flipped my view on futures thinking - it is way more practical than I imagined! The tools fit any challenge, and they sparked great insights for the project I’m working on. Huge thanks, Kriz!”
Paula Spieler
Independent Consultant for Human Rights
“Kriz has built a beautiful space here. The course didn’t just introduce me to new frameworks and tools, or to people doing inspiring work around the world, it also helped me encounter parts of myself. My discomfort with imagining the future, and the slow, sometimes awkward-anxious process of working through it. My reliance on intuition. And, of course, my spectacular blind spots. Thank you for holding this space with such generosity, humour and care. More people should benefit from the wonderful work that you are doing!”
Rupsa Ghosh
Development Specialist & Narratives Expert
“Three years ago, Kriz inspired my shift from frontline activism to working behind the scenes for social change. With this course, she took it even further - offering a transformative take on how my role could evolve. I realized it’s not about being the expert, but about stepping outside my comfort zone, broadening my view, and connecting unexpected dots. In a world of constant change, the tools and frameworks I gained here make me feel more grounded, less anxious, and better equipped to contribute meaningfully. And one more thing: Kriz absolutely rocks!”
Lilly Dragoeva-Pavlova
Former Executive Director, Bilitis Foundation
“Tackle your anxiety about the future with this hugely substantive, smart and engaging workshop. I consider this course as one of the most important developmental opportunities I've engaged in recent years.”
Johanna Chao-Kreilick
Nonprofit Strategist, Advocate & Philanthropist
"This course was an incredible introduction to the mindset of futures thinking - for someone like me, who had never engaged with this content before - this course opened my eyes to an entirely different way of looking at the world. Learning to scan for signals of change, recognizing my blindspots of information, and understanding the power of personal narratives in scenario exploration are the building blocks of this approach. With Krizna's skillful facilitation and introduction of different skills and models, I now feel that I have an entry point to dig deeper and practice my new future muscles. And I really enjoyed being part of this community of amazing leaders. Kriz, you are an incredible facilitator, leader, educator, and all around inspiring human being, and I'm so honored that you invited me to participate in this with you."
Danya Greenfield
Democracy and Human Rights Practitioner
“Ishtar is radical, joyful, fun and very experienced. She has lived and breathed the approaches that she teaches, and her fierce and playful spirit is contagious. She has a gift for guiding people into their own creativity. Working with Ishtar is sure to leave you feeling bolder, empowered and inspired. Careful though: she’s likely to release your inner mischief maker, she’s definitely going to change the way you think about change and you certainly won’t get away without laughing.”
Lucas Paulson
Collaboration Lead at Spring Strategies
“Ishtar has an infectious spirit of creativity and a skillfully strategic mind. Working with her is like lighting a match in a room full of wet ideas, suddenly everything catches fire. Her blend of strategic mischief, deep care, and creative rebellion has a way of making impossible things feel inevitable. Somehow she made rebellion feel like an act of deep care. I walked away from every campaign or workshop feeling braver, bolder, and more in love with the work. Seeing examples of creative activism from around the world just solidified that this is the only way to campaign. Be ready to dream and see real impact!”
Ivana Merckel
Senior Atlantic Fellow at Atlantic Institute
“I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Ishtar for many years, through some of the most challenging, creative, and meaningful advocacy efforts of my career. Our collaboration has spanned high-level advocacy, campaign design, policy submissions, and public engagement, often under enormous pressure and in emotionally charged environments. And through all of it, Ishtar has been a steady force. She has a rare ability to move between legal, emotional, and political terrain, without dropping the thread. She brings people together, she helps clarify what matters, and has an incredible gift for making the complex feel human and urgent.”
Stacey-Leigh Manuel
Deputy Director, Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch
“I’m deeply grateful to Ishtar for the incredible support and encouragement she offered the Kenya CSO coalition in developing our advocacy and campaigning skills. Her passion, creativity, and unwavering belief in our potential turned what could have been a daunting learning curve into an exciting, confidence-building journey. Personally, Ishtar didn’t just teach me, she made the process genuinely fun and inspiring, and I’ll always carry that experience with me. I look forward to more learning as comrades in the human rights space in Africa.”
