Creating your human leader roadmap: From one-off workshops to lasting change

Most organisations don’t have a leadership problem.

They have a follow-through problem.

You run a great workshop. Everyone leaves inspired. A few weeks later, diaries are back-to-back, the pressures haven’t changed, and those beautiful ideas are buried under “more urgent” work.

This article lives inside Health and wellbeing in the corporate world: The Human Leader playbook and connects closely with Wellbeing as a business strategy: Embedding health into leadership, From policy to practice: Bringing ISO 45003 to life in your culture and Measuring what matters: Proving the ROI of wellbeing programmes.

Here, we’ll turn “Human Leadership” from a one-off event into a roadmap – so you can move from workshops to real, lasting change.

A quick invitation before we dive in

If you’re tired of inspirational sessions that fade within weeks, you don’t have to solve it alone.

The Human Leader Workshop is designed as the anchor of a longer journey – giving managers practical skills in psychological safety, hybrid rhythms and nervous-system awareness that you can then build into a 6–12 month roadmap.

1. Why one-off workshops rarely change culture

It’s not that workshops are “bad”. It’s that, on their own, they’re incomplete.

In most organisations:

• Leaders attend a powerful session.

• They go straight back into overloaded diaries and existing pressures.

• There is no clear next step or shared map.

• HR and L&D are left chasing “quick wins” to show impact.

So the culture stays the same, even if people picked up some useful ideas.

From the wider cluster – The cost of disconnection: How loneliness and anxiety hit your bottom line, From burnout to balance: Tackling loneliness and disconnection at work – we know:

Without changes to rhythms, spaces, conversations and nervous-system habits, leaders will struggle to turn insight into action.

That’s what a Human Leader roadmap is for.

2. What is a “Human Leader roadmap”?

A Human Leader roadmap is a simple, shared plan that answers four questions:

1. Why are we doing this?

2. What are we actually changing in how we work and lead?

3. How will we support leaders and teams to practise?

4. How will we know it’s working?

It weaves together the themes from:

• Wellbeing as a business strategy: Embedding health into leadership

• From policy to practice: Bringing ISO 45003 to life in your culture

• HR and L&D as human leaders: Equipping culture shapers for the future of work

so your Human Leader work becomes a coherent journey, not a string of disconnected events.

In practice, that usually means:

• A clear north star for leadership and wellbeing.

• One or two flagship experiences (like The Human Leader Workshop).

• A series of micro-practices, experiments and nudges over 6–12 months.

• Simple measures and stories to track impact, using Measuring what matters: Proving the ROI of wellbeing programmes.

3. The three pillars of a Human Leader roadmap

Let’s ground this in something you can actually build.

3.1 Pillar one – Foundations: intent, language and safety

Start with clarity.

Link your roadmap to:

• Business goals and risk – via Wellbeing as a business strategy: Embedding health into leadership.

• Psychosocial duty of care – via From policy to practice: Bringing ISO 45003 to life in your culture.

Then:

• Define what “Human Leadership” means for you (for example: psychologically safe, nervous-system aware, hybrid-savvy).

• Introduce core concepts like psychological safety using Trust as your competitive edge: The science of psychological safety and Psychological safety in meetings: From silent screens to real dialogue.

• Make it clear that this is not just an HR project, but a shared leadership commitment.

Without this foundation, everything else feels optional.

3.2 Pillar two – Practice: skills, rhythms and somatic tools

This is where The Human Leader Workshop sits – as your central “practice lab”.

Around that, your roadmap should help leaders build skills in:

• Hybrid rhythm design – via Rehumanising the workplace for hybrid teams and Hybrid teams without burnout: Designing sustainable work rhythms.

• Difficult conversations and conflict – via Difficult conversations in hybrid teams: A five-step conflict reset.

• Nervous-system awareness and somatic tools – via Leading with nervous system awareness: Somatic skills for modern managers, Breathe, reset, reconnect: Short breathwork practices for work, Qi Gong in the boardroom: Ancient practice for modern resilience and Breath, movement and focus: A somatic toolkit for corporate wellbeing champions.

• Everyday connection – via Micro rituals for human connection: Daily practices for hybrid teams.

The key is repetition in real life – not just learning in workshops.

3.3 Pillar three – Integration: systems, spaces and measures

Finally, a roadmap needs to plug into:

• Systems – performance conversations, hybrid policies, leadership frameworks.

• Spaces – physical and digital environments, using Designing workplaces for wellbeing: Spaces that support focus and connection.

• Measures – using Measuring what matters: Proving the ROI of wellbeing programmes to track stress, connection, psychological safety and related outcomes.

This is where one-off workshops become ongoing practice that’s visible in how you design work.

Make The Human Leader Workshop your anchor, not your finish line

Many organisations treat a workshop as the end of a project.

What if it was the start?

You can use The Human Leader Workshop as:

• A shared “launchpad” for your roadmap.

• A way to give leaders somatic and psychological safety tools they can use immediately.

• The story spine (“this is where we began”) for your 6–12 month Human Leader journey.

From there, the roadmap keeps the work alive.

4. A 12-month example: your Human Leader journey in practice

Every organisation is different, but here’s a simple 12-month pattern to adapt.

