collectivetransformation.org
Center for Collective Transformation

Individual growth
is the foundation of
collective change.

When people understand themselves better, they lead better, collaborate better, and build better organizations and communities. We create the structured experiences that make that growth possible.

Why this matters

Most change efforts
skip the essential first step.

Organizations invest in strategy, systems, and culture initiatives while overlooking the factor most predictive of whether any of it works: the self-awareness, empathy, and collaborative capacity of the people inside them.

01

Individual growth gets sidelined

In high-demand environments, the conditions for genuine self-reflection — on values, blind spots, decision-making, and purpose — rarely exist. Yet without this clarity, performance and leadership both plateau.

02

Teams and organizations stall

Trust, psychological safety, and shared purpose don't emerge from org charts or offsite agendas. They're built when the individuals inside an organization are   growing and this growth is rarely acknowledged or supported.

03

Collective change needs a strong foundation

Lasting organizational and community change requires people who understand themselves, relate well to others, and can navigate complexity with intention. This foundation has to be built deliberately.

People in meaningful conversation
"We cultivate growth by turning self-awareness into new ways of being and working."
Research-backed. Practitioner-led.

The link between personal growth and collective change is real.

Research in leadership, organizational psychology, and adult development consistently links individual self-awareness and interpersonal capacity to team performance, organizational culture, and collective outcomes.1 That body of evidence is what the Center for Collective Transformation (CCT) is built on.

Our programs are designed to develop the specific capacities:  self-awareness, empathy, values clarity, and collaborative skill that translate directly into stronger teams, better-led organizations, and more engaged communities.

Working within professional coaching standards precisely to keep the work focused. Our work is not therapy and not inspiration, but instead structured experiences that build real, transferable capability.

1 Key sources: Eurich (2018), Insight; Edmondson (1999), Administrative Science Quarterly; Druskat & Wolff (2001), Harvard Business Review; Kegan & Lahey (2009), Immunity to Change.

The Path Forward

From self-awareness
to collective impact.

A clear, structured path, whether you're an individual, a team, or an organization.

01
Step 01

Identify the Starting Point

We meet you where you are, whether as an individual, a team, or an organization,and what specific capacities, if developed, would produce the most meaningful change.

02
Step 02

Build the Capacity

Through retreats, workshops, and programs grounded in organization development and evidence-based coaching, we develop self-awareness, empathy, and collaborative skill in a structured way.

03
Step 03

Apply It Where It Matters

The growth individuals do in our programs carries back into their teams, their leadership, their organizations, and their communities. This transfer,  from personal to collective, is exactly the point of our work.

Nature landscape Group workshop People gathered
Experiences & Programs

Designed to meet you where you are.

From multi-day immersive retreats to organizational engagements, we believe  very experience creates real transformation.

Transformative Retreats
Individual

Transformative Retreats

Multi-day immersive experiences in natural settings. Deep reflection, creative practice, and guided group dialogue. Come as you are. Leave changed.

Learn more →
Workshops & Intensives
Individual & Group

Workshops & Intensives

Focused half-day and full-day experiences exploring self-awareness, resilience, empathy, and creative collaboration. Powerful. Practical. Lasting.

Learn more →
Organizational Programs
Organizations

Organizational Programs

Custom-designed experiences for leadership teams and companies ready to build cultures of genuine trust, adaptability, and collective purpose.

Learn more →
TRANSFORM

A transformed humanity, united through empathy and shared understanding,
working creatively and collectively
for the common good of all.

Our Vision · collectivetransformation.org

Our Mission & Story
Organizational team
For Organizations

The individual growth
that builds better organizations.

Most culture and leadership initiatives treat people as variables in a system. We treat them as the system itself because the self-awareness, empathy, and collaborative capacity of your people determines almost everything about how your organization performs.

