We started Starling five months ago thinking we’d offer one event a month. As we ramped up, it turned into nearly one per week (with an average rating of five stars so far). Now, in the first quarter of 2024, we’re thrilled to be able to offer members even more than that—with 16 total.
Our professional development events run the gamut from speaker-led workshops and The Starling Way live sessions to social gatherings and community town halls. Every one of them is in service of helping our members learn, connect, and give back.
In 2024, we'll be releasing a detailed schedule at least a quarter in advance to help our members plot a personalized path through our events and offerings in a way that helps them achieve their development goals and get the most out of their Starling membership.
Coffee Chats
Suggested by one of our board members (the inimitable Tracy Armstead), community coffee chats became an unexpected hit in 2023. With no agenda and no plan, we encourage members to show up as they are and talk about whatever’s on their mind. Sometimes we help individuals brainstorm around a particular work challenge, sometimes we talk about what tools to use to build a portfolio website, and sometimes we talk about what we’re making for lunch. I have personally found it refreshing to have a space where no one expects anything from me and I’m accepted in whatever state I arrive in.
The Starling Way Live Sessions
This quarter we’re trying something new with our courses. The self-paced material for all published courses is already available to members as part of the cost of membership, but in January, February, and March, we’ll be offering live sessions that compliment this coursework. At these workshops, we’ll be inviting members to discuss what they’ve learned and work through some of the focal activities together. This quarter, we’ll be digging into three topics from Knowing Yourself, our course on self-awareness in leadership: values, personal history, and identity.
Speaker Series
We’re particularly excited to announce the lineup of speaker events coming in the new year. In putting our calendar together we tried to target a mix of topics from the applied to the theoretical and from the hard to the soft durable. We’re proud to note that most of our speakers are members, reinforcing our philosophy that we all have something to teach each and learn from each other. Here’s a preview of what to expect:
Empowered Communication for Professionals with Rachel Randolph (founder of Spec Communication Coaching) on Thursday, January 11 at 1:00 PM ET. This workshop cultivates self-awareness and offers techniques rooted in Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), meditation, and heart science to empower individuals to reshape their self-talk and foster effective communication.
Rethinking the Review: People-Centric Approaches for Managers with Drew Fifield on Tuesday, January 30 at 1:00 PM ET. Modern managers are expected to go beyond tedious, tick-box performance reviews. In this workshop, we'll dive into innovative, human-centered approaches that focus on purpose, fairness, and development in performance management. You'll leave with practical, easy-to-implement strategies that transform performance reviews from a chore into a powerful tool for growth and engagement.
If You Can’t Tame It, Embrace It: Complexity Science for Managers with Jen Briselli (co-founder of Topology) on Thursday, February 15 at 11:00 AM ET. Transformation is not a momentary disruption but a persistent evolutionary process. Ambiguity is not an obstacle to be overcome but the water we all swim in. Thriving in uncertainty and facilitating positive change requires us to rethink our leadership strategies because we cannot control the future. In this workshop, we’ll explore a few fundamental concepts from complexity science and highlight guiding principles that you can integrate into your practice to lead with agility in lieu of certainty.
Career Paths & Possibilities: How to Keep Your Direct Reports Engaged When a Promotion Isn’t an Option with Shaté Hayes on Wednesday, February 28, 2024. This workshop will provide you with practical knowledge and insights into how to honor your direct reports, keep them engaged, and support their career advancement even when a promotion isn’t an option.
Speaker Event with Santana Inniss on Thursday, March 7 at 12:00 PM ET. Master Certified Alignment Coach Santana Inniss from Flo Foundations will join us for an event in early March. Santana provides her clients with a holistic and transformative personal development process helping them uncover their most authentic selves by aligning beliefs, actions, and goals.
Decoding Data with Tom Andrews on Thursday, March 28, at 12:00 PM ET. More info to come!
Town Hall
Finally, we’re kicking the year off right with our first ever town hall. Jeff and I started this community with the intention to actually be members ourselves, and to collaborate with the community to create the roadmap, rather than handing it down from on high. So, in January, we’re excited to hear from the 100+ Starlings who have joined us since getting started about what they hope to see in the future, and to discuss what shape we hope our murmuration will take, together.
If you’re interested in attending the events listed above and accessing our growing library of educational content and activities, join the flock today.
Don’t forget, prices go up on February 1st, so get in before then to lock in the founding flock rate.
