For experienced leaders
Meraki Leadership through Awareness
Understand how you lead. Explore your impact. Make more intentional choices.
The way you listen, respond under pressure, make decisions, and relate to others shapes the experience of the people you lead. Meraki Leadership through Awareness gives you time, support, and practical opportunities to examine that experience and develop your leadership practice.
Experiential training, individual coaching, peer learning, and guided reflection, connected to the situations you face at work.
Your experience is the starting point.
You may know the tools and still find yourself facing familiar situations: a conversation you keep postponing, feedback that feels harder to receive than expected, or a team that keeps returning decisions to you.
The program helps you look at what happens in those moments. What are you assuming? What are you reacting to? How might others experience your response? What in the wider situation is influencing the exchange?
Through reflection, practical tools, and experimentation, you develop more awareness of your contribution and more options for how to respond.
Bring your leadership experience and your questions.
The program is for experienced middle and senior managers who currently manage, or have previously managed, people and want to develop their leadership practice.
It may be a good fit if you want to:
- Understand the patterns behind familiar challenges.
- Recognize the gap between your intentions and how others experience your leadership.
- Work through feedback, difficult conversations, and conflict more consciously.
- Develop people while remaining clear about expectations, boundaries, and responsibility.
- Question your assumptions and explore your own contribution to difficult situations.
- Give your development sustained attention and try new approaches in your everyday work.
For the Open program, prior experience managing direct reports is required. Managers and their direct reports cannot join the same training group, helping support open participation.
More awareness in the moments that matter.
Responding under pressure
Recognize habitual reactions and practise more deliberate responses when a situation feels challenging.
Feedback that supports development
Become more open to receiving feedback and more considered in how you give it.
Stronger working relationships
Listen with attention, explore different perspectives, and combine empathy with clear boundaries and accountability.
More considered judgment
Question assumptions, notice biases and gaps in reasoning, and examine how you reach decisions.
Developing others
Use coaching conversations and clearer delegation to support people's growth and responsibility.
Working with the wider situation
Understand how motivation, culture, relationships, and organizational conditions affect your team and where you can make a difference.
You will have opportunities to practise, receive feedback, and consider which changes are useful in your own leadership context.
The Self. The Other. The Situation.
Every leadership challenge can be explored through what you bring, what happens between people, and what the wider context calls for.
The Self
Explore the emotions, assumptions, and habitual responses that influence your leadership. Notice what happens when you feel challenged, receive feedback, or make judgments about people and situations.
The Other
Develop how you communicate, coach, delegate, and navigate relationships. Explore how your intentions translate into your impact, and how another person's perspective may differ from your own.
The Situation
Look beyond individual behavior to understand team culture, motivation, organizational conditions, and change. Consider the pressures and established ways of working that influence both you and your team.
Throughout the program, you return to your own experiences, trying new approaches and reflecting on what happens.
Learning connected to your everyday leadership.
Experiential training
Work with practical tools through exercises, dialogue, case studies, role plays, and reflection. Explore real situations, practise new approaches, and receive feedback from the facilitator and fellow participants.
Individual coaching
Explore your leadership questions, development goals, and recurring patterns in a confidential, personalized space. The Gestalt coaching approach helps you notice what is happening within you, in your relationships, and in your wider context, and consider possibilities for action.
Lean Coffee meetings
Bring questions, insights, and dilemmas into facilitated group discussions after each training block. Participants collectively choose what to explore, connecting the learning with their leadership experience.
Peer learning groups
Meet in small groups between training sessions to work on assignments, discuss real situations, and reflect on what you are trying in practice. Learn from other leaders' perspectives and support one another as you apply the learning.
Between sessions
Try a different approach in a real interaction. Observe the response. Bring your experience back into the next conversation, coaching session, or peer meeting.
Explore the curriculum
The Open program brings together 16 modules across the Self, Other, and Situation. The full Meraki curriculum contains 24 modules, providing a broader selection for Corporate programs and further learning after the Open program.
