Leadership Lab 2026 (San Jose, CA)

A two-day experiential professional development lab for anyone responsible for leading anyone or anything. Come alone as a leader looking to level up, or come with a team that is hoping to build momentum.

We want to change the way that people are talking to each other in schools. So often, in education, you are promoted into leadership because you are good at your current job. “You are a great teacher, why don’t you lead ________ ?” You begin to do this work, and you realize that leading adults is hard – it’s not the same thing you were doing before. You might begin to wonder where the support and training is for this new work. Further, even if you are good at your job, you begin to see that instead of feeling empowered, people are often looking to leaders for instructions, and this works fine when the task is easy, but what about when the challenge is adaptive and you need people to create a solution, not find it. This can be frustrating, and it can feel isolating.

You are not alone, and we have created the L+D Leadership Lab for any leader, at any level, who really wants to dig underneath the initiatives and goals of their work to the skills, mindsets and habits that contribute to success as a leader and practice them with other like minded leaders. Come for the work, leave with the learning and a network of like-minded colleagues.

Who Is This For?

• Department Chairs (new and old) who are not directly responsible for supervision, but are expected to play a supervisory role with their peers. Do you wonder how much authority you have? This is for you.
• New or Experienced Division Heads that would like to get more buy-in and build more agency in their faculty.
• Faculty: Are you a teacher that wants to become less of an expert and more of a facilitator of learning. This experience is built for you also.
• Senior Admin: Are you a seasoned leader that never had the chance to really think about, practice or reflect on how you lead. This academy will give you a chance to reset your practice and learn new techniques.
• Other Leaders: Do you often get left out of meetings, PD or opportunities because you hold a job that people don’t really know much about? Are you a program coordinator, staff leader, after-school director or have the same needs as others, but don’t have access to the type of learning that would be helpful, this is for you.

If you coach, facilitate or give feedback in your work, this is an experiential learning opportunity for you.

General Agenda

Day 1: Habits and Mindsets

• Helping vs. Solving
• Holding People capable
• Fear: Being Liked vs. Being Effective
• Signature Presence
• Holding a Container vs. Managing People
• Helping Skills - Facilitation Model for all Leaders
• Task vs. Maintenance

Day 2: Skillsets of Leaders

• Giving High Quality Feedback
• Accountability Conversations
• Naming vs. Solving
• Difficult Conversations
• Visual Thinking, Visual Leading, Visual Facilitation

Individual Feedback: As a part of this experience, a participant can request a follow up observation and feedback session with an L+D facilitator. This will be scheduled after the Leadership Lab, and is a 1 on 1 experience. This is not required, but a great way to extend the learning from the two day lab experience.

What is a Lab Experience? Throughout the two days, you will engage in simulated conversations, practice visual facilitation and graphic recording, engage in discussion and practice the skills, habits and mindsets being covered.

Nuts and Bolts

Dates: June 16-17, 2026

Location: San Jose, CA (Downtown San Jose Hillbrook Campus)

Time:

Day 1: 8 am - 4 pm (Work Session )

Day 1: 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm (Working Happy Hour )

Day 2: 8 am - 3:30 pm (Work Session)

Cost: $899 (Member Price $800).

What is included:

• Two day workshop with L+D Facilitation Team
• Light breakfast on both days
• Lunch on both days
• Happy Hour + Keynote (light appetizers and drinks) on Day 1
• Snacks
• All materials, slides and resources from event

What is not included:

• Travel to and from event - San Jose's Airport is easy, has plenty of flights and is close in proximity to the event.  
• Hotel - When you register, you will be provided with a list of hotels that are close in proximity and convenient, however you are welcome to stay in other locations if that is more convenient for you.   
• Food outside of light breakfast, snacks, happy hour and lunch on both days.  

Refund Policy: When requested in writing, L+D will refund registration fees as follows: 75% of registration fee when requested 45 days or more from first day of the seminar; 50% of registration fee when requested 31–44 days from first day of the seminar; no refund within 30 days of the first day of the seminar.

Our Partner School for the Event:

This year we are lucky to partner with The Hillbrook School on their San Jose, CA campus. Hillbrook is a JK-12 independent school with a brand new high school campus in downtown San Jose, CA.  Hillbrook expanded adding a high school two years ago, and recently completed their San Jose Campus where we will host the event in June of 2026.