with Bill Torbert
Bill had an academic career spanning over 30 years, and was one of the pioneers in the field of organisational transformation. He is perhaps best known for his book ‘Action Inquiry’, but he’s also done extensive consulting work using his mastery of developmental psychology.
What you will experience during this class:
- Explore the four modes of communication – and how to utilize and identify them in your own work relationships
- Discover how friendship could be one of the most powerful things supporting your development
- Understand the action logics, and how to recognize their different needs and motivations
- Uncover what the core practices are for collaborative inquiry, and how this will help you to understand the unfolding nature of reality
- Unleash the power of triple-loop learning – how to tune into the feedback of behaviours, goals and the vision behind them
Resources to check out as preparation for the class:
MP3
Deep Inquiry is at the Heart of Business Transformation
This is our 2011 Waking Up the Workplace interview with Bill Torbert, in which he explains how real organisational transformation only happens in very specific circumstances brought about by deep personal inquiry.
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Seven Transformations of Leadership
This is a 2005 Harvard Business Review article Bill Torbert co-authored with David Rooke, about leadership development and how it’s critical for organizational change.
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Seeking & Speaking Truth with Power
This is a recent (2012) presentation Bill Torbert shared with us for the course, about power, leadership and communication.
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The CEO's Role in Organizational Transformation
This is a 1999 article in the  Systems Thinker journal, that Bill Torbert co-authored with David Rooke. It’s about organizational transformation and the impact of the leader’s action-logic on the effectiveness of that.
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Bonus Materials
Action Inquiry Excerpt
This is the second chapter from Bill’s book ‘Action Inquiry’ which focuses on modes of speech.
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Liberating Disciplines
This is an excerpt from another of Bill’s books which goes in depth into the organisational aspect of Action Inquiry.
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Download the Class Recording and Workbook
MP3
Class 4 