The curriculum below shows the 16 Open program modules. Additional Corporate options follow.
The Self
The Self
Understanding and preventing burnout
Recognize early signs of burnout and explore ways to support wellbeing, healthier boundaries, and a more supportive working environment.
Taming your EgoSystem
Explore the images you want others to see, the reactions you fear, and how your ego influences your judgment and responses as a leader.
Unconscious biases
Notice assumptions and cognitive shortcuts that can influence your decisions, relationships, and evaluation of people and situations.
Receiving feedback
Understand your natural responses to feedback and develop your capacity to reflect on criticism and use it for growth.
Logical fallacies and critical thinking
Recognize errors in reasoning, examine arguments more carefully, and communicate the thinking behind your decisions.
The Other
The Other
Delivering feedback
Practise feedback that is clear, considerate, and useful, with attention to timing and the other person's development.
Coaching skills for managers
Use questions, attentive listening, and coaching conversations to help team members explore their own options and development.
Mediation skills for managers
Understand conflict dynamics and practise helping people explore their differences and work towards constructive solutions.
Effective communication
Develop clarity, active listening, and awareness of verbal and nonverbal communication in different leadership situations.
Delegation in the team
Clarify expectations, authority, and responsibility so that delegation supports both the work and people's development.
The contact cycle
Explore how people move from noticing a need to action, contact, completion, and withdrawal, and recognize patterns that interrupt connection.
The Situation
The Situation
Five pillars of successful team culture
Explore trust, safety, respect, fairness, and shared purpose, and consider what they mean in your team's everyday ways of working.
Moving Motivators
Explore intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and the different factors that matter to individuals within your team.
The psychology of change
Understand emotional and psychological responses to change and develop ways to support people through uncertainty and transition.
Guided continuous improvement
Explore ways to establish, monitor, and sustain improvement practices within teams and organizations.
Relational leadership in the age of AI
Consider what people continue to need from leaders as AI changes work: presence, empathy, honest dialogue, respect, and trust.
Additional modules for Corporate programs
These eight modules extend the 16 above to the full 24-module curriculum. They are also available for further learning after completing the Open program.
The Self
The Self
Time perspectives
Explore how your relationship with the past, present, and future influences stress, priorities, and decisions.
Building healthy habits
Understand triggers, rewards, and existing patterns, and develop habits that support more intentional action.
The Other
The Other
Crucial conversations
Prepare for and navigate conversations with high stakes or strong emotions, with attention to productive follow-through.
Sensitive conversations
Approach delicate topics with empathy, respect, and care for the person and the situation.
Facilitation skills for managers
Guide meetings and workshops to support participation, useful discussion, clearer decisions, and next steps.
The Situation
The Situation
Agile mindset
Explore flexibility, responsiveness, prioritization, and approaches that support continuous improvement.
Team development
Recognize what a team needs at different stages and adjust your approach as it develops greater capability and independence.
Managing from the middle
Explore the responsibilities and pressures of leading up, across, and down within an organization.
8 additional modules in total.
Open program
Develop alongside leaders from different organizations.
Bring your own questions and experiences into a group of experienced leaders. Encounter perspectives from different workplaces and give your development sustained attention through training, coaching, and practice.
| Overall duration | 8–12 months, depending on the group's agreed schedule |
|---|---|
| Group size | 9–12 participants |
| Curriculum | 16 modules across three training blocks |
| Training | 72 hours, organized as 3 half-days or 2 full days per month, depending on the group |
| Individual coaching | Four one-hour sessions, scheduled individually |
| Lean Coffee | Three three-hour meetings, one after each block |
| Guided program hours | 85 hours, combining training, coaching, and Lean Coffee meetings |
| Peer learning | Regular meetings arranged by each peer group |
| Assignments | Up to 30 minutes after each training session; recommended book reading is optional |
| Location | Yerevan city center |
Start with an introduction
- Introduce yourself.Tell us about your leadership experience, what you hope to explore, and your availability.