Months 1–2: Listen, map and align

• Read across the cluster, starting with Health and wellbeing in the corporate world: The Human Leader playbook.

• Run a short pulse on stress, psychological safety and connection, using ideas from The cost of disconnection: How loneliness and anxiety hit your bottom line.

• Map psychosocial risks with HR, H&S and leaders, guided by From policy to practice: Bringing ISO 45003 to life in your culture.

Output: a simple one-page case for Human Leadership.

Months 3–4: Deliver your flagship experience

• Run The Human Leader Workshop with a pilot cohort (for example, 30–50 leaders or a key business area).

• Pair it with micro-resources from Psychological safety in meetings: From silent screens to real dialogue and Breathe, reset, reconnect: Short breathwork practices for work.

Output: a shared experience and vocabulary for Human Leadership.

Months 5–8: Embed micro-practices and hybrid changes

• Ask each leader to choose one meeting, one rhythm, one somatic tool to change.

• Support with articles like Rehumanising the workplace for hybrid teams, Hybrid teams without burnout: Designing sustainable work rhythms and Micro rituals for human connection: Daily practices for hybrid teams.

• Run short “practice clinics” for wellbeing champions, using Breath, movement and focus: A somatic toolkit for corporate wellbeing champions.

Output: visible behaviour changes in diaries and meetings.

Months 9–12: Measure, refine, scale

• Re-run key measures from Measuring what matters: Proving the ROI of wellbeing programmes.

• Gather stories of changed conversations, reduced conflict and better hybrid rhythms.

• Work with HR and L&D, using HR and L&D as human leaders: Equipping culture shapers for the future of work, to embed Human Leader expectations into leadership frameworks and talent processes.

Output: a refined roadmap, plus evidence to take to the board.

5. Common pitfalls – and how your roadmap avoids them

A roadmap is partly about avoiding familiar traps.

5.1 “That was lovely” syndrome

Pitfall: people enjoy a session, then do nothing differently.

Roadmap response:

• Build in clear micro-commitments (“one meeting, one rhythm, one tool”).

• Follow up with nudges, peer groups and check-ins.

• Use Difficult conversations in hybrid teams: A five-step conflict reset to normalise honest reflection.

5.2 Overloading leaders with content

Pitfall: too many models and frameworks, not enough practice.

Roadmap response:

• Keep focus on a small set of Human Leader skills.

• Use somatic and micro-ritual tools that fit into existing meetings and days.

• Anchor everything back to the core pieces of the playbook, rather than adding more.

5.3 Treating wellbeing as HR’s side project

Pitfall: culture work is pushed to HR while business-as-usual continues unchanged.

Roadmap response:

• Link Human Leadership to risk and performance via Wellbeing as a business strategy: Embedding health into leadership and The cost of disconnection: How loneliness and anxiety hit your bottom line.

• Involve senior leaders in The Human Leader Workshop and follow-up sessions.

• Tie roadmap milestones to strategy and ESG commitments.

FAQs: Creating your Human Leader roadmap

1. Do we need everything in place before starting?
No. You can start with a clear intent and a first step – often a pilot of The Human Leader Workshop – then build the roadmap as you learn. The key is to keep the journey visible and joined up.

2. How long should our roadmap be?
For most organisations, 6–12 months is a good starting horizon. Long enough to embed new habits, short enough to stay focused. After that, Human Leadership becomes part of “how we do things”, refreshed each year.

3. How does this connect to ISO 45003 and psychosocial risk?
Your roadmap is one of the most concrete ways to act on From policy to practice: Bringing ISO 45003 to life in your culture. Human Leader skills reduce psychosocial hazards (like high demands, low voice and poor relationships) through everyday leadership behaviour.

4. What if our leaders are sceptical or time-poor?
Start by connecting Human Leadership to problems they already feel: conflict, burnout, staff turnover, decision fatigue. Use short, high-impact tools from Leading with nervous system awareness: Somatic skills for modern managers and Psychological safety in meetings: From silent screens to real dialogue to show quick wins.

5. Who should own the roadmap?
HR and L&D are natural stewards, but ownership should be shared. Senior leaders, wellbeing champions and line managers all have a role – as mapped out in HR and L&D as human leaders: Equipping culture shapers for the future of work.

Related articles in this series

You may also find these pieces helpful when designing your roadmap:

• Health and wellbeing in the corporate world: The Human Leader playbook

• Wellbeing as a business strategy: Embedding health into leadership

• From policy to practice: Bringing ISO 45003 to life in your culture

• HR and L&D as human leaders: Equipping culture shapers for the future of work

• Measuring what matters: Proving the ROI of wellbeing programmes

Let your roadmap turn intention into reality

Human Leadership isn’t built in a day.

It’s built in:

• The meetings you redesign.

• The nervous-system tools you normalise.

• The rhythms and spaces you protect.

• The way you keep coming back to “how does this feel for our people?”

A Human Leader roadmap gives you a kind, structured way to move from good intentions to lived experience.

If you’d like support designing that journey – and using The Human Leader Workshop as a powerful starting point – I’d be honoured to walk that path with you.

I look forward to connecting with you in my next post.
Until then, be well and keep shining.
Peter. :)