Offering a new perspective
Ivo Brughmans holds keynotes, inspirational sessions and workshops on paradoxical leadership and its applications, with the following goals:
- to inspire participants by offering a new ‘both/and’ perspective on their professional and management challenges;
- to provide insight on how polarities are driving the behavior of individuals, teams and organizations;
- to enable participants to explore their own personal and professional polarities and those of their team and organization;
- to provide practical methods and tools that people can apply immediately in their daily work;
- to address differences in perspective, style or approach and make diversity work;
- to create a common language and enhance the dialogue within a team or organization.
The paradoxical theme has a broad area of application and affects all sectors of business, government and society. Previous inspirational sessions cover a wide range of focus areas, such as:
- A paradoxical view on leadership
- Polarities in strategy and organizational change
- A paradoxical view on innovation
- Effectively dealing with tensions in network organizations, partnerships or value chains
- Creating common ground when working with multiple stakeholders
- Polarization in society
- Addressing wicked problems in public policy making
- Unlocking the power of diversity
- Compliance vs. Creativity
- Polarities and Agile working
- Polarities in family businesses
- Polarities in healthcare
- Polarities in policing and addressing crime
- Polarities in education
- Polarities in urban planning
- Polarities in development cooperation
- Paradoxical view on talent development and HR policy
- Creating more balance in life and work
Client organizations we work for are very diverse: listed companies, family businesses, government organizations (from local to national), financial service providers, healthcare providers, consultancies, political parties, international public institutions, professional associations, etc.
Keynotes, inspirational sessions and workshops are always tailored to the specific context and interests of the target group. They are mainly organized in-company or in the context of conferences or seminars. Typical in-company sessions are with the board, a management team, a specific department/work team, all staff or at an event that the organization holds for its clients or stakeholders. Conferences and seminar can cover specific themes or professional groups.
In terms of size, groups can range from about 6 to a few hundred participants. Keynotes, inspirational sessions and workshops can be delivered live and online.
Formulas
The following formulas are frequently requested:
Keynotes
The usual time slot is one hour. The basic principles of paradoxical leadership are explained in an interactive lecture, links are made to the polarities of the target group/the organization, participants are invited to reflect on their own polarities, and concrete steps and tips are provided for putting paradoxical principles into practice.
Part-day inspirational sessions
These can run from between 2 to 4 hours and combine inspiration and experience.
Depending on the available time, the session will include a mix of the following elements:
- Conceptual framework: introduction to the principles of Paradoxical Leadership.
- Participants explore a core polarity in their own life and work, using a constellation exercise that they do in pairs (with alternating roles of coach and coachee) or in groups of three (alternating roles of coach, coachee and observer). This is an extremely powerful experiential exercise that makes everything very tangible and engaging.
- Mapping the most important polarities in the team/organization. Reflecting on how they are currently handled.
- Introducing the 4 key steps of working with polarities: (1) Name, (2) Value, (3) Connect and (4) Steer. For each step a specific tool is shared: (1) Paradoxical Challenge, (2) Golden Triangle, (3) Polarity Wheel and (4) Paradoxical Dialogue.
- Applying one of the tools to a case/dilemma from daily practice.
One-day inspirational workshop
A one-day workshop allows you to dig deeper and link even more strongly with daily practice. In case of an in-company team session, A one-day workshop allows you to dig deeper into the practical steps and tools and link even more strongly with daily practice. In case of an in-company session, the day could also provide an excellent opportunity to bring underlying tensions within the team/organization to the surface and kick off a dialogue process. To ensure that what has been learned is actually put into practice, we often organize a follow-up session a few months later.
Further development
There is a lot of interest in inspirational events on paradoxical leadership. Such an event usually creates a lot of enthusiasm and energy, which makes people want to start working with it and take next steps:
- One next step could be to dig deeper into this matter with an in-company learning program. Check here to how such a paradoxical learning program could look like.
- This can also lead to rethinking some critical business processes from a both/and perspective, such as strategy, performance management, organizational design, service delivery, innovation, HR and talent development or (cultural) change. Check here how we support organizations in design and implementation of both/and ways of working.
Feel free to contact us for more information.