Catherine Mbui
Civic Space Advocate at Article19 East Africa
"It has been 10 years of collaborating on issues that have been close to our collective hearts: sex worker rights, state capture, health xenophobia, GBV, US funding cuts to global health, and others and 10 years of inspiration and benefiting from her wisdom and energy. Working with Ishtar means focusing with laser sharpness on the issue at hand, while acknowledging the heaviness of it, but not letting these emotions immobilise one. She has taught me to creatively use sadness and anger, and to channel those into opportunities for dreaming, fantasy, lightness and subversion. To harness these to craft innovative advocacy strategies, and then to implement these by playing with exuberance and laughing with abandon while making fire under the bums of the status quo.”
Marlise Richter
Activist, Researcher & Tea Connoisseur
“While I was at the European Environmental Bureau in Brussels, we brought Ishtar in to lead an advocacy training for global policymakers campaigning against the EU’s export of banned pesticides. She brought both heart and expertise to that table. Ishtar’s facilitation was unforgettable. She has a rare way with people, combining boldness and courage with deep knowledge and a healthy dose of realism. Vivid, sharp, and grounded, she made a lasting impact. That coalition is still going strong today, thanks in no small part to her spark. Ishtar is an extraordinary facilitator and genuinely fun to work with: brilliant, bold, wildly creative, and deeply strategic. She combines knowledge and charm, insight and humor and sessions with her leave you energized, equipped, and ready to take on the world.”
Andreea-Corina Anca
Senior Communications Specialist at Energy Community
"Learning about hope-based communications has changed my perspective on my work. I also helped me find my voice on shaping the work that we do in my organisation and in human rights field, and helped me connect with like-minded, cool people with whom the main message of the approach resonated well."
Kerem Çiftçioğlu
Communications Director, Hafiza Merkezi
“Working with Thomas and becoming a Hope-Based Communications trainer has given me language for and a confidence in the kind of change I always sensed was possible, but didn’t quite know how to articulate. Learning the five shifts and putting them into practice has of course changed how I approach my work, but it's also changed my daily conversations and how I approach everyday life. What I love most about the Hope-Based framework is how intuitive it is. The shifts activate hope and make it accessible — anyone can learn them, anyone can practice them, and anyone can become an expert in spreading active hope. As a trainer, Thomas holds space with clarity, humility, care, and humor, and models how to move from reacting to the world to reimagining it. Since becoming certified, I've led workshops for private sector groups, philanthropy, and civil society, using the five shifts to point our collective gaze toward the world we want to build.”
Michael Braithwaite
Founder of Big Bite Communications + Next Big Thing Consulting
“HBC became a solid baseline for my work as a communications strategist and goes far beyond communications content or professions. Focusing on the things you want to grow applies to almost any context, and the phrase "Say what you're for" is one I use often - both in my personal and professional life.”
Gesine Schmidt-Schmiedbauer
Co-Founder of One Step Beyond
"Thank you very much for everything you did. I only got enthusiastic reactions from people visiting your workshop and session. I think your work and vision is really important and I am glad you will continue this road to promote hope-based communications."
Sera Koolmees
Senior Communications Advisor, Partos Innovation Festival
"In a world thirsting for solutions and tired of catastrophes, we cannot just be one more organization shouting about things that are wrong. Thomas' hope-based approach oriented us not to focus on issues, but instead to illuminate our work for hope: in every campaign, in every policy we encourage, in every fundamental human right we defend."
Pedro A. Neto
Executive Director, Amnistia Internacional Portugal
"Thomas’s work with ISHR – founded in science, evidence and stories, as well as extensive first-hand experience as to what works and what doesn’t – is helping us to communicate about defenders in ways which engage hearts and change minds."
Phil Lynch
Executive Director, International Service for Human Rights
Courses & community
are now open
The future doesn’t wait.
But now, you don’t have to either.
Courses & community
are now open
The future doesn’t wait.
But now, you don’t have to either.
Got questions?
We’ve got answers.