  • Individual Resilience
    Self-awareness and decision-making capacity to reduce burnout and strengthen performance.
  • Team Connection
    Psychological safety, trust, and authentic collaboration that makes teams genuinely effective.
  • Organizational Adaptability
    The cultural architecture to thrive, not just survive, complexity and change.
Explore Organizational Programs
Now Open

The work continues
in community.

Research on sustained behavioral change is consistent: individuals who develop in the context of an ongoing community maintain their growth longer and apply it more broadly. The CCT Community is a membership-based practice space,  facilitated circles, digital programs, and a resource library built around the connection between individual development and collective outcomes.

Learn More Join — $5/mo

Or $50/year — two months free.

Community gathering
Our Story

Built on a simple but
profound belief.

Better me, better you, better us. Everything we do flows from the conviction that personal growth is the most powerful catalyst for collective change.

Mission

Why we exist

To foster personal and collective growth through transformative experiences that deepen empathy, expand understanding, and inspire creative collaboration for the common good. By bringing individuals, groups, and organizations together, we build a foundation for a more connected and resilient humanity.

Vision

What we're working toward

"A transformed humanity, united through empathy and shared understanding, working creatively and collectively for the common good of all."

The Story Behind the Work

The evidence is clear. We built CCT on it.

Research in leadership, organizational psychology, and adult development consistently links individual self-awareness and interpersonal capacity to team performance, organizational culture, and collective outcomes.1

We exist at that intersection between the personal and the organizational, between structured reflection and applied skill, serving to create experiences that develop the specific capacities that connect individual growth to collective outcomes. Our programs are not therapy and not designed to be focused on inspiration. They are structured development, grounded in evidence and facilitated with professional rigor.

Every experience we design flows through one controlling idea:

"We cultivate growth by turning self-awareness into new ways of being and working."
1 Key sources: Eurich, T. (2018), Insight. Crown Business; Edmondson, A. (1999), Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2); Druskat, V. & Wolff, S. (2001), Harvard Business Review; Kegan, R. & Lahey, L. (2009), Immunity to Change, Harvard Business Press.
Public Benefit Purpose

"To cultivate self-awareness, empathy, and collaboration as the foundation for new ways of being and working for the common good of humanity."

"We don't do this work for people. We create the conditions for people to do this work and then we get out of the way."

collectivetransformation.org
[email protected]

 Nashville, Tennessee

What We Stand For

Our guiding principles.

Self-Awareness First

All meaningful change begins with honest self-knowledge. We create the space for that kind of deep looking.

Collective Wisdom

The group knows more than any individual. Our programs harness the power of shared experience and collective reflection.

Empathy as Practice

Empathy is a skill and a discipline; not just a feeling. We build it intentionally in every experience we design.

Growth Without Harm

We operate within clear ethical boundaries, aligned with professional coaching standards, ensuring experiences that challenge but never compromise.

Ready to explore?

Discover programs for individuals and organizations.

New Here?

Not sure where
to begin? Start here.

Whether you're an individual seeking clarity and direction, or an organization ready to invest in its people,  this page helps you identify the right starting point.

Begin With Clarity

The most effective change starts with knowing where you actually are.

At the Center for Collective Transformation, growth isn't passive. It's structured, intentional, and grounded in honest self-assessment. This page gives you concrete entry point, tools, paths, and a short assessment, to help you figure out where to begin.

Browse the tools below, find your path, or take our free self-reflection assessment to get a personalized recommendation.

Take the Self-Assessment
Person journaling
Find Your Path

Who are you coming as?

CCT works with two audiences: individuals seeking structured personal development, and organizations investing in the growth of their people. Choose the path that fits.

The Individual

The Individual

You're a professional, a leader, or someone at a turning point who wants to understand yourself more clearly, and contribute more meaningfully to the people and systems around you.

  • I want more clarity about who I am and what I stand for
  • I want to grow in ways that actually carry into my work and relationships
  • I'm ready to do the work,  I just need the right structure and starting point
Explore Individual Programs
The Organization

The Organization

You lead a team, an organization, or a community — and you know that real performance, culture, and change all depend on the capacity of the people inside. You're ready to invest in that.

