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Global Mayors Academy · Live Conversation

Can complexity be managed —
or can it only be led from within?

May 14, 2026
4:00 PM UTC
90 Minutes
Online
Dr. Paddy Pampallis
In conversation
Dr. Paddy Pampallis
Cape Town, South Africa
Shanaaz Majiet
Joined by
Shanaaz Majiet
Pretoria, South Africa
Ndoni Khanyile
Hosted by
Ndoni Khanyile
Cape Town, South Africa
Reserve Your Place Free to attend · Places are limited

Leadership in practice.
Lived, not lectured.

A direct provocation aimed at conventional MBA and urban governance programs. The difference between managing and leading becomes a live conversation — not a presentation.

There is not always an immediate solution. But there is capacity building to hold the tensions and ongoing polarities present in the city. That is what this session is for.

"

The quality of what we build outside of us
is always a reflection of what is happening inside.

Dr. Paddy Pampallis · Global Mayors Academy
What the session will explore

Four territories that formal programs rarely enter

Inner world as the source of outer impact
The gap between what programs teach and what a leader faces alone in the real work.
Holding tensions without collapsing them
Capacity to stay with the polarities present in city leadership — without forcing a premature resolution.
Ubuntu and African wisdom in practice
Indigenous ways of knowing that hold the health of the individual and the collective as one question.
Consciousness that shapes decisions that shape cities
How the interior world of a leader becomes — invisibly, inevitably — the exterior world of the city.
Dr. Paddy Pampallis
Dr. Paddy Pampallis
Founder, Integral Africa Institute
Strategic Leadership · Education Director
Program Architect · Lead Faculty
Cape Town, South Africa

"How consciousness shapes decisions that shape cities"

We are at a moment. Not just a moment in time — but one of those rare, luminous moments in history when something that has been quietly gathering — in rooms like this one, in conversations that go on too long because nobody wants to leave, in the work of people who refused to stop asking why — finally finds its form.

I have spent 24 years developing a school of integral practice with learning at the center of everything I do. Not learning as curriculum but as each learner being the curriculum themselves. Not learning as content delivery. But learning as the most profoundly human thing we do.

The kind of learning that shifts something inside you — that you carry home differently than you arrived. The kind that doesn't just change what you know, but changes who you are becoming.

The conversation

Three voices. One depth.

In conversation
Dr. Paddy Pampallis
Dr. Paddy Pampallis
Cape Town, South Africa
"How consciousness shapes decisions that shape cities"
Pioneer in leadership development. Founder and CEO of the Integral Africa Institute. Holds one of the world's first doctorates in executive coaching. Faculty at Meridian University, UCT and the Da Vinci Institute.
Joined by
Shanaaz Majiet
Shanaaz Majiet
Pretoria, South Africa
"What are the Leadership Capacities Required for Next Generation City Leadership"
Seasoned board chair, non-executive director and leadership expert with over three decades of experience across government, non-government, and corporate sectors. Executive Master Coach, Salzburg Global Fellow. Ambassador for South Africa at GMA.
Hosted by
Ndoni Khanyile
Ndoni Khanyile
Cape Town, South Africa
Performer, process designer and multimedia producer. Former Al Jazeera reporter.
Studied Theatre at UCT. Masters in Broadcast Journalism from Columbia University (Fulbright Scholar). Six years reporting globally on Innovate Africa and the award-winning series earthrise. Certified Integral Practitioner coach.
Who this is for

Those for whom
leadership is not
a job title.

What you will take with you

Not answers.
Sharper questions.

A rare conversation at a depth that rarely makes it into formal settings. The kind of questions that actually move things forward.

Global Mayors Academy · For cities that lead.
May 14
4:00 PM UTC · 90 Minutes · Online · Free
Reserve your place.
Free to attend. Places are limited.
Reserve Your Place Free to attend · Places are limited