Changemaking Retreat - Mentora Institute
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MENTORA EXECUTIVE RETREAT

Be the Change: Inspiring People to New Heights

We are living in pivotal times – a period that is going to become a chapter in tomorrow’s history books.

Coming Summer 2025

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What will this chapter be called?

It depends on what we all do with the opportunities life is presenting us to be architects of the future, within our sphere of influence.

Now more than ever, the world needs us to be changemakers dedicated to strengthening the moral, mental, and social fibers in humanity.

Be the Change will equip you with insights and skills you need to bring deep and lasting change in the values, core beliefs, and behaviors of your audience. Learn to drive change from the inside-out with Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa by joining us on an immersive journey through iconic sites that mark major moments of social change in America’s history.

Win hearts, change minds

Some people are happy to keep living in the world as it exists today; others dream of a more beautiful tomorrow. Some dreamers just dream; others work to materialize their dream by pursuing change.

Some change agents wish to alleviate humanity’s outer hunger by building a more prosperous world; others go deeper. They wish to serve humanity’s inner hunger — the hunger for joy, love, meaning, growth, and understanding — by building not simply a more prosperous world, but a more principled world.

At Be the Change, you will learn how to create inner change in people that catalyzes outer change in their conduct and circumstances.

  1. Envision a better future
  2. Build a winning pathway from today to tomorrow
  3. Inspire people to take the journey
Click here to get the program details and learning material on the 8 building blocks of the Mentora Executive Retreat on Changemaking.
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Learn about our strategy for managing change from your Inner Core with our founder, Hitendra Wadhwa, PhD.

Program Structure

A Blueprint for Creating Inner Change

Our focus at this retreat will be on how to create inner change in people that creates outer change in their conduct and circumstances.

You will walk away with insights and practices that will enable you to:

Envision a better future

  • Develop a more nuanced, balanced, and illuminated understanding of the critical issues facing humanity today.
  • Question popular values, beliefs, and practices, to uncover the inner poverty that is holding us back.
  • Learn to transcend today’s polarized positions to operate with a sincere and open search for truth in all matters.
  • Build a compelling vision for the kinds of change you wish to advance in the world and the audience you wish to serve.
  • Step back and assess the context — the conditions in which you and your audience are operating — before shaping your agenda.

Build a winning pathway from today to tomorrow

  • Formulate an adaptive blueprint for change.
  • Design and execute pilots, learn, and iteratively improve your approach.
  • Bridge divides by forging integrative solutions.
  • Drive real impact and build learnings of lasting value as you advance your change agenda.

Inspire people to change

  • Communicate your vision in a compelling manner.
  • Unify teams, dissolve boundaries, and build bridges.
  • Win the hearts and minds of key stakeholders.
  • Drive a change in your audience’s behavior by helping them shift their mindsets, feelings, and motivations.
  • Know when to push, when to pull, when to pause, and when to pivot.

Watch Hitendra discuss distinctive qualities of Changemakers in a keynote delivered to executives at a leading media company.

Meet Your Retreat Leaders

Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa

Mentora’s Executive Retreats are led by our founder, Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa, joined by other Mentora-affiliated faculty. The retreats offer a rare chance to connect in an intimate, informal setting with faculty, other participants, and with your own inner core.

Hitendra is the author of “Inner Mastery, Outer Impact.” He has been a lifelong student of the world’s mystic traditions, and his mission is to discover, codify, and teach the laws of success in life and leadership. His pioneering ideas have been featured in Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Financial Times, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Inc., and Psychology Today.

As Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School and Founder of the Mentora Institute, he has coached dozens of Fortune 100 C-suite executives and taught more than ten thousand MBAs, executives, doctors, lawyers, social activists, and educators. His class on Personal Leadership & Success at Columbia has for many years been the most popular leadership elective, earning him the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence and the Executive-MBA Commitment to Excellence Award.

Previously, Hitendra worked as a strategy consultant at McKinsey and Co. and was the founder and CEO of a Silicon Valley startup, Paramark. He received an MBA and PhD in Management Science from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and BA (with Honors in Mathematics) from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

Joining onsite as co-facilitator is Taylor Parker. Taylor serves as a director for Mentora Foundation and a facilitator for our Mentora LIFE membership community. She blends training in executive coaching with years-long study of yoga and meditation. She is passionate about bridging the contemplative and corporate worlds, creating communities of practice, and applying ancient wisdom in modern contexts.

What to Expect

Historical immersion, modern embodiment

Be the Change: Inspiring People to New Heights will take you on a powerful study tour where you will walk in the shoes of two great changemakers, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., and also discover the code to the changemaking success of other transformative figures in history, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma Gandhi.

Together, we will visit:

  • Gettysburg, site of one of the pivotal battles of America’s Civil War and a transcendent speech by President Lincoln.  
  • The Lincoln Memorial
  • The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
  • The location where King gave his epic I Have a Dream speech.
  • The Ford Theater, where Lincoln was assassinated

We will discover:

  • Surprising, powerful stories of how these leaders attuned themselves to the passions of their times and shaped the course of history. 
  • A powerful set of documentary video footage of Mother Teresa and the approach she took to build her movement, immersing you in her story.
  • Sites and stories relating to Eleanor Roosevelt and her path from being a timid teenager to an indomitable “First Lady of the World”.
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Mentora Executive Retreats

Registration for the Summer 2025 retreat will open in the next few months. Sign up to stay informed.

For more information, please contact us at retreats@mentora.institute.

Stay Tuned for Registration

PRAISE FOR DR. HITENDRA WADHWA’S TEACHINGS ON CHANGEMAKING

“…has given me very practical guidance on how to navigate a journey of change – starting it, managing conflicts, influencing stakeholders, and inspiring people. As I was going through the program, I was able to identify current project situations where I can apply these learnings, or help me think of options to tackle a problem.”

Executive, Accenture

“…forces you to move from a passive participant to an active driver in your personal life and transformational leader in your professional career. Hitendra reminds us all that we have the power to effect change, and with his frameworks, illustrative stories, cases, and reflective techniques, he shows us how. For those on the fence, take the leap. There’s no better investment than in yourself.”

Kellye Jackson, Columbia University

“My words will be insufficient to describe the powerful and necessary human journey this experience has been.”

Executive MBA student, Columbia Business School

“I am confident to say that this work just became a milestone in my life. Everything that Prof. Hitendra and his team put together were world class and very well thought out. Receiving live feedback on everything we learned as we learned it, was a monumental contribution to my life at a very personal level.”

Executive MBA student, Columbia Business School

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