  • We need our leaders and teams to develop real self-awareness and collaborative skill
  • Our culture needs more than a wellness program or an offsite
  • We want development that connects individual growth to organizational outcomes
Explore Organizational Programs
Digital Tools & Resources

Start the work between sessions.

Transformation isn't confined to retreats. These tools extend the work into everyday life and several are free to use right now.

Live Now

Daily Reflection Prompts

A rotating set of powerful questions designed to deepen self-awareness one day at a time. Free. No account needed.

Use the Prompts →
Free Download

Values Clarity Worksheet

A guided PDF exercise that helps you identify, rank, and act on your core values,   the same exercise used in our retreats.

Download Free →
Interactive

Self-Assessment

A short reflective questionnaire that helps us understand where you are and recommend the right program or starting point for you.

Take Assessment →
Coming Soon

Insight Briefs

Short-form research summaries and practitioner reflections on personal growth, collective change, and transformative leadership.

Join Waitlist →
In Development

Guided Audio Reflections

Facilitated audio exercises for individual us,  bringing the depth of our retreat reflections to wherever you are.

Join Waitlist →
Coming Soon

Community Circles (Virtual)

Regular facilitated online gatherings for reflection, storytelling, and shared growth, extending the retreat into ongoing practice.

Join Waitlist →
Free Self-Assessment

Where does the growth need to happen?

Take our free 5-minute assessment. We'll ask direct questions about where you are, whether you are acting as an individual, a leader, or for an organization, and recommend the most useful starting point.

No sign-up required to get started.

Begin the Assessment

Takes about 5 minutes · Results delivered immediately

01
Reflect
A short set of honest questions about where you are and what you're seeking.
02
Discover
We identify patterns and themes in your responses to understand your starting point.
03
Recommend
You receive a tailored recommendation: which program, tool, or path fits best right now.

Ready to talk to a real person?

We answer every inquiry personally. No automated funnels. Just a conversation.

Start a Conversation
For Individuals

Designed for depth.
Built for lasting change.

Every program, whether  live or digital,  is grounded in research, shaped by real facilitation experience, and designed for individuals committed to meaningful growth.

Online Programs

Start for free.
Go deeper with membership.

Our online program is built as a progressive sequence of four modules, each one grounded in research and designed to develop specific capacities. The first two are free. Modules three and four, along with full community access and a monthly live workshop, are included with membership.

You don't need to attend a retreat first. This is a complete program in its own right and the natural starting point for anyone new to the CCT's work.

Free No account required to start · No credit card
Module 01

How You Got Here

Educational Foundation

A research-grounded introduction to how identity, experience, and conditioning shape the way we see ourselves and others. Builds the conceptual foundation for everything that follows and helps you understand why self-awareness is the starting point for collective change.

  • Research-based content
  • Structured reading and reflection
  • Introduction to CCT's framework
Module 02

Where Your Edges Are

Self-Assessment

An interactive, web-based self-assessment that maps your current capacities in self-awareness, empathy, values clarity, and readiness for collective contribution. Not a personality test. A structured diagnostic with a clear results framework and specific recommendations for what to work on next.

  • Interactive web-based assessment
  • Personal results framework
  • Recommended next steps

Free modules also include basic community access — read and browse community discussions without participating.

Membership $5/month or $50/year
Join the Community
Module 03

Seeing Further

Perspective-Taking & Reflection

Interactive exercises that build the cognitive and empathic capacity to understand how others experience a situation and a structured journaling interface for developing the habit of intentional self-inquiry. Practical and applied, not theoretical.