Browse the FAQs, and if you don’t find what you’re looking for, drop us a line at explore@rogueunion.org—we’d love to hear from you.
Rogue Leadership
You can't lead out there, until you lead in here.
A hands-on course + community to master the inner work of leadership
Too often, leadership development focuses only on external performance—strategy, communication, productivity, execution. But beneath many leadership challenges lies something deeper: the self-doubt, the pressure to always have the answers, the exhaustion of holding everything together, the patterns and reactions we carry into how we lead.
Rogue Leadership goes deeper. It begins with who is doing the leading—because the most powerful work a leader can do is often the work no one else can see. This programme helps you pause, reconnect, and strengthen the inner foundation from which you lead, so you can show up with greater clarity, emotional steadiness, authenticity, and self-trust.
This course doesn’t just help you understand leadership differently. It helps you lead differently.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
By the end of this course, you will have:
Your inner critic quieted, and your sense of worth reclaimed: Move beyond the belief that your value must constantly be earned, proven, or performed.
A practical understanding of the five sites of inner leadership: Develop deeper awareness of the patterns, beliefs, emotions, and behaviours influencing how you lead.
Greater emotional steadiness under pressure: Learn practices to navigate uncertainty, complexity, and high-pressure environments without losing yourself in the process.
Increased self-trust and leadership confidence: Strengthen your ability to lead with clarity and conviction, even when answers are not immediately clear.
Practical tools for conscious leadership: Gain hands-on experience with reflective and actionable tools you can apply directly to your real leadership challenges and context.
More aligned and intentional leadership: Learn how to lead in a way that is grounded in your values, purpose, and authentic way of showing up.
A supportive community of leaders: Join a community of thoughtful leaders committed to doing the inner work together, sharing reflections, challenges, insights, and growth in a supportive environment.
Find out the complete details about this course when it launches
in early 2026.
Join Rogue Signal and be first to know when it drops.
THE MODULES
Rogue Leadership is a hands-on, reflective journey for leaders who want to lead more consciously in a world that constantly demands more.
Built from real experience with leaders navigating uncertainty, pressure, and change, this programme gets to what actually matters: the beliefs, emotional patterns, ego structures, and inner narratives shaping how you lead, and the awareness and tools to respond with greater intention, resilience, and alignment.
Here are the modules that you will learn in the course and community:
1. Reclaiming Your Worth, Waking Up from the Trance
2. Ego and Essence, Who Is Leading?
3. The Power of Attention, Shaping Your Inner Narrative
4. Emotions as Messengers, Befriending Your Inner World
5. The Practice of Stillness, Rest, Renewal and Reconnection
What the Time
Commitment Is
This course is designed to fit into your real life
—without sacrificing depth, creativity, or impact.
5 modules across 5 interconnected sites of inner work
Bite-sized learning designed for busy leaders
15–30 minutes of simple but powerful practice per module
Practical tools you can apply immediately in conversations, decision-making, team dynamics, and moments of pressure
Your Rogue Mentor
VOICES FROM
THE ROGUES
"I’ve been lucky to benefit from Kriz‘s ideas and advice over the years so I shouldn’t be surprised at how amazing the course is. It’s a great introduction to futures—- it distills so much wisdom and knowledge into a framework that is easy to apply and incredibly useful. Even better is being part of a community of amazing fellow ‘Rogues’ to carry on my journey with. It’s often a challenge to put what I’ve learned on a course into practice but you’ve created the perfect framework to enable that to happen. More power to your elbow!"
James Logan
Independent Consultant to NGOs & Philanthropies
"More often than not, it’s the people you meet who change you. For me, Kriz is living proof of that. She introduced me to people and ideas that permanently changed how I approach my work. What makes Kriz unique for me is how much she brings who she is into her work — mindful, creative, and deeply attentive to nuance and detail. In her Future Readiness course, she gently blurs the boundaries of personal and professional, as she takes you on a journey into a meticulously crafted world that dares you to step out of your comfort zone, make the effort, honor your constraints, and imagine new futures with grounded, joyful courage."
