Dialogue and The Art of Thinking Together; Program in Strategic Transformation for Leaders 

In organizations, people spend up to 80% of their time in conversation. Talk is our key action tool—and often a neglected discipline. Changing the nature of conversations in organizations may be the single most powerful way to bring about performance breakthroughs. Based on the pioneering work of Bill Isaacs, this two-day workshop is designed to deepen your leadership identity and expand your capacity to connect with others and access collective intelligence in groups. The program is highly participative and will introduce you to the tools and frameworks of a dialogic approach in a practical way.

The Art of Thinking Together (AoTT) is for anyone interested in developing themselves as a leader with a greater depth of understanding and the practical skills needed to bring about sustainable, positive change in their organizations.

Why Now?

Today’s turbulent and challenging environment calls for a heightened level of leadership. In many organizations, the pressures of uncertainty and complexity create a relentless drive for performance at every level. Yet resource constraints can stifle creativity and productivity while increasing workload. Under these circumstances, even the strongest systems can experience fragmentation, leading to factional strife and deviation from long-term aims. In complex organizations, such structural traps require highly capable leadership that can work successfully across constituencies to guide deep and far-reaching shifts.

What You Will Learn

This program will introduce you to the framework and tools of our dialogic approach and develop your practical ability to apply these tools in real-life challenges. The program is highly participative. It is designed to deepen your leadership identity and expand your capacity to connect with others and access collective intelligence, even in complex situations with multiple stakeholders.

The Art of Thinking Together will develop your leadership in the following areas:

Learning and practicing a dialogic approach to change

Discovering the nature of balanced action in any team or group

Inquiring effectively into “what is really going on” in a conversation

Understanding distinct ways of speaking and listening, and why breakdowns occur among them

Diagnosing self-defeating patterns in work teams and in one’s own communications

Gaining a feel for the power of collective intelligence and its relevance for one’s organization

Grounding one’s opinions and abstractions in data that can be validated

Using reflection to achieve immediate impact on action and the quality of decisions

Using breakdowns to break through, to generate pivotal conversations and actions.

The program uses a variety of learning methods, including short presentations, large-group dialogues, small-group reflection, reading, video, and journaling. To maximize learning, there is an orientation call and virtual session prior to the in-person session and a virtual reflection session following the program.

Who Should Participate

Past participants have come from a wide range of organizations including the World Bank, Shell, BP, Oxfam, RenRe, government agencies, and academia. Many participants have also chosen to attend outside of an organizational context. The program can benefit anyone who wishes to grow their capabilities to engage others in strategic transformation. Colleagues who attend the AoTT together gain a heightened capacity for using dialogue effectively within their organizations. Team members can think together about how to apply new practices with intermediate effect back on the job. Teams of three or more enjoy a group discount.