• Making business conversations work
• Intervening in working relationships
• Increasing your personal range of effective action

Download brochure for this program as a pdf file.

Learning themes
Elements of the program
Who should attend
Tuition
Accommodations
The Institute faculty
Continuing support for Institute graduates

Learning themes

Talk is not cheap. We talk together to understand complex situations, consider options, and make choices. This workshop will help you make business conversations work by:

• Capturing the logic, interests, and concerns behind business arguments
• Helping people better understand each other's point of view
• Asking questions that shift people's perspectives and move things forward

The quality of business conversations depends on the working relationships among individuals and groups. Reactive relationships form a system that inhibits progress on business issues. Institute participants increase their skill in:

• Understanding the dilemmas that block learning and change
• Seeing the relationship dynamics that keep people stuck
• Intervening in difficult relationships so that better business conversations can occur

Each of us has characteristic ways of responding that both enable and constrain our effectiveness. Within the unseen structures of our relationships we can unwittingly become part of the problem rather than the solution. Institute participants learn to

• Identify situations that trigger counterproductive reactions
• Design and practice alternative actions
• Create a personal action plan for continuing development

Elements of the program:  Linking theory and practice

Plenary forums with leading edge ideas on business dialogue and relationship systems. Case studies and exercises enable you to practice applying key concepts.

Casework in small groups guided by a senior faculty member.  Cases written in advance by participants are learning material for reflecting on reasoning and behavior and for discovering and practicing new possibilities.

Videotaped role-play provides an opportunity for each participant to design and practice intervening in a management situation and to receive feedback from faculty and fellow participants.

Session with Chris Argyris: Participants will have the rare opportunity to work with Chris Argyris and benefit from his wealth of experience.

Personal reflection in Learning Trios: Each evening you will meet with two other participants in both structured and unstructured conversations to deepen your personal learning. Guided by associate faculty, trios draw from experiences in case groups and video role-plays to help members identify characteristic ways of responding and design action experiments.  On the last morning each trio meets with a faculty member to create individual learning plans that extend beyond the Institute.

Post-Institute coaching: Following the Institute, each participant will receive two coaching sessions with senior faculty to further your skill development.
 

Who Should Attend

• Are changing organizations in ways that call for people to think and act in fundamentally new ways;
• Work with individuals and groups who have clashing perspectives;
• Are capable of reflecting rigorously on their own behavior in a challenging and supportive experiential learning environment.

Faculty

Associate faculty lead smaller breakout groups and Learning Trios.

Chris Argyris is guest speaker.
 

Tuition

• Pre-program readings
• Binder of program materials
• Lunch each day
• Morning and afternoon refreshments

Accommodations

We  recommend that participants (even residents of the Boston area) stay at the Center, because the seminar schedule is quite long each day, and participants report that they appreciate the opportunity to to talk together informally.

Located on the wooded campus of Babson College, along the Boston marathon route, the CEE is known for its quiet setting, excellent conference and recreational facilities, and superlative food.

Services for Institute graduates

Graduates may also make arrangements for coaching services following the workshop.

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