  • Interactive perspective-taking exercises
  • Structured reflection and journaling interface
  • Research on empathy and collective capacity
Module 04

Use of Self

The Most Distinctive Module

Use of Self is the conscious use of your whole being, your presence, awareness, values, and judgment, in the intentional execution of your role, for greater effectiveness in whatever a situation is presenting. This module develops that capacity: the ability to show up with intention, read what a situation requires, and respond from your full self rather than from habit or reaction.

  • Your definition of Use of Self and what it means in practice
  • Exercises for developing presence, awareness, and intentional response
  • Application to leadership, relationships, and collective contribution
Full Community Access
Participate and contribute to all community discussions
Monthly Live Workshop
Facilitated online workshop included every month
Priority Program Access
First access to in-person circles, retreats, and new programs (annual)
Transformative Retreats
Individual & Group

Transformative Retreats

Our signature retreats are carefully curated, theme-based multi-day experiences that blend deep personal reflection, creative practices, facilitated group dialogue, and time in nature. They are not lectures. They are not therapy. They are something altogether different.

Each retreat explores a specific theme — Courageous Clarity, Creative Courage, Empathy in Action — drawing on the arts, reflective writing, facilitated dialogue, and structured inquiry to develop self-awareness, values clarity, and empathic capability in ways that carry back into everyday life and work.

  • 3–5 day immersive retreats in natural settings
  • Themes: Courageous Clarity · Empathy in Action · Creative Courage
  • Small groups of 8-12 people for depth and intimacy
  • Reflective writing, movement, art, and facilitated dialogue
  • Pre-retreat preparation and post-retreat follow-through
Inquire About Retreats
Workshops & Intensives
Individual & Group

Workshops & Intensives

Not every situation calls for a multi-day retreat. Our focused workshops and half-day or full-day intensives bring the same depth of facilitation to a tighter container.

These experiences are designed for groups seeking meaningful growth in a structured, time-efficient format. Ideal for community organizations, professional groups, or anyone ready to invest focused time in genuine reflection and connection.

  • Half-day, full-day, and weekend intensive formats
  • Themes: Self-Leadership · Resilience · Empathy · Creative Collaboration
  • Facilitated dialogue, creative exercises, and reflection
  • Groups of 10 –30 participants
  • In-person and select virtual formats
Inquire About Workshops
Community Circles
Coming Soon

Community Circles & Story Gatherings

Regular, ongoing gatherings — in-person and virtual — where participants share stories, explore themes together, and build the kind of community that sustains individual transformation over time.

Inspired by the power of facilitated storytelling, these circles are a structured space to reflect, connect, and apply the work in community, not just at a once-a-year retreat, but as an ongoing practice.

  • Monthly community circles (Nashville + virtual)
  • Facilitated storytelling and reflective dialogue
  • Themed series aligned with CCT research
  • Open to community members and the public
Join the Waitlist

Not sure where to start?

Our Start Here page helps you find the right experience for where you are right now.

Go to Start Here
For Organizations

Your people are craving
more than perks.

Organizational performance is a function of human capacity. The self-awareness, empathy, and collaborative skill of your people determines far more about how your organization operates than strategy or structure alone.

A Different Approach

Organizational resilience
starts with human growth.

Most corporate wellness programs focus on perks — apps, gym stipends, or meditation sessions that look good on paper but rarely move the needle. We take a fundamentally different approach.

At CCT, wellness isn't a benefit, but rather a foundation for organizational resilience and performance. Our work helps individuals, teams, and organizations develop the self-awareness, empathy, and collaborative capacity that actually builds cultures worth working in.

The result isn't only individual "well-being."  It's a culture where people feel seen, teams perform at a higher level, and organizations are prepared for whatever the future brings.

"We don't offer perks. We offer transformation and that's what lasting organizational change actually requires."

Aligns With

ESG goals · DEI commitments · Employee well-being strategy · Leadership development · Culture transformation initiatives

Our Framework

Three levels of organizational transformation.