Kerem Çiftçioğlu
Communications Director, Hafiza Merkezi
“Guided by creativity, this course flipped my view on futures thinking - it is way more practical than I imagined! The tools fit any challenge, and they sparked great insights for the project I’m working on. Huge thanks, Kriz!”
Paula Spieler
Independent Consultant for Human Rights
“Kriz has built a beautiful space here. The course didn’t just introduce me to new frameworks and tools, or to people doing inspiring work around the world, it also helped me encounter parts of myself. My discomfort with imagining the future, and the slow, sometimes awkward-anxious process of working through it. My reliance on intuition. And, of course, my spectacular blind spots. Thank you for holding this space with such generosity, humour and care. More people should benefit from the wonderful work that you are doing!”
Rupsa Ghosh
Development Specialist & Narratives Expert
“Three years ago, Kriz inspired my shift from frontline activism to working behind the scenes for social change. With this course, she took it even further - offering a transformative take on how my role could evolve. I realized it’s not about being the expert, but about stepping outside my comfort zone, broadening my view, and connecting unexpected dots. In a world of constant change, the tools and frameworks I gained here make me feel more grounded, less anxious, and better equipped to contribute meaningfully. And one more thing: Kriz absolutely rocks!”
Lilly Dragoeva-Pavlova
Former Executive Director, Bilitis Foundation
“Tackle your anxiety about the future with this hugely substantive, smart and engaging workshop. I consider this course as one of the most important developmental opportunities I've engaged in recent years.”
Johanna Chao-Kreilick
Nonprofit Strategist, Advocate & Philanthropist
"This course was an incredible introduction to the mindset of futures thinking - for someone like me, who had never engaged with this content before - this course opened my eyes to an entirely different way of looking at the world. Learning to scan for signals of change, recognizing my blindspots of information, and understanding the power of personal narratives in scenario exploration are the building blocks of this approach. With Krizna's skillful facilitation and introduction of different skills and models, I now feel that I have an entry point to dig deeper and practice my new future muscles. And I really enjoyed being part of this community of amazing leaders. Kriz, you are an incredible facilitator, leader, educator, and all around inspiring human being, and I'm so honored that you invited me to participate in this with you."
Danya Greenfield
Democracy and Human Rights Practitioner
“Ishtar is radical, joyful, fun and very experienced. She has lived and breathed the approaches that she teaches, and her fierce and playful spirit is contagious. She has a gift for guiding people into their own creativity. Working with Ishtar is sure to leave you feeling bolder, empowered and inspired. Careful though: she’s likely to release your inner mischief maker, she’s definitely going to change the way you think about change and you certainly won’t get away without laughing.”
Lucas Paulson
Collaboration Lead at Spring Strategies
“Ishtar has an infectious spirit of creativity and a skillfully strategic mind. Working with her is like lighting a match in a room full of wet ideas, suddenly everything catches fire. Her blend of strategic mischief, deep care, and creative rebellion has a way of making impossible things feel inevitable. Somehow she made rebellion feel like an act of deep care. I walked away from every campaign or workshop feeling braver, bolder, and more in love with the work. Seeing examples of creative activism from around the world just solidified that this is the only way to campaign. Be ready to dream and see real impact!”
Ivana Merckel
Senior Atlantic Fellow at Atlantic Institute
“I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Ishtar for many years, through some of the most challenging, creative, and meaningful advocacy efforts of my career. Our collaboration has spanned high-level advocacy, campaign design, policy submissions, and public engagement, often under enormous pressure and in emotionally charged environments. And through all of it, Ishtar has been a steady force. She has a rare ability to move between legal, emotional, and political terrain, without dropping the thread. She brings people together, she helps clarify what matters, and has an incredible gift for making the complex feel human and urgent.”
Stacey-Leigh Manuel
Deputy Director, Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch
“I’m deeply grateful to Ishtar for the incredible support and encouragement she offered the Kenya CSO coalition in developing our advocacy and campaigning skills. Her passion, creativity, and unwavering belief in our potential turned what could have been a daunting learning curve into an exciting, confidence-building journey. Personally, Ishtar didn’t just teach me, she made the process genuinely fun and inspiring, and I’ll always carry that experience with me. I look forward to more learning as comrades in the human rights space in Africa.”
