Leading in the open
A 30-Day Process to Unstick Stalled Priorities & Build Trust in Real Work
Leading in the Open is a focused 30-day process designed to help leadership teams uncover the human dynamics quietly blocking movement, turn one important priority into visible practice, and build the trust and follow-through needed to keep learning together.
It is for leadership teams navigating growth, transition, or change—when another strategy session is unlikely to address what is really getting in the way.
The priority has been named. So why is it still stuck?
We’ll look at what’s stuck, what you’ve already tried, and whether Leading in the Open is the right next step.+ Four-hour team lab
Focused pre-work
+ 30 days of guided practice
+ Sponsor debrief
Is this happening on your team?
Your team may not need another strategy session.
It may need a better way to name and work with what is quietly blocking progress.
A priority is repeatedly discussed but continues to slip.
Leaders appear aligned in the room, then act from different assumptions.
The same bottlenecks and ownership questions keep resurfacing.
Important tensions move into the “meeting after the meeting.”
The CEO or senior leader remains the hub for too many decisions.
Technical fixes fall short when the real issue is trust, fear, role clarity, or behavior.
Most leadership teams do not get stuck because they lack intelligence, ambition, or a good plan.
They get stuck in the gaps between strategy and daily behavior, individual priorities and shared purpose, honest dialogue and decisive action.
We work in those gaps.
Complexity can pull apart what needs to work together. Leading in the Open creates a structured way to make the invisible patterns visible, work with them without blame, and reconnect around one priority that matters now.
The visible issue may be execution. Underneath it may be competing commitments, unspoken assumptions, protective habits, low trust, unclear ownership, or a fear of what change could cost.
The aim is not to diagnose people as the problem. Leading in the Open helps the team see the pattern it’s participating in, turning that awareness into a structured cycle of individual practice and collective learning.
The human gap behind stalled execution
How the 30-day process works
One shared priority anchors the process. Within it, each leader identifies and owns a personal “One Big Thing”—a behavior, habit, or pattern they need to shift to move that priority forward.
Across four connected phases, the team links individual practice to collective progress.
01 — FOCUS
Connect the shared priority to individual ownership
Pre-work and sponsor alignment clarify one meaningful business or leadership priority, what movement would look like, and why it matters now. Each leader then identifies a personal One Big Thing connected to that shared priority.
02 — REVEAL
Surface what is quietly blocking movement
During the facilitated four-hour lab, each participant explores the hidden commitments, assumptions, and protective patterns working against their One Big Thing. The team also begins noticing themes and connections across the individual maps.
03 — PRACTICE
Test new behavior in real work
Each leader designs small, visible tests connected to their One Big Thing and the shared priority. Because the work happens in the open, leaders make their commitments visible, encourage one another’s progress, and learn from the different angles each person is working. Guided prompts and a midpoint check-in create a shared rhythm of accountability, reflection, and adjustment over 30 days.
04 — INTEGRATE
Turn individual and shared learning into the team’s next move
An end-of-cycle conversation brings each leader’s learning back to the shared priority. Together, the team identifies what changed, what they learned from one another, which patterns became visible, and which practices should continue. A sponsor debrief translates those insights into next steps, needed support, and the conditions for sustaining progress.
What leaders and the team
carry forward
The process produces concrete tools for individual practice and shared learning.
A personal One Big Thing connected to the shared priority
A map of the hidden commitments and assumptions affecting progress
Small, visible tests with a simple method for tracking learning and gathering feedback
What each leader builds
A shared definition of the priority and what meaningful movement would look like
Non-blaming language for discussing resistance, plus a rhythm of mutual accountability
Sponsor debrief identifying patterns, support needs, and possible next steps
What the team carries forward
Designed to support: more direct conversation, clearer ownership and follow-through, stronger trust through visible practice, and greater capacity to navigate change together.
Grounded in Research.
Built for real work.
Leading in the Open draws on the Immunity to Change™ approach developed by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey through decades of adult-development research connected to the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It helps leaders see how sincere commitments to change can be undermined by hidden competing commitments and assumptions—and test those assumptions through small experiments in real work.
A research-informed foundation
U&I integrates that foundation with systemic team coaching and Multidimensional Leadership™—attending to what is happening within leaders, in connection to one another, through the organizational system, and beyond the team to the stakeholders and future its work affects.
The process connects individual insight, shared learning, and visible practice in the flow of real work.
A systemic, multidimensional lens
One focused lab. Thirty days of connected practice.
Leaders carry the work into real decisions, relationships, and priorities—together, in the open.
Leading in the Open is designed for senior teams, leadership teams, and cross-functional groups that:
Have a meaningful priority or leadership behavior change on the table
Are navigating significant change—such as growth, transition, scaling, restructuring, or AI adoption
Sense that something deeper than strategy, skill, or effort is slowing progress
Are willing to examine their own role and practice new behavior visibly over 30 days
Who it’s for
YOUR GUIDE
Working with what is really happening
Ari DeGrote is the founder of Upward & Inward and an ICF Associate Certified Coach with more than 20 years of experience across human-centered change, organizational leadership, innovation ecosystems, coaching, facilitation, and team development.
Ari is Certified in Systemic Team Coaching—Team Development Essentials and trained in the Immunity to Change™ approach through Minds at Work. The work combines warmth without avoidance, clarity without shame, and enough structure for honest learning and action.
What important priority keeps returning without moving?
Book a free 20-minute Stuck Priorities Consult. We’ll look at what is stuck, what your team has already tried, and whether Leading in the Open is a useful next step.
No pressure. No obligation. Just a focused conversation about fit.