01

Individual Resilience

Self-awareness and decision-making capacity lie at the heart of resilient performance. Our programs help leaders and employees understand their patterns, triggers, and values,  building the foundation for focused, grounded work.

02

Team Connection

Trust, psychological safety, and genuine empathy don't happen automatically,  they're built through intentional shared experience. We create the conditions for teams to develop the deep connection that makes collaboration exceptional.

03

Organizational Adaptability

Organizations that navigate complexity are built on cultures of shared meaning, clear values, and collective identity. We help organizations build the adaptive capacity to thrive, not just survive, uncertainty.

Organizational Offerings

Experiences built for your team.

We don't sell off-the-shelf programs. Every organizational engagement begins with a conversation about where you are and where you want to go.

Signature

Leadership Immersions

Multi-day off-site experiences for senior leaders. Deep personal reflection combined with collective visioning and culture-building practice.

Popular

Team Transformation Workshops

Focused half-day or full-day experiences building psychological safety, shared understanding, and authentic collaboration within specific teams.

High Impact

Culture Reset Labs

For organizations navigating significant change, conflict, or cultural drift. A structured engagement that surfaces what's real and charts a path forward.

Flexible

Custom Engagements

Not sure what you need? We'll design something together. Every organization is different,  the best engagements emerge from genuine partnership.

The Bottom Line

A business case for human transformation.

The most common objection to this kind of work is "it's too soft." But organizations that invest in genuine human development see measurable improvements in employee engagement, retention, and adaptive performance.

We're not selling inspiration. We're building the inner architecture that makes sustainable organizational performance possible.

Let's Talk About Your Organization
Now Open

The work continues
in community.

Individual growth is most durable when it happens alongside others doing the same work. The CCT Community is an individual membership — a structured, ongoing practice space between retreats and workshops.

The CENTER FOR COLLECTIVE TRANSFORMATION Community

A practice community,
not a content platform.

Most online communities are places to consume content. The CCT Community is built around a different premise: that sustained growth requires ongoing practice, structured reflection, and accountability to others doing the same work.

Membership is for individuals. It gives you access to the Circle.so community platform, monthly virtual community circles, CCT's Insight Briefs, and the resource library,  all organized around the connection between individual development and collective outcomes.

Join the Community →
Monthly Virtual Community Circles
Facilitated monthly gatherings for individual members — structured, themed, research-grounded
Insight Briefs
CCT's short-form research publications — included with every membership
Resource Library
Research summaries, reflection tools, and practitioner guides — core library included
Priority Program Access
Annual members get first access to in-person circles, retreats, and new programs
Membership

Simple, honest pricing.

We charge a modest membership fee because free communities don't work;  people don't show up. A real price signals real commitment. We keep it low intentionally: CCT subsidizes the difference because we believe this community should be accessible to anyone doing the work.

Monthly
$5 /month

Individual membership. Full access to all community features. Cancel anytime.

Subsidized by CCT to keep the work accessible.

Join Monthly
Best Value
Annual
$50 /year

Individual membership. Two months free. Priority registration for in-person circles, retreats, workshops, and new programs.

≈ $4.17/month

Join Annual

Not ready to join yet? Attend a retreat or workshop first.

What Membership Includes

Built around ongoing practice.

Monthly Virtual Community Circles

Monthly facilitated virtual gatherings organized around a theme or question drawn from CCT's research and program work. Structured conversation, not a drop-in chat. For individuals committed to ongoing development.

Included

Insight Briefs

CCT's short-form research publications, delivered directly to members. Each brief translates current research on individual development and collective outcomes into clear, actionable insight. It's substantive — not content marketing.

Included

Resource Library

A curated library of research summaries, reflection guides, values tools, and practitioner reading lists. Core resources are included with membership; select premium resources may carry an additional fee.

Included

Priority Program Access

Annual members receive first access and priority registration for in-person community circles, retreats, workshops, and new programs, before they open to the public.

