Leading Through Dialogue
A two-day skill-building programme for leaders who want to lead conversations that improve decision-making, collaboration and performance.
Conversations are at the heart of every organisational process. The quality of an organisation's conversations shapes the quality of its decisions, its ability to innovate, the way conflicts are handled and ultimately its performance.
Research consistently shows that organisations and individuals that invest in improving the quality of their conversations outperform those that don't, including measurable impact on decision speed and quality, employee engagement and the ability to execute on strategy.
High-performing leadership teams know how to avoid becoming trapped in either unproductive debate or superficial agreement that avoids dealing with the important issues. Instead, they create conversations that systematically leverage diverse perspectives, identify and challenge key assumptions and mobilise collective intelligence to solve complex organisational challenges.
Leading Through Dialogue is a research-based leadership programme that equips participants with practical methods for analysing, facilitating and elevating the quality of strategic conversations across organisations.
Who is this programme for?
Leading Through Dialogue is designed for leaders who want to improve the quality of the conversations through which their organisations think, decide and act.
The programme is relevant for executives, partners, senior leaders, managers, project leaders and internal facilitators who lead conversations within teams, across organisational boundaries or between stakeholders with different objectives, interests and professional perspectives.
It is equally relevant in private, public and not-for-profit organisations where collaboration, innovation and organisational learning depend on the ability to engage diverse perspectives constructively.
What will you learn?
Participants leave the programme with a diagnostic framework for identifying why conversations break down, and a set of practical intervention tools they can apply immediately in their own leadership context:
- Create conditions for higher-quality conversations across teams and functions/li>
- Diagnose why conversations become stuck or unproductive and intervene constructively /li>
- Identify different types of organisational conversations and adjust leadership style accordingly/li>
- Build bridges between organisational silos and professional perspectives/li>
- Transform disagreement into a resource for better decisions and innovation
- Use dialogue as a strategic tool to engage collective intelligence and mobilise energy for collective action towards key organisational objectives
How does the Programme Work?
The two-day format is designed to create a shift that shorter interventions cannot achieve, giving participants enough time to practise, reflect and begin applying the methods before leaving the room.
Prior to the programme, each participant is offered an individual conversation with Claus Springborg to identify personal learning objectives and ensure that cases and exercises reflect the realities of the participant group.
The two days contain a blend of short presentations of key concepts and models, practical exercises and personal reflection. Each day concludes with a facilitated whole-group dialogue on a topic that is relevant to the participants. These dialogues provide an opportunity to practise and reflect on the application of the models and methods introduced during the day, allowing participants to experience the principles of high-quality dialogue first-hand rather than simply learning about them. Furthermore, ending each day with facilitated dialogues serves the purpose of initiating the conversations that matter most to the group, enabling participants to leave with greater alignment and momentum than they had when they arrived.
To embed the learning in further daily practice, the programme includes a follow-up session one to three months after the two-day session where participants can share experiences, address challenges and consolidate the changes they have made.
What is the theoretical background?
The programme integrates research from the fields of organisational dialogue, organisational learning, cognitive science and leadership to provide a coherent framework for understanding how individual capabilities interact with organisational structures in ways that either enable or hamper productive dialogue.
Rather than adding theoretical complexity, the emphasis is on identifying a small number of practical principles that offer the greatest leverage for improving the quality of conversations, collaboration, decision-making and performance.
What People Say
“You have given us an anatomy of dialogue. You have given me a really practical set of tools and ways of ensuring I am consciously present in my conversations to drive outcomes.”
Clare Clarke, Senior people & Performance Business Partner, AB Agri
“Brilliant course – maybe the best I have been on. Loved the models and exercises. Great to have some practical tools for board conversations that lead to better decisions and higher performance.”
Gareth Evans, HR Director, AB Connect
“A thought provoking and a very practical programme about how to facilitate and participate in dialogues where people are able to voice their perspectives in a safe and respectful environment so that fresh thinking and ideas emerge.”
James Comer, Audit Principal, UK National Audit Office
“This programme gave me the opportunity to investigate dialogue in depth and to practise with other professionals. The dialogic tools and skilled facilitation have helped me to embed dialogue into the way I work.”
Gillian Crooks, HR Transformation Change, Engagement and Communications Lead, HMRC
“An exceptional programme that got us all thinking, working and entering into meaningful dialogue together very quickly. We covered a lot of ground in two days and it was very impactful.”
Lucy Shaw, Associate Fellow Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and Director at Cultural Associates Oxford Ltd
”It’s about conversational agility, you will identify and include the missing voices and perspectives that are necessary to improve the quality of decisions in complex and ambiguous challenges in fast changing environments.”
Rudi Doku, Principal Consultant, Vertical Development Consulting
“Claus is a world leader in his approach to coaching and personal development. He helps to provide great clarity, increased self awareness, choice and clear guidance on how to resolve challenging situations. I really appreciate his breath of knowledge across a number of disciplines, non-judgemental way of working, calm and light approach and the powerful insights he provides, resulting in the ability to make real and sustained changes. I highly recommend Claus as a coach.”
Caroline McCoy, Organisational Psychologist,
2 Balance Consulting
Claus Springborg, Ph.d.
Claus Springborg is a leadership consultant, researcher, author and lecturer at Copenhagen Business School.
Drawing on his own research as well as international research within organisational learning, cognitive science and dialogue, Claus develops practical methods that help leaders improve the quality of the conversations through which organisations think, decide and act.
With a PhD from Cranfield School of Management and more than ten years' experience working with leaders, leadership teams and executive education, Claus combines research-based insight with a focus on practical application in complex organisational settings.