Catherine Mbui
Civic Space Advocate at Article19 East Africa
"It has been 10 years of collaborating on issues that have been close to our collective hearts: sex worker rights, state capture, health xenophobia, GBV, US funding cuts to global health, and others and 10 years of inspiration and benefiting from her wisdom and energy. Working with Ishtar means focusing with laser sharpness on the issue at hand, while acknowledging the heaviness of it, but not letting these emotions immobilise one. She has taught me to creatively use sadness and anger, and to channel those into opportunities for dreaming, fantasy, lightness and subversion. To harness these to craft innovative advocacy strategies, and then to implement these by playing with exuberance and laughing with abandon while making fire under the bums of the status quo.”
Marlise Richter
Activist, Researcher & Tea Connoisseur
“While I was at the European Environmental Bureau in Brussels, we brought Ishtar in to lead an advocacy training for global policymakers campaigning against the EU’s export of banned pesticides. She brought both heart and expertise to that table. Ishtar’s facilitation was unforgettable. She has a rare way with people, combining boldness and courage with deep knowledge and a healthy dose of realism. Vivid, sharp, and grounded, she made a lasting impact. That coalition is still going strong today, thanks in no small part to her spark. Ishtar is an extraordinary facilitator and genuinely fun to work with: brilliant, bold, wildly creative, and deeply strategic. She combines knowledge and charm, insight and humor and sessions with her leave you energized, equipped, and ready to take on the world.”
Andreea-Corina Anca
Senior Communications Specialist at Energy Community
"Learning about hope-based communications has changed my perspective on my work. I also helped me find my voice on shaping the work that we do in my organisation and in human rights field, and helped me connect with like-minded, cool people with whom the main message of the approach resonated well."
Kerem Çiftçioğlu
Communications Director, Hafiza Merkezi
“Working with Thomas and becoming a Hope-Based Communications trainer has given me language for and a confidence in the kind of change I always sensed was possible, but didn’t quite know how to articulate. Learning the five shifts and putting them into practice has of course changed how I approach my work, but it's also changed my daily conversations and how I approach everyday life. What I love most about the Hope-Based framework is how intuitive it is. The shifts activate hope and make it accessible — anyone can learn them, anyone can practice them, and anyone can become an expert in spreading active hope. As a trainer, Thomas holds space with clarity, humility, care, and humor, and models how to move from reacting to the world to reimagining it. Since becoming certified, I've led workshops for private sector groups, philanthropy, and civil society, using the five shifts to point our collective gaze toward the world we want to build.”
Michael Braithwaite
Founder of Big Bite Communications + Next Big Thing Consulting
“HBC became a solid baseline for my work as a communications strategist and goes far beyond communications content or professions. Focusing on the things you want to grow applies to almost any context, and the phrase "Say what you're for" is one I use often - both in my personal and professional life.”
Gesine Schmidt-Schmiedbauer
Co-Founder of One Step Beyond
"Thank you very much for everything you did. I only got enthusiastic reactions from people visiting your workshop and session. I think your work and vision is really important and I am glad you will continue this road to promote hope-based communications."
Sera Koolmees
Senior Communications Advisor, Partos Innovation Festival
"In a world thirsting for solutions and tired of catastrophes, we cannot just be one more organization shouting about things that are wrong. Thomas' hope-based approach oriented us not to focus on issues, but instead to illuminate our work for hope: in every campaign, in every policy we encourage, in every fundamental human right we defend."
Pedro A. Neto
Executive Director, Amnistia Internacional Portugal
"Thomas’s work with ISHR – founded in science, evidence and stories, as well as extensive first-hand experience as to what works and what doesn’t – is helping us to communicate about defenders in ways which engage hearts and change minds."
Phil Lynch
Executive Director, International Service for Human Rights
Courses & community
are now open
The future doesn’t wait.
But now, you don’t have to either.
