31 March 2016

Talking about Tough Issues, with the OBREAU Tripod with Don Dunoon | Monday April 11, 2016 | 5.30pm

As a facilitator, you’ll almost certainly find yourself dealing with tough issues, those that are prickly, messy, perceived differently by stakeholders, and often with a degree of heat attached. This workshop is designed to introduce you to a toolkit that you can use in helping groups and individuals converse about such issues productively. You’ll likely also find the method helpful in getting ready to talk about issues of concern to you, personally.
A proposition to be examined is that three default behaviour patterns tend to get in the way of effective conversations on tough issues: reacting to new information and experience, judging others negatively, and “dancing around” (side-stepping, smoothing over) difficult aspects.
The OBREAU Tripod is a counterweight to these default behaviours. “OBREAU” refers to three practices:
  • Working from OBservation (noticing as far as possible prior to interpreting)
  • Attributing REasonableness (allowing that others are reasonable)
  • Speakingwith AUthenticity (saying what is true for you while keeping connections with observation and reasonableness).
·      The OBREAU Tripod can be applied in a variety of settings; for example, in supporting large group dialogue, executive coaching, and in leadership, team and culture development initiatives. The Tripod can provide a light structure to aid the emergence of greater clarity and shared meaning with virtually any multi-faceted issue.

In this session, we will apply the OBREAU Tripod as a large group in considering an issue, possibly a corporate controversy that has received recent press coverage. As well – and as far as possible within the limited time available – participants will be able to try out the OBREAU Tripod in helping them think through a thorny issue that matters to them personally, and discuss the results with colleagues.
You will walk away with ideas about enabling and facilitating more productive conversations, about creating safe environments in which people can speak up, and about how you, personally, can strengthen your own ability to engage effectively with others on tough issues.

About Don Dunoon
As an independent consultant, Don Dunoon has over 20 years’ leadership and organisational development experience. He is the author of In the Leadership Mode (Trafford, 2008), a book that frames leadership – as distinct from management – in terms of interventions to build shared meaning and elicit energy for change with contentious issues. He is the author of articles in international journals including one with acclaimed Harvard mindfulness researcher, Dr. Ellen Langer. Don is also developer of the OBREAU Tripod.
He will be offering a highly experiential one-day workshop, Facilitating Conversations for Shared Meaning on Tough Issues, in Sydney on 10th June. This is an opportunity to deepen and extend your skills in facilitating in contexts where people are dealing with issues they feel strongly about, particularly in helping groups move toward common understandings (as distinct from technical solutions) and in fostering group and individual development.

You can find out more about Don here and visit his website here.

Venue:
University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Jones Street, Ultimo corner Thomas Street. Room 5.580 Level 5, Building 10, Take the lift to level 5, cross the atrium footbridge, walk straight ahead to room 580.


Time:
From 5:30pm to 7:30pm sharp | No RSVP - Just turn up | Donation $5
Enquiries | Eoin Higgins  eoin.p.higgins@gmail.com : 0407 411 684

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