Leading the Heroic Journey

The Wisdom Shared by Cultures Throughout Time

This online book is based on the wisdom of the heroic journey, which is the story used by cultures throughout time to teach their members how to create or renew a life, an organization or a community. The book is designed to provide a foundation of knowledge and guidance in applying that knowledge with confidence. The book, in whole or in part, can be downloaded for free.


The Four Critical Success Factors

The chapters in the book focus on the four critical success factors at the heart of leading journeys of change. Each chapter has a matching QuickStart packet to facilitate application.

  1. The Power of Saying “Yes”
    Acknowledge the leadership challenges we face, say "yes" to taking on those challenges and bring forth your best
  2. The Power of Knowledge
    Develop an understanding of the five core challenges encountered on a journey of change on which to base your leadership actions
  3. The Power of Clear Leadership Roles & Strategies
    Adapt the six leadership roles and their core strategies to any journey you are leading
  4. The Power of Leadership Webs
    Create a web of leaders and effective followers to provide the leadership reach, power, credibility and resilience required

How to Begin

You can poke around, try applying the tools, templates and worksheets or dive in and immerse yourself. You can start with any of the four chapters on the critical success factors. They all fit together and reinforce each other, regardless of where you start.

  1. Read the overview, “I’m Just Curious”
  2. Poke around any chapter - it's easy
    • One page introductions
    • 3-5 page summaries
    • Selected chapter excerpts on key topics
    • Tables of Contents
    • Video overviews
  3. Immerse yourself
    • Read the whole chapter
    • Review the cases and articles
  4. Try the QuickStart packets
    • Use the QuickStart packet for any chapter (Roles & Strategies is a favorite place to start)
    Remember - you can always call for a 20-minute consultation at no cost to help get started, answer questions or get unstuck.  We want this to be a successful experience for you.

QuickStart Packets

QuickStart packets are designed to guide leadership teams in applying the concepts of that chapter. Each QuickStart has a set of guiding questions as well as worksheets and templates to capture the team’s work. The QuickStart packets work whether you are in the midst of a journey or planning a journey.

Planning Templates and Worksheets

There are samples for each of the leadership strategies. If the sample worksheets or template works for you as they are, that’s great. If you want to change them, go ahead and do that in whatever program you like. If you design your own worksheets, the basic design principle is to “keep it simple.”

All Sample Sheets


Sample Planning Templates


Sample Worksheets