Got questions?
We’ve got answers.
Browse the FAQs, and if you don’t find what you’re looking for, drop us a line at explore@rogueunion.org—we’d love to hear from you.
Rogue Leadership
You can't lead out there, until you lead in here.
A hands-on course + community to master the inner work of leadership
Too often, leadership development focuses only on external performance—strategy, communication, productivity, execution. But beneath many leadership challenges lies something deeper: the self-doubt, the pressure to always have the answers, the exhaustion of holding everything together, the patterns and reactions we carry into how we lead.
Rogue Leadership goes deeper. It begins with who is doing the leading—because the most powerful work a leader can do is often the work no one else can see. This programme helps you pause, reconnect, and strengthen the inner foundation from which you lead, so you can show up with greater clarity, emotional steadiness, authenticity, and self-trust.
This course doesn’t just help you understand leadership differently. It helps you lead differently.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
By the end of this course, you will have:
Your inner critic quieted, and your sense of worth reclaimed: Move beyond the belief that your value must constantly be earned, proven, or performed.
A practical understanding of the five sites of inner leadership: Develop deeper awareness of the patterns, beliefs, emotions, and behaviours influencing how you lead.
Greater emotional steadiness under pressure: Learn practices to navigate uncertainty, complexity, and high-pressure environments without losing yourself in the process.
Increased self-trust and leadership confidence: Strengthen your ability to lead with clarity and conviction, even when answers are not immediately clear.
Practical tools for conscious leadership: Gain hands-on experience with reflective and actionable tools you can apply directly to your real leadership challenges and context.
More aligned and intentional leadership: Learn how to lead in a way that is grounded in your values, purpose, and authentic way of showing up.
A supportive community of leaders: Join a community of thoughtful leaders committed to doing the inner work together, sharing reflections, challenges, insights, and growth in a supportive environment.
Find out the complete details about this course when it launches
in early 2026.
Join Rogue Signal and be first to know when it drops.
THE MODULES
Rogue Leadership is a hands-on, reflective journey for leaders who want to lead more consciously in a world that constantly demands more.
Built from real experience with leaders navigating uncertainty, pressure, and change, this programme gets to what actually matters: the beliefs, emotional patterns, ego structures, and inner narratives shaping how you lead, and the awareness and tools to respond with greater intention, resilience, and alignment.
Here are the modules that you will learn in the course and community:
1. Reclaiming Your Worth, Waking Up from the Trance
2. Ego and Essence, Who Is Leading?
3. The Power of Attention, Shaping Your Inner Narrative
4. Emotions as Messengers, Befriending Your Inner World
5. The Practice of Stillness, Rest, Renewal and Reconnection
What the Time
Commitment Is
This course is designed to fit into your real life—without sacrificing depth, creativity, or impact.
5 modules across 5 interconnected sites of inner work
Bite-sized learning designed for busy leaders
15–30 minutes of simple but powerful practice per module
Practical tools you can apply immediately in conversations, decision-making, team dynamics, and moments of pressure
YOUR ROGUE MENTOR
VOICES FROM
THE ROGUES
"I’ve been lucky to benefit from Kriz‘s ideas and advice over the years so I shouldn’t be surprised at how amazing the course is. It’s a great introduction to futures—- it distills so much wisdom and knowledge into a framework that is easy to apply and incredibly useful. Even better is being part of a community of amazing fellow ‘Rogues’ to carry on my journey with. It’s often a challenge to put what I’ve learned on a course into practice but you’ve created the perfect framework to enable that to happen. More power to your elbow!"
James Logan
Independent Consultant to NGOs & Philanthropies
"More often than not, it’s the people you meet who change you. For me, Kriz is living proof of that. She introduced me to people and ideas that permanently changed how I approach my work. What makes Kriz unique for me is how much she brings who she is into her work — mindful, creative, and deeply attentive to nuance and detail. In her Future Readiness course, she gently blurs the boundaries of personal and professional, as she takes you on a journey into a meticulously crafted world that dares you to step out of your comfort zone, make the effort, honor your constraints, and imagine new futures with grounded, joyful courage."
