Archive for category: Collaboration

This Changes Everything (Kathy Taberner)

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We live in a complex global world where demands of leaders are increasing everyday. With a focus on transparency, inclusion, equality, agility, possibility and collaboration, how can leaders leverage themselves to live, work and play in a way that is respectful, sustainable, and most important, fun?

The answer is simple. Curious conversations. Hiding behind texts, emails and social media, conversational skills are the most important skills leaders are failing to engage in. Research out of Stanford is showing that 9 out of 10 conversations miss the mark. Research is also showing organizations are focused on ‘soft’ skills that have hard impacts: communication skills, critical thinking, agility – all of which require curiosity. These are skills that are expected of leaders but are never taught. Curious conversations are the disruptor needed to thrive in our global, multigenerational workplace.

In our interactive workshop, participants will experience how curious conversations are at the forefront of innovation and collaboration in a time where demands are high and resources are low. Participants will experience and learn: -The value of different perspectives, there is never just one way to do anything – Communication skills to shift leaders from reacting to intentionally responding – Self-awareness, clarity around how they are showing up as a leader, their impact and turning barriers into bridges – The skills needed to collaborate, innovate, problem solve & manage emotions. Skills that are currently expected of leaders but have never been taught Canada’s success lies in our leaders’ ability to confidently disrupt the status quo, step out of comfort zones while also being inclusive and collaborative, as they reflect rather than react.

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Creating your future NOW, via a disruptive Story-Work approach. (Yannis Angelis)

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Can you imagine the future of your organization, department, product, yourself in a highly disruptive world? Who will be you at that time and what will be your role? How disruption will have transformed you and your work? Are you interested to explore that?

As most organizations strive for a sustainable growth in an era of constant disruption, they fall into a paradoxical mythology, the one that they are able of keeping control and remain safe as they grow towards the future, the same way they did in the past. It is inevitable that a different approach is needed to detach themselves from the paradox that this mythology provokes and move towards a new narrative which reflects the multi-directional forces of the environment that they operate. The hypothesis, which forms the basis of this highly interactive workshop, is that if one tries to create successful strategies for the future, this cannot happen today without experiencing, “playing,” and getting more familiar with the disruption itself and its consequences.

This workshop firstly aims to produce important strategic outcome on the future of whatever you would like to explore, by considering how disruptive the future may seem. Secondly, via the introduction of a serious game concept, a set of disruptive interventions are used as ignitions and catalysts for new future personal stories and organizational scenarios to emerge. The concept provides a safe space for participants to familiarize themselves with disruption and by that to experience their creative-self being liberated.

More in detail, participants will be invited to interact with each other, combine and work with what exists today in the field they are operating, and what could be the consequences of several disruptive interventions occurring in the environment (I am disrupted) or induced by them (I am the disruptor). Inspiring challenges, working with stories and scenarios, leveraging group collaboration and dynamics, storytelling, sophisticated feedback and a lot of fun is deployed during this workshop.

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The Focused Leader in Change Management (Douglas Gilbert)

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Focused leadership is crucial to the success of change management. Neuro-science based models of human interaction explain the domains of focus for leaders of change. The SCARF model, developed by Dr. David Rock, helps leaders focus on key concerns during change of status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness.

The workshop provides an overview of the basics of neuro-science and change informed by the SCARF model of social interaction. Participants are then provided with a easy to use diagnostic and change process, termed RAINE, that leverages individual mindfulness to create an operating approach at the group and organizational level.

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Process-oriented Psychology in Business (Barbara Leuner Corpina)

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The methodology describes social change processes on a individual and collective level. The methodological and ideological roots are based on C.G. Jung, constructivism, quantum physics, taoism as well as on shamanistic ground, psychodrama, gestalt and further developed by Arnold Mindell/USA. Process Work offers promising future methods, tools and attitude in dealing with individual and collective change processes. We believe that the key to solution-focused results lays within the irritation resp. resistance in itself. There, where irritations show up the most, there lies the juice, where there are unconscious, not yet known, important information to make further development possible in a larger field. Originally, Process Work comes from the therapeutical area and finds its application more and more in the business world, such as organisational development, individual and personal transformation processes, leadership, conflict resolution, be it in smaller or larger groups as well as within management coaching.
Specialities of Process Work are Deep Democracy as an attitude, field theory, polarities, area of tension and irritation, 3 levels of reality, rank and privileges, awareness of different communication signals, body work and relationship building.

The goal of the workshop is to perceive and understand the underlying structure of on-going processes, unfold the human potential for one-self as well as for the group and organisations to develop sustainable solutions and effects. Self-empowerment and activation of the resources of the group and all persons involved are keys. During the workshop theoretical-conceptional input and exercises are balanced to make space for self-reflection, exercises in pairs and working on specific topics in order to transfer it back to the teams at home. Likewise we follow the on-going process at the very moment of the group, of the seminar leader itself with a beginner’s mind and a lot of curiosity and playfulness

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Eroding the Power from within: Activist Communication (Esther Barfoot)

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Get a load of this: in the Netherlands a police officer isn’t allowed to choose the partner with whom he is teamed up in the police car. He has no say in the choice of partner who might or might not save his life in a life or death situation. Police people, nurses, teachers and many other professionals are often prevented from doing their work properly by all kinds of rules, regulations and interference by managers and other staff, based on an inherent distrust of the healthy judgement of professionals. Fortunately, in many organisations, professionals are standing up and forming movements to reclaim their own professionalism, judgement and space to do their work properly. These movements, of course, want to spread the word and communicate with the people inside and outside the movement. This calls for a different kind of communication than the classic, top down corporate communication. It is what Esther calls ‘activist communication’.

