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Reimagining Leadership for an Inclusive Future

 

Leadership For Belonging is our hybrid learning programme for mid-level and senior leaders committed to building inclusive, anti-racist cultures where everyone can thrive. 

Through a blend of digital learning, live cohort sessions, and peer-to-peer accountability partnerships, this programme offers:

  • Historical context of systemic racism in the UK, how it still persists, and what we can collectively do to dismantle it
  • The space to recognise your emotional responses, explore your power and privilege, and strengthen your leadership from the inside out
  • Practical tools to assess the present, identify gaps, and reimagine a future where everyone belongs
  • Frameworks for cultural change rooted in equity, care, and accountability
  • Skills to navigate complexity and challenge the status quo with courage and clarity.
Equipping Leaders to reimagine power,
accountability and belonging at work. 

Leadership for Belonging is for leaders ready to do things differently—whether you’re joining solo or bringing your team with you.

This hybrid programme offers a powerful mix of self-paced learning, live cohort connection, and practical tools to help you build cultures where everyone can thrive.

800+ leaders trained so far…
A pink textured background with a white box in the center, holding text in black font that reads: 100% of people who complete our Training are more confident in identifying racism, naming how it manifests systemically and holding themselves and other people accountable for their actions and behaviours.
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“The What If Experiment antiracism training is thought provoking, challenging and enlightening. I emerged with a clear understanding of the systemised racism that we all function within; and empowered with the language and skills to disrupt and dismantle it. Sade and the team’s approach was unique, authentic and deeply caring. I felt heard and I felt held throughout. A profound and life-changing programme.”

Anu Giri (She/Her)Executive Director, English National Ballet
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“The work we have done with The What If Experiment is revolutionary. We were transformed because of the space that was held for us to do the work. We are now a stronger, more transparent and accountable company and while there is lots more to do - The training gave us a foundation to move forward.”

Rob Watt (He/Him)Creative Director
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“Participating in The What If Experiment training has made a profound difference to my anti-racism practice. I now have the tools to act with greater intention and an understanding of the actions I need to take in my every day. The training fuelled all of our imaginations for tangible ways we can make things better.”

Emily Fleuriot (She/Her)Unboxable Creative Director
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“Undertaking the What If Experiment training has been one of the most valuable and important learning experiences of my life. I had to work hard to open myself to some difficult learnings, but as with many things in life, the work is rewarding. It's not an exaggeration to say that it has shifted my understanding of our world and our society and positively changed my behaviour, my expectations of myself in how I treat people and how I employ my influence and agency.”

Stuart Brown (He/Him)Director of Programmes and Distribution, British Film Institute
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“The training is so sensitively and intelligently structured that it allows you to progress through various levels of understanding. I will approach future work with far greater care, sensitivity and awareness about systemic racism — and with greater humility, because I understand that I have to keep working and hold myself accountable. I now have much more clarity about the bigger picture and how the experiences of Black and Global majority colleagues are connected to wider practices and systems that disadvantage them disproportionately.”

Tricia Tuttle (She/Her)Director, Berlinale Film Festival
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“What’s helpful is that we now have a shared language and understanding. Quite a lot of the challenge is explaining something structural, an ideological process that you know is wrong but cant quite explain it. But now we can refer to a whole toolkit and people tend to get it without thinking you’re being offensive or calling them ‘a racist’ - it’s systemic. We now have a vocabulary to discuss and explain things that were difficult to say before. (The training) has provided us with a language that we can all understand and where we all exist and can operate from.”

Paul Lewis (He/Him)Director of BFI Player at British Film Institute (BFI)
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“I can genuinely say I’m not the same person I was three months ago. I entered this space naive about my own feelings and ability, believing I already had the answers. The sessions have broken down my ego, and through accountability I’ve begun to rebuild myself with a new way of thinking. There’s been disappointment in who I perceived myself to be before Zesting, but I’ve also come to terms with my own privilege — something I didn’t understand before, and simply didn’t know.”

Craig Tye (He/Him)Technical Director, Young Vic Theatre
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“The training took each of us on a hugely challenging, sometimes shattering, personal journey but the incredible care in the session design and the safe, open, generous spaces the facilitators created enabled us all to be bold and put the work in. We heard and shared some really hard things but there was such growth and learning in each conversation, it became the highlight of the week. It's still working on us and on the work we do as a company and we're stronger for it.”

Emma Rees (She/Her)Executive Director, Theatre Centre
What Happens When You Take Belonging Seriously

Since our inception, we’ve trained over 800 leaders—and from that learning, we’ve seen close to 2,400 actions taken toward a more anti-racist, equitable future of belonging.

Some of these actions are big and bold: dismantling entire departments, restructuring teams, or reimagining outdated policies.

Others are smaller but no less meaningful: adding anti-racism as a standing agenda item, rotating meeting chairs to share power, or building reflections into project wash ups.

Each action reflects a commitment to do things differently —

thoughtfully, intentionally, and together.

