Workshops/Retreats

The Dialogic Leader^© Workshops for a VUCA World (Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity)

Transforming Your Organization or Community to Thrive in The Emerging World© A Series of 1/2 or 1-Day Experiential Workshops Customized to Your Organization Objectives. The workshops can also be combined to create a multi-day retreat or planning session and can be added to an existing retreat.

Conversational Leadership: Leadership for the 21st Century^©

This experiential workshop is designed to engage learners in a dialogue about conversational leadership. Learners will explore the benefits and limitations of conversational leadership and compare with their current leadership practices. This seminar focuses on the local conversations that create our organizations not abstract leadership styles.

Learning objectives:

• Understanding the emerging conversational model of leadership
• Taking a communication perspective of organization
• Experience using a conversational model of leadership
• Understand the complex nature of change in organizations
• Learners passion for integrating conversational leadership into their practice

Developing Leaders Through Multi-Generational Collaboration^©

This experiential workshop is designed to engage learners in a conversation about developing leaders through multi-generational collaboration. What is multi-generational collaboration and why is it important? Why should we move away from the dominant discourse of managing generations? These questions and others will be explored together as we delve into this transformational framework.

Learning objectives:

• Understand the power of multi-generational dialogue to develop leaders
• Move learners away from the concept of managing generations at work
• If a generationally diverse class, experience multi-generational dialogue
• Value wisdom that each generation brings to our organizations
• Practical strategies for creating multi-generational dialogue

Engagement: Creating a Culture of Innovation^©

This experiential workshop is designed to engage learners in a conversation about creating a culture where all employees are engaged in innovating the organization. Although the press is filled with numerous definitions of what engagement is and a variety of approaches to creating engagement in an organization, we believe this is really quite simple. Leaders own the conversations that either create engagement or drive a wedge between associates and the organization. We will explore how to create conversations that create engagement.

Learning objectives:

• Understand how conversations create engagement
• Develop practical conversational approaches that create engagement
• Explore the roadblocks to bringing associates closer to the organization
• Work with peers to develop and practice conversational approaches
• The role of the employee engagement survey to uncover structural roadblocks.

Culture Emergence: The Practice of Dialogic OD^©

This experiential workshop is designed to engage learners in a dialogue about organization development. Learners will compare and contrast dialogic OD with diagnostic OD and explore the benefits and limitations of each. The OD practices will then be situated in the complex and challenging world within which we are working to explore real world impact.

Learning objectives:

• Understanding of difference between dialogic and diagnostic OD
• Understanding of benefit of using a dialogic OD framework
• Experience using a dialogic model of inquiry
• Understand the complex nature of change in organizations
• Learners passion for integrating dialogic OD into their practice

Leading in Complexity, Uncertainty, and Ambiguity^©

Stability and predictability are artifacts of a world that no longer exists. Long gone is the model of a few “men” at the top having all the information necessary to make effective decisions. Leading in complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity requires a shift in mindset, one that embraces collaboration, inquiry, dialogue, and crossing of traditional hierarchical boundaries. Mindsets shift through experience and this workshop is designed to provide the experience necessary for that mindset shift to emerge.

Learning objectives:

• Understanding of leadership capabilities needed in the current world
• Understand why old models of leadership fall short in complexity
• Experience using a dialogic model of inquiry
• Understand the complex nature of information in organizations
• Explore how to effectively cross traditional hierarchical boundaries

The Dialogic Leader^©: Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat, Ambivalence Did^©

Curiosity is about inquiry, a desire to understand the other person that we are working with. All too often leaders fall into the trap of advocating. After all we have invested years gaining our knowledge, skills, and abilities so shouldn’t we be able to tell others what they need to do? Effective leaders understand that a balance between inquiry and advocacy is critical. Erring on the side of inquiry is always the best approach and one that can be cultivated. This workshop will help participants transform their practice into one of a Curious Leader^©.

Learning objectives:

• Understanding the characteristics of an inquiry mindset
• Understand the depressing impact advocacy has on engagement
• Experience using a dialogic model of inquiry
• Understand the complex nature of information in organizations
• Understand the benefits of inquiry over advocacy

Leader Assimilation: Helping New Leaders Connect With Their Teams^©

When a leader is 3-6 months into her/his tenure with a new team, bringing the team together with the leader to assess how the leader is doing is a powerful way to open up dialogue between the leader and the team and provide a positive development forum for the leader. This is a staged facilitated conversation with and without the leader and has proven to be one of the best development strategies for a new leader of any level in an organization or community.

Learning objectives:

• Build trust and bond between leader and team
• Maximize probability of success as leader and team
• Clarify leader and team working styles, role definitions and expectations
• Method for leader to learn where to improve
• Provide a framework for positive two-way communication
• Provide a foundation for growth as a high performing team

Indigenous Principles for Holistically Developing People: Applying Indigenous Education Principles in Your Organization^©

Indigenous educational principles, regardless of the tribal source, are consistently holistic, respectful, and embrace the differences that each individual brings to the learning journey. In this experiential workshop we will explore how these principles naturally honor the differences we each bring to an organization and leverage our unique strengths and world views. Through doing so the natural creativity and wisdom inherent in each person is unleashed to help all associates and the organization thrive in a complex world.

Learning objectives:

• Understand the seven Indigenous educational principles
• Know the western theory that supports the use of these principles
• Come away with a new mindset that honors and seeks these principles
• Understand how to apply in an organization to transform learning at all levels
• Understand how using these principles can create new levels of productivity

Contact Dr. John Inman at 541-497-3774 or john@johninmandialogue.com to learn how these solutions can help you accelerate performance in your organization!