Kerem Çiftçioğlu
Communications Director, Hafiza Merkezi
“Guided by creativity, this course flipped my view on futures thinking - it is way more practical than I imagined! The tools fit any challenge, and they sparked great insights for the project I’m working on. Huge thanks, Kriz!”
Paula Spieler
Independent Consultant for Human Rights
“Kriz has built a beautiful space here. The course didn’t just introduce me to new frameworks and tools, or to people doing inspiring work around the world, it also helped me encounter parts of myself. My discomfort with imagining the future, and the slow, sometimes awkward-anxious process of working through it. My reliance on intuition. And, of course, my spectacular blind spots. Thank you for holding this space with such generosity, humour and care. More people should benefit from the wonderful work that you are doing!”
Rupsa Ghosh
Development Specialist & Narratives Expert
“Three years ago, Kriz inspired my shift from frontline activism to working behind the scenes for social change. With this course, she took it even further - offering a transformative take on how my role could evolve. I realized it’s not about being the expert, but about stepping outside my comfort zone, broadening my view, and connecting unexpected dots. In a world of constant change, the tools and frameworks I gained here make me feel more grounded, less anxious, and better equipped to contribute meaningfully. And one more thing: Kriz absolutely rocks!”
Lilly Dragoeva-Pavlova
Former Executive Director, Bilitis Foundation
“Tackle your anxiety about the future with this hugely substantive, smart and engaging workshop. I consider this course as one of the most important developmental opportunities I've engaged in recent years.”
Johanna Chao-Kreilick
Nonprofit Strategist, Advocate & Philanthropist
"This course was an incredible introduction to the mindset of futures thinking - for someone like me, who had never engaged with this content before - this course opened my eyes to an entirely different way of looking at the world. Learning to scan for signals of change, recognizing my blindspots of information, and understanding the power of personal narratives in scenario exploration are the building blocks of this approach. With Krizna's skillful facilitation and introduction of different skills and models, I now feel that I have an entry point to dig deeper and practice my new future muscles. And I really enjoyed being part of this community of amazing leaders. Kriz, you are an incredible facilitator, leader, educator, and all around inspiring human being, and I'm so honored that you invited me to participate in this with you."
Danya Greenfield
Democracy and Human Rights Practitioner
“Ishtar is radical, joyful, fun and very experienced. She has lived and breathed the approaches that she teaches, and her fierce and playful spirit is contagious. She has a gift for guiding people into their own creativity. Working with Ishtar is sure to leave you feeling bolder, empowered and inspired. Careful though: she’s likely to release your inner mischief maker, she’s definitely going to change the way you think about change and you certainly won’t get away without laughing.”
Lucas Paulson
Collaboration Lead at Spring Strategies
“Ishtar has an infectious spirit of creativity and a skillfully strategic mind. Working with her is like lighting a match in a room full of wet ideas, suddenly everything catches fire. Her blend of strategic mischief, deep care, and creative rebellion has a way of making impossible things feel inevitable. Somehow she made rebellion feel like an act of deep care. I walked away from every campaign or workshop feeling braver, bolder, and more in love with the work. Seeing examples of creative activism from around the world just solidified that this is the only way to campaign. Be ready to dream and see real impact!”
Ivana Merckel
Senior Atlantic Fellow at Atlantic Institute
“I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Ishtar for many years, through some of the most challenging, creative, and meaningful advocacy efforts of my career. Our collaboration has spanned high-level advocacy, campaign design, policy submissions, and public engagement, often under enormous pressure and in emotionally charged environments. And through all of it, Ishtar has been a steady force. She has a rare ability to move between legal, emotional, and political terrain, without dropping the thread. She brings people together, she helps clarify what matters, and has an incredible gift for making the complex feel human and urgent.”
Stacey-Leigh Manuel
Deputy Director, Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch
“I’m deeply grateful to Ishtar for the incredible support and encouragement she offered the Kenya CSO coalition in developing our advocacy and campaigning skills. Her passion, creativity, and unwavering belief in our potential turned what could have been a daunting learning curve into an exciting, confidence-building journey. Personally, Ishtar didn’t just teach me, she made the process genuinely fun and inspiring, and I’ll always carry that experience with me. I look forward to more learning as comrades in the human rights space in Africa.”