Here’s a glimpse of what that can look like in practice.

A spider diagram with a grey background, and a pink central circle titled Leadership for Belonging, with 8 lines stemming away from it labelled: Internal Accountability, Strategy, Panels, External Accountability, Fundraising, Feedback, Progression, Appraisals.

Choose the Pace That Works for You

We know leaders have different capacities, pressures, and rhythms of work. That’s why Leadership for Belonging offers two cohort options:

Steady Cohort – 8 months

For leaders who want space to reflect, digest, and embed meaningful change over time.

One self-paced module each month

One accountability partner session each month

One live, facilitated cohort session every other month

Flexible pacing with longer pauses between modules

Ideal for those balancing demanding roles or leading long-term cultural change

Jan 26 – July 26
Training begins: Mon 3rd Nov
Debrief 1: Wed 14th Jan
Debrief 2: Wed 4th Mar
Debrief 3: Wed 6th May
Debrief 4: Wed 1st Jul
Accelerate Cohort – 4 months

For leaders who want to stay in the flow and build momentum quickly.  

Two self-paced modules each month

Two accountability partner sessions each month

One live, facilitated cohort session per month

Intensive learning with faster progression

Great for individuals or teams ready to activate change at pace

Nov 25 – Mar 26
Training begins: Mon 3rd Nov
Debrief 1: Tues 9th Dec
Debrief 2: Tue 6th Jan
Debrief 3: Tue 3rd Feb
Debrief 4: Tue 3rd Mar
Organisations and Groups

We can also run tailored cohorts for organisations, teams or a group of individuals. 

If you’re interested, Get In Touch —we’d love to talk to you about pricing options and what might be the right fit for you.

Sliding Scale

The full cost of this programme is £1,100 per person.
We recognise not everyone has equal access to resources, so we offer two subsidised rates. Choosing the right rate is an act of solidarity that helps redistribute resources and make this programme accessible to all.

Solidarity

£500+ VAT p/p

  • Individuals: earning under £40k

  • Organisations: annual turnover under £500k

Sustain

£800+ VAT p/p

  • Individuals: earning £40k – £90k 

  • Organisations: annual turnover £500k – £2m

Full Cost

£1,100+ VAT p/p

  • Individuals: earning £90k – £150k

  • Organisations: annual turnover £2m – £15m

Rebalance

£1,500+ VAT p/p

  • Individuals: earning £150k+ 
  • Organisations: annual turnover £15m+

“Undertaking the What If Experiment training has been one of the most valuable and important learning experiences of my life. I had to work hard to open myself to some difficult learnings, but as with many things in life, the work is rewarding. It's not an exaggeration to say that it has shifted my understanding of our world and our society and positively changed my behaviour, my expectations of myself in how I treat people and how I employ my influence and agency.”

2022 Participant

“What’s helpful is that we now have a shared language and understanding. Quite a lot of the challenge is explaining something structural, an ideological process that you know is wrong but cant quite explain it. But now we can refer to a whole toolkit and people tend to get it without thinking you’re being offensive or calling them ‘a racist’ - it’s systemic. We now have a vocabulary to discuss and explain things that were difficult to say before. (The training) has provided us with a language that we can all understand and where we all exist and can operate from.”

2024 Participant

“I found the training very rewarding. Having a partner to work through it with was invaluable, creating a safe, non-judgemental space for us to be open with each other and properly examine our behaviours and past failings. It really conveyed the sense that this is a constant work-in-progress, not a 'one and done' thing.”

2024 Participant

“I found the training with What If... to be incredibly insightful. Their ability to provide context, historical insight and fresh perspective made the training land with depth and integrity.”

2025 Participant

“I feel much more keenly that creating an anti-racist organisation is my responsibility (and others’). Where before I would have been overwhelmed by this responsibility, I now feel motivated. I also feel daunted, but this discomfort is positive and should be leaned into in order to create the necessary changes.”

2023 Participant

“The facilitators were all excellent. Super empowering and inspiring. I really like the psychological safety that was created and the moments of joy. Some days were hard - but you lifted us.”

2025 Participant

“I have subtly changed what I do. People have different starting points and I’ve enjoyed adding to what I already knew. I now have the freedom of calling in/out/on and acknowledging that there’s not only one right way to do things. I feel emboldened, especially identifying the white supremacy characteristics and pushing back on them. No - we’re not doing that anymore, we’re not working urgently to our own detriment. I just keep pushing.”

2023 Participant

“The training is so sensitively and intelligently structured that it allows you to progress through various levels of understanding. I will approach future work with far greater care, sensitivity and awareness about systemic racism. And with greater humility. Because I also understand that I have to keep working to and need to hold myself accountable.”

2022 Participant

“I found the training to be incredibly useful and I really appreciate that we're being given the opportunity to challenge our perceptions of what the right thing to do is. I come from a place of wanting to do the right thing but not being educated enough on what that is, so I've learned a lot.”

2024 Participant