RSD For Religious, Community & Non-Profit Leaders

Faith, community, and nonprofit leaders alike face the challenges of working with internal and external community members in a mission-driven context. Purposeful organizations can become hobbled when differences arise around identities, values, and visions. They can erupt, causing incredible harm, or lie unaddressed in stagnation.

Internally, with an organization’s members and/or staff, EP’s approach can deepen relationships to foster understanding, care, and belonging. It builds the capacity to live out your stated values while identifying, celebrating, and engaging the differences that do exist. And it lets you create robust, aware leadership groups that work joyously and effectively together to address concerns.

Used with external stakeholders, EP’s approach can help you recognize needs, hopes, and emerging potentials, resolve conflicts and address opportunities, and invite collaboration. It can deepen community relationships to work together towards a shared future, as stewards of love in the world in ways that match the mission.

Dialogic thinking and processes can enable leaders to prevent dysfunctional conflict and build the capacity of their members to reach across differences to achieve common goals.

This workshop will introduce leaders to the basics of Reflective Structured Dialogue (RSD), an approach that has been field-tested over 30 years in a wide variety of organizations in 25 countries around the world.

As a result of this workshop, you will be equipped to:

• Identify dysfunctional group dynamics
• Design and facilitate productive conversations about divisive issues and dynamics
• Defuse “us” vs. “them” dynamics through intensive participant preparation and intentional conversational design
• Bring deep, connected awareness to your leadership
• Foster a more resilient community that engages its differences and diversity of views

Who might participate:

• Clergy and lay religious leaders
  
• Non-profit leaders 
  
• Leaders of independent schools
  
• Grassroots organizers
  
• Local civic leaders