Catherine Mbui
Civic Space Advocate at Article19 East Africa
"It has been 10 years of collaborating on issues that have been close to our collective hearts: sex worker rights, state capture, health xenophobia, GBV, US funding cuts to global health, and others and 10 years of inspiration and benefiting from her wisdom and energy. Working with Ishtar means focusing with laser sharpness on the issue at hand, while acknowledging the heaviness of it, but not letting these emotions immobilise one. She has taught me to creatively use sadness and anger, and to channel those into opportunities for dreaming, fantasy, lightness and subversion. To harness these to craft innovative advocacy strategies, and then to implement these by playing with exuberance and laughing with abandon while making fire under the bums of the status quo.”
Marlise Richter
Activist, Researcher & Tea Connoisseur
“While I was at the European Environmental Bureau in Brussels, we brought Ishtar in to lead an advocacy training for global policymakers campaigning against the EU’s export of banned pesticides. She brought both heart and expertise to that table. Ishtar’s facilitation was unforgettable. She has a rare way with people, combining boldness and courage with deep knowledge and a healthy dose of realism. Vivid, sharp, and grounded, she made a lasting impact. That coalition is still going strong today, thanks in no small part to her spark. Ishtar is an extraordinary facilitator and genuinely fun to work with: brilliant, bold, wildly creative, and deeply strategic. She combines knowledge and charm, insight and humor and sessions with her leave you energized, equipped, and ready to take on the world.”
Andreea-Corina Anca
Senior Communications Specialist at Energy Community
"Learning about hope-based communications has changed my perspective on my work. I also helped me find my voice on shaping the work that we do in my organisation and in human rights field, and helped me connect with like-minded, cool people with whom the main message of the approach resonated well."
Kerem Çiftçioğlu
Communications Director, Hafiza Merkezi
“Working with Thomas and becoming a Hope-Based Communications trainer has given me language for and a confidence in the kind of change I always sensed was possible, but didn’t quite know how to articulate. Learning the five shifts and putting them into practice has of course changed how I approach my work, but it's also changed my daily conversations and how I approach everyday life. What I love most about the Hope-Based framework is how intuitive it is. The shifts activate hope and make it accessible — anyone can learn them, anyone can practice them, and anyone can become an expert in spreading active hope. As a trainer, Thomas holds space with clarity, humility, care, and humor, and models how to move from reacting to the world to reimagining it. Since becoming certified, I've led workshops for private sector groups, philanthropy, and civil society, using the five shifts to point our collective gaze toward the world we want to build.”
Michael Braithwaite
Founder of Big Bite Communications + Next Big Thing Consulting
“HBC became a solid baseline for my work as a communications strategist and goes far beyond communications content or professions. Focusing on the things you want to grow applies to almost any context, and the phrase "Say what you're for" is one I use often - both in my personal and professional life.”
Gesine Schmidt-Schmiedbauer
Co-Founder of One Step Beyond
"Thank you very much for everything you did. I only got enthusiastic reactions from people visiting your workshop and session. I think your work and vision is really important and I am glad you will continue this road to promote hope-based communications."
Sera Koolmees
Senior Communications Advisor, Partos Innovation Festival
"In a world thirsting for solutions and tired of catastrophes, we cannot just be one more organization shouting about things that are wrong. Thomas' hope-based approach oriented us not to focus on issues, but instead to illuminate our work for hope: in every campaign, in every policy we encourage, in every fundamental human right we defend."
Pedro A. Neto
Executive Director, Amnistia Internacional Portugal
"Thomas’s work with ISHR – founded in science, evidence and stories, as well as extensive first-hand experience as to what works and what doesn’t – is helping us to communicate about defenders in ways which engage hearts and change minds."
Phil Lynch
Executive Director, International Service for Human Rights
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The future doesn’t wait.
But now, you don’t have to either.