Annual Only

Digital Experiences

Live and on-demand virtual workshops, online cohorts, and structured programs for those who want more between retreats or aren't able to travel. Same rigor, different format.

In Development

Networking Opportunities

Connect with other members, practitioners, leaders, and individuals who share a commitment to this kind of development work.

Coming Later

Ready to continue the work?

The CCT Community is where individual development becomes a sustained practice.

Questions? Get in touch.

The People Behind the Work

Practitioners.
Researchers. Guides.

Our founding team brings decades of experience in organization development, transformative facilitation, leadership coaching, and the art of creating conditions for genuine human growth.

David L. Harkins, D.ODC
David L. Harkins
Co-Founder & Managing Partner

David L. Harkins, D.ODC

Co-Founder & Managing Partner · Executive Coach · Assistant Professor of Social Entrepreneurship

Dr. David Harkins has spent his career at the intersection of human development and organizational transformation — a practitioner equally at home in the academic study of change and the messy, human reality of creating it.

As an educator, executive coach, and management consultant, David's work focuses on leadership development, strategic change, workplace culture transformation, and community collaboration. He has advised organizations including the Alzheimer's Association, Microsoft, Girl Scouts of the USA, Special Olympics, and National 4-H Council, among many others.

David is an Assistant Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at Belmont University and has held faculty positions at Georgia Southern University, Bowling Green State University, and Western Carolina University. His peer-reviewed research examines the intersection of culture, volunteerism, organizational identity, and the dynamics of systemic change.

He is the founder of David Harkins Company, LLC, and brings that consulting depth directly into the Center of Collective Transformation's approach: rigorous, evidence-based, and relentlessly practical. For David, the individual work in support of collective transformation isn't abstract;  it's the most important work anyone can  undertake.  

Doctorate in Organization Development & Change, Bowling Green State University

Master of Entrepreneurship, Western Carolina University

Certified Professional Coach

Jennifer Tuttle Harkins
Jennifer Tuttle Harkins
Co-Founder & Partner

Jennifer Tuttle Harkins

Co-Founder & Partner · Facilitator · Leadership & Transformative Coach

Jennifer Tuttle Harkins, known to most as JuJu, brings to the Center for Collective Transformation a rare combination of financial acumen, deep facilitation skill, and a hard-won understanding of what it actually takes for people to transform.

Beginning her career as a tax accountant with Arthur Andersen and later working in healthcare finance, Jennifer's professional path took a decisive turn when she found herself drawn to a different kind of work, one focused not on what things cost, but on what they're worth. Her coaching practice emerged from her own lived experience navigating the professional world and her desire to help others stand in their authentic power.

JuJu specializes in leadership coaching, helping people align their professional goals with their values and build genuine resilience. She facilitates workshops,  retreats and women's circles with a talent for creating structured environments where honest reflection and practical growth become possible.

Her background in yoga instruction informs how she designs retreat experiences that engage participants fully, not just intellectually, but through movement, reflection, and structured practice.

Trained in ICF-certified coaching methodology

Master of Accounting, UNC Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler Business School)

BS Business Administration, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

RYT-200 Certified Yoga Teacher · Gentle/Restorative & Trauma-Sensitive Yoga

Join the Team

Are you a facilitator, researcher, or practitioner?

We're building a network of practitioners who share our commitment to evidence-based, ethically grounded facilitation and the work of collective transformation.

Start a Conversation
"We're looking for people who believe, as we do, that better individuals make better collectives and who have the experience and heart to guide that kind of change."

Let's start a conversation.

Whether you're an individual ready to explore, an organization seeking something more meaningful, or a practitioner who wants to partner — we want to hear from you. We answer every inquiry personally.

Location
Nashville, Tennessee
General Inquiries
Program Inquiries
Organizational Partnerships

Center for Collective Transformation
collectivetransformation.org

Connect with us

Tell us a bit about yourself and what's drawing you to this work.

We respond to all inquiries within 2–3 business days.