Fundamentals of Leading People. Next cohort September 14, 2026. $1,000 a seat, 25 seats.
Four weeks. A new leader who can hold the room.
A four-week blended program for people in their first leadership role. Each week: a short theme film, a live session with a facilitator who has held the job, applied work on the participant's real role reviewed by their own company, a 1-on-1, and a cohort debrief. Leadership Development Plan and program badge on completion.
Photograph, not a Thrive session. Sessions run live on Microsoft Teams.
The four weeks
Each week opens with a short film and ends with something done.
The same parts every week, in the same order. The film frames the week and the short courses set the language; the live session and the applied work are where the skill is built.
- Week 1Awareness of Self and Others
- Theme film
- Awareness of Self and Others
- Short courses
- Role of a Leader
- Live session
- Building Employee Engagement
- Applied work
- Starts week two
- 1-on-1
- With your facilitator
- Wrap-up
- Week 1 Wrap-up
- Week 2Leading Individuals
- Theme film
- Leading Individuals
- Short courses
- Coaching and Feedback, Professional Mentors
- Live session
- Tough Conversations
- Applied work
- Your Tough Conversation plan
- 1-on-1
- With your facilitator
- Wrap-up
- Week 2 Wrap-up
- Week 3Leading Teams
- Theme film
- Leading Teams
- Short courses
- Responding to Conflict
- Live session
- Negotiation
- Applied work
- Negotiation in your workplace
- 1-on-1
- With your facilitator
- Wrap-up
- Week 3 Wrap-up
- Week 4Leadership Skill Building
- Theme film
- Leadership Skill Building
- Short courses
- Decision Making, Change and Influence
- Live session
- Objective Setting
- Applied work
- Objective Setting in your workplace
- 1-on-1
- With your facilitator
- Wrap-up
- Leadership Development Plan
Required for the Leadership Development Plan: every live session, every piece of applied work, and the final session.
The theme films.
These are the actual films participants watch at the start of each week.
- Week 1
Awareness of Self and Others
Build the self-awareness and emotional intelligence that effective leadership begins with.
- Week 2
Leading Individuals
Coach, motivate, and hold the tough conversations that develop the individuals you lead.
- Week 3
Leading Teams
Resolve conflict, negotiate, and build a team that works across differences.
- Week 4
Leadership Skill Building
Set objectives, solve problems, and hold your team accountable to results.
One week in the program
One week, the same shape every time.
The shape repeats so participants stop thinking about the process by week two and put their attention on the work. Every part is live or on the real job.
Part 1 of 5Set the language
Short self-paced courses at the start of the week so the live session is practice, not lecture.
Part 2 of 5Live session
One live virtual session with a facilitator who has held the role, on the week's topic, with role-play the facilitator watches and coaches.
Part 3 of 5Applied work
From week two, a task on the participant's actual job, reviewed by their own manager. This is where the change happens.
Part 4 of 51-on-1
A private conversation with the facilitator about the situation the participant is actually in.
Part 5 of 5Debrief
A live wrap-up with the cohort: what worked, what did not, what to carry into next week.
Being early
The client list is short. That is worth something to you.
Thrive is new. The programs are not. The same people have run Fundamentals of Leading People for organizations like John Ball Zoo for three years. What is new is the function built around them, and while the list of companies on it is short, being on it buys four things it will not buy later.
None of them is a promise about your results. Nobody can promise you a better manager in four weeks. These are the things we control, which is why we will put them in writing.
- 01
The price is published, not quoted.
Every band is on the pricing page and the same three numbers are what checkout charges. Nobody is quoted a different figure for arriving early or late, and there is no discount to negotiate for, because there is no list price to discount from.
- 02
You set the build order.
Name a course or a live topic we do not have. The library is one hundred thirty-six courses today and the next ones are chosen from what clients ask for, in the order they ask. What gets built for you goes into the library for every company that comes after.
- 03
The founder is in the room.
Scoping, your first cohort, and the call on what gets built next happen with the person who designed the programs. That holds while the client list is short, which is the whole reason to be on it early.
- 04
What is missing is written down.
Scheduled reminders are not built. Coach Taylor answers when a person asks, and nothing chases them yet. Reminders are on the roadmap. A company that tells you what is missing before you pay is worth believing about the rest.
- What a month and a year actually bill, and what happens if you stop, is written out on the terms page in the same plain language as this.
Who teaches
Held the job. Not studied it.
Content is the easy part to buy. A dozen vendors will sell you a library this afternoon. What none of them sells is the person who has already done the job, live, for two hours, watching your people practice it.
Every Thrive session is led by someone who has done the work they are teaching: run a shift, carried a quota, managed a team through a change, sat across from the person who needed the hard conversation. They bring the real version of the problem into the room, and the practice is done on your people’s actual work, not on a case study.
Sessions are small enough that a facilitator can watch each person practice and coach the delivery. Between sessions, Coach Taylor keeps the thread going.
- Session size
- 25 max
- Length
- 2 hours
- Format
- Live
- Where
- Teams
The next room
One public cohort is open, and it starts September 14, 2026.
Twenty-five seats at $1,000 each, four weeks, live on Microsoft Teams. A seat is the four live sessions, the applied work your own manager reviews, the 1-on-1, the cohort debrief, and a Leadership Development Plan with your program badge.
There is no button that sells you a seat. The room is small enough that a person confirms every one of them, so you tell ARIA how many you need and we come back with the seats held. The platform is the part you can buy in a browser.
Companies on the platform pay cohort pricing on these seats, and everyone who does not need the full four weeks still gets the workshops and the library at the same flat price.
What it looked like for one company
Three people from the floor became supervisors. Nobody had to be hired from outside.
A fifty-person manufacturer was about to recruit supervisors from outside, at the price of three recruiting fees and the months it takes a stranger to learn the plant. Instead, three experienced operators went through a leadership program built around their actual shifts: feedback conversations they were avoiding, handoffs that kept breaking, a schedule dispute that had gone on for months.
All three are still supervising, and the recruiting never happened. We are not going to put a percentage on what that was worth, because we cannot show you how it was measured. The company is not named here at their request.
Organizations whose people have learned with Thrive
More than a hundred leaders at John Ball Zoo have come through Thrive programs over three years, alongside teams at manufacturers, schools, food producers, and a regional health plan.
Talk to ARIA
Ask what you would ask us.
ARIA works the way a good first call works. She asks who is involved and what should change, recommends the closest starting point, quotes the real price, and hands you to a person when you want one.
Start with one of these
Prefer a person? Say so in the conversation and the team follows up, or use the contact page.
Questions
Questions people ask before they call.
Who is Fundamentals of Leading People for?
People in their first leadership role or about to take one: supervisors promoted from the line, engineers who now manage, team leads who inherited a team. Built for people in their first year of leading.
How much time does it take each week?
About two hours of live time plus the applied work, which happens inside the job rather than on top of it. Sessions are scheduled around shifts and run on Microsoft Teams.
What does it cost?
$1,000 per seat for the public cohort. Companies on the Thrive platform get cohort pricing and send anywhere from one person to a full cohort.
What do participants receive on completion?
Participants who complete the four weeks and the applied work receive a Leadership Development Plan with their program badge. The plan documents what was covered and tracks progress against leadership competencies.
Can we run it privately for our company?
Yes. A private cohort uses your situations as the applied work and is scheduled around your calendar. Public cohorts mix companies.