THE INNER WORK OF
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
An Evolutionary Groups Framework
12-Week Zoom Course
Wednesdays, 11am-12:30pm ET
Beginning April 8, 2026
Maximum of 8 Participants
Where Effective Leadership Really Begins
Much of what determines whether a workplace thrives or struggles does not sit on the surface. It lives in the unspoken patterns, tensions, reactions, and assumptions shaping how people work together every day.
Running a business or leading a team can be meaningful, but also demanding. If you are dealing with repeated tensions, unclear communication, employee-manager friction, or the feeling that too much depends on you, this course offers a practical and uncommon way of working.
Drawing from the framework of their book Evolutionary Groups: A New Frontier in Human Connection, Anne Altvater and Patricia Pfost help business owners, managers, and team leaders recognize what is really happening beneath workplace problems. The work is not only about improving outward skill. It is about developing the inner clarity, emotional intelligence, steadiness, and perceptive capacity that allow a leader to meet real situations without becoming governed by reactivity.
Why Inner Work Matters In Leadership
A leader may try new strategies, better language, or stronger systems, yet still find the same tensions returning. Often this is because the difficulty is being addressed only where it shows up, not where it begins.
This is not a standard leadership or communication course.
This course helps participants become more aware of the assumptions, protective responses, habits of perception, and emotionally charged patterns that shape how they lead and how others respond to them and to each other. As these become more visible, people gain more freedom. They can pause sooner, see more clearly, and respond from greater integrity rather than from pressure, defensiveness, or old conditioning.
That shift changes not only the leader. It changes the atmosphere around them.
Because the group is small—only 8 participants—there is room for genuine participation, reflection, and application.
The Capacities You Will Strengthen
This course develops a leader’s inner steadiness, self-awareness, perception, and capacity to respond rather than react. It helps people work with triggers, assumptions, pressure, and complexity so they can lead with more clarity and create healthier conditions around them.
You will gain...
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Greater ease in complex human interactions
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Increased emotional intelligence and self-regulation under pressure
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Practical ways to work with tension, trust, and shared responsibility
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A framework for identifying where a group is and what can shift it in the moment
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More room for people’s real talents to come forward
Campbell's Lane Farm
Where the Evolutionary Groups principles come alive in business
We will look at how Anne Altvater applies the 8 Elements, the 3 Groups perspective, and the attitudes of Evolutionary Groups in the running of a successful farm and business: with guests, staff, animals, vendors, decisions, misunderstandings, responsibility, and the many moving parts of daily life.
The herd of donkeys, for which Campbell's Lane Farm is known, provides surprising insight into leadership skills and teamwork. At times, the donkeys will join our live Zoom call, bringing their direct way of returning us to presence, kindness, and connection. Even through Zoom, they contribute something unmistakable to the experience.
Bring Your Own Challenging Situation
Participants are invited to bring their own challenging work situations into the course.
These may include repeated tensions, unclear communication, strained working relationships, problems with responsibility or follow-through, or the sense that a team is not functioning as well as it could.
These situations will be examined through the Evolutionary Groups lens, giving participants a practical and transformational way to understand what is happening and what may help shift it in the moment.
What To Expect
This course is designed as a focused, participatory experience. Each session will include a lecture and skill practice based on the assigned reading from Evolutionary Groups: A New Frontier in Human Connection; group discussion; and interactive exploration of the leadership patterns, assumptions, and responses that shape how you, personally, work. There will also be optional practicum homework so you can begin applying what you are learning in your own business or work setting right away.
Because the value of this course grows through continuity and shared presence, we ask participants to attend consistently and miss no more than three meetings. Sessions will be recorded, and participants will receive access afterward for review or in case a class is missed. To help create a strong and trustworthy learning environment, we ask that you join with your camera on, be in a private space where you will not be overheard or interrupted, and come fully present and ready to interact.
About Your Guides
Anne Altvater is founder of Campbell’s Lane Farm and co-founder of New Wave of Groups. She brings decades of experience as an entrepreneur, retreat host, trainer, and facilitator, along with training through the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and the Southeastern School of Massage. Through the daily life of the farm, she brings these principles into direct, lived practice.
Patricia Pfost is co-founder of New Wave of Groups. Her 40-year background in group facilitation and personal development includes serving as program dean and vice president of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, senior faculty of the Radical Aliveness Institute, and faculty of the Core Energetics Institute. She holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.