Activist communication does the following:

  • It stands between and is co-created with the innovators and change agents
  • It harvests stories from the undercurrent
  • It gives words to new concepts
  • It spreads valuable ideas
  • It keeps the dialogue alive
  • It kisses the future awake

It does this in many, often creative forms. Activist communication searches for ways to appeal to the right brain, the intuition. In this workshop Esther will talk to the participants about activist communication and her experience at – among others – the Dutch National Police (illustrated with many photos and examples). Then the participants will do the activist poster workshop she has done many times at the police and, for instance, in health care organisations. The participants develop an interesting quote or motto about something that really frustrates them in their work, makes them an feel rebellious, or alternatively something that really inspires them. Through (street) art they turn this into an appealing poster. The workshop is designed to empower participants, as well as search for ways to make progress, break down faulty systems and move from distrust to trust, while staying in conversation with the main order of things.

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Conversation Catalyst (Nathan Bragg)

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People often avoid talking about thorny issues together. This workshop provides an avenue into nonviolent discussion.

Treating a given space like a giant piece of graph paper, participants position themselves in specific places to silently declare their opinion of a concept. Individuals are then offered the opportunity to create a sculpture to help illuminate why they have chosen their position; this image is further defined in words by viewers outside the given sculpture. This is important because when viewers “read” a sculpture, they short-circuit any judgement which might arise from a Sculptor who would otherwise use spoken words. In addition, when those at the opposite pole help describe offered images in words it effectively humanizes all individuals who might otherwise appear to be in bitter opposition.

The participants will:

  • learn the power of making interactive non-verbal polls
  • practice creating images to illustrate a deep truth
  • be encouraged to practice deep, empathetic listening
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The Act of Creation – Working with Dilemmas in Organizations (Jacques Chlopczyk)

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Seemingly incompatible alternatives and either/or problem definitions are common in consulting and managing organizations. Starting with Arthur Koestler’s theory of humour and creativity we will explore concepts and tools to understand how these dilemmas offer a great starting point for the development of creative and novel approaches. This workshop will introduce a powerful framework to address and harness these dilemmas as an opportunity for development on a personal, team and organizational level. The approach is based on three distinct models from

a) the field of intercultural consulting,

b) personal development and

c) systems thinking.

The workshop provides a great setting to experience how the approach can be facilitated with groups before we will discuss its conceptual background and the application of the framework in organizational, personal and team development – and in telling jokes.

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What Makes us Human (Marlou de Rouw)

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What changes if I come to a group not as an expert to share knowledge, but rather as a human being coming to learn from the experience of the other so that I may transfer it into my own context?

This workshop will take participants on a deep exploration of the question “What makes us human?”, and will help them think through the consequences of taking our common humanity as a starting point to any work we do. At the heart of this workshop is the approach used by the international NGO the  Constellation, SALT: Stimulate/Support – Appreciate/Authenticity – Learn/Listen/Link – Transfer/Trust/Transform/Team.

Facilitators of this approach know from experience that people within the communities and groups they work with have what it takes to dream, act and transform – they trust that as facilitators they need only to host a space that is ‘human’ enough for people to express themselves freely and find their own solutions – trust that building from strengths and aspirations any group of people has enough in common to overcome their differences and work towards a shared dream.

Participants will leave the workshop with renewed energy, connections and concrete ideas of taking next steps in a change process of their choice.

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Increasing your capacity to collaborate and communicate (Charo Lanao)

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“The world is getting more crowded. Depending on the circumstances, conversations across boundaries can be delightful, or just vexing: what they mainly are, though, is inevitable.”
   Kwame Anthony Appiah

Today’s rapidly changing and interdependent world has included a global migration where our society is increasingly ‘diverse’. In order to function effectively with a range of colleagues, service users, students and clients it is essential to improve one’s intercultural sensitivity (working with, understanding and being sensitive to cultural differences). Effective Intercultural Sensitivity is crucial to successful and optimum practice in all workplaces.

This training offers:

  • Tips and tools to improve specific intercultural communication skills
  • Visible and Non visible aspects of culture
  • Cultural self awareness: Own perspective on culture, cultural values, rules and behaviour
  • Cultural boundaries: influences in work, management, teams, meetings
  • The different ways people negotiate, communicate, agree and resolve conflict
  • Understanding the Five Frameworks for cross – cultural interaction

Tailored training modules specific to your particular working needs and circumstances are also available.

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Building interpersonal trust; using a relational signaling perspective (Edu van der Werf)

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In a world in which traditional hierarchy slowly but surely is substituted (or complemented) by new forms of organizing, the development of strong organizational relationships has become even more important. Trust is a fundamental aspect of these relationships. But how do we form trust? More specifically: how is trust built (and sometimes broken)? Over the last 20 years, research in social sciences has given us ample understanding of the underlying components. In this evidence based workshop we will explore, make sense and experience the latest insights on trust development.

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