- Have an introductory conversation.We discuss your development goals, answer your questions, and explore whether the program is a good fit.
- Agree on the group and schedule.The group is formed with consideration for participants' experience, learning needs, and scheduling preferences.
- Confirm participation when applications open.Once the group and schedule are agreed, we share the practical details and registration steps.
You may join independently or with your organization's support.
Registering your interest starts a conversation and does not reserve or confirm a place.
Corporate program
Develop your leaders in the context of your organization.
Your leaders work within a particular culture, set of expectations, and organizational reality. The Corporate program connects their development with that context, while giving each participant space to examine their own leadership practice.
We begin with your development priorities and the situations your managers face. From the full 24-module curriculum, we design a program around the Self, Other, and Situation, combining experiential training, individual coaching, Lean Coffee discussions, and peer learning.
Program structure
- A group of 9–16 participants.
- A minimum of 12 selected modules, with 4–8 hours of training for each chosen topic.
- Individual coaching, with the allocation specified in your proposal.
- Three Lean Coffee meetings, one after each training block.
- Peer groups of 2–4 participants meeting between training sessions.
- A schedule designed around the selected modules and organizational arrangements.
For organizational sponsors
We discuss the leadership situations you want the program to support, the participants' context, and how your organization can give them space to attend, practise, and reflect between sessions.
The selected curriculum, coaching allocation, timetable, practical arrangements, and fees are set out in a tailored proposal.
Confidentiality
Confidential individual and team coaching content stays with the people in those sessions. It is not reported to non-participating sponsors, HR, or CEOs. We agree how to discuss the overall engagement without sharing confidential session content.
Your program facilitator
Armine Mkrtchyan
Founder of Meraki
Armine is an organizational development, leadership, and culture practitioner with more than 20 years of experience. She is an EAGT-accredited Gestalt Practitioner in Organizations.
Her work combines coaching, facilitation, and experiential development with attention to real organizational challenges. She helps leaders explore their patterns, understand relationships and context, and experiment with more intentional choices in their practice.
Email: info@merakipal.com
Stay connected as your practice develops.
After completing the Open program, you become part of the Meraki Leadership Club, with no participation fee.
Through mastermind sessions, peer discussions, networking and community events, and conversations with guest speakers and international delegates, you can continue exploring leadership questions and learning from others' experience.
You can also take the remaining curriculum modules separately after completing the program.
In development
Leadership through Awareness Level 2
We are developing a second level for leaders who want to deepen their work with awareness. The structure and participation details are taking shape. If you would like to hear more when they are available, get in touch.
Ask about future learningFrequently asked questions
Do I need previous management experience?
Yes. The Open program requires prior experience managing direct reports. It is designed for experienced leaders who currently manage, or have previously managed, people.
Can I join with my organization's support?
Yes. You may join the Open program independently or with your organization's support. Organizations can also discuss a Corporate program for their leaders.
Can I join the same Open group as my manager or direct report?
No. Managers and their direct reports cannot participate in the same Open training group, helping support open participation.
How much time should I plan for?
The Open program runs over 8–12 months and includes 85 guided hours. Allow additional time for peer meetings and short assignments between training sessions. The training schedule is agreed with the group.
When does the next cohort begin?
Dates will be announced once confirmed. Register your interest to receive the next cohort's schedule and participation details.
What is individual coaching like?
It is a confidential space to explore your leadership questions, goals, and recurring patterns. Coaching connects what you are learning with the situations that matter to you. Confidential individual and team coaching content is not reported to non-participating sponsors, HR, or CEOs.
Can our organization choose its modules?
For a Corporate program, we explore your development priorities and design a program with a minimum of 12 modules selected from the 24-module curriculum. The agreed scope and schedule are included in your proposal.
How do I find out whether the program is right for me?
Start with an enquiry. We will discuss your experience, questions, development goals, and availability before participation is confirmed.
What would you like to change in how you lead?
Bring the question you keep returning to. We will explore whether the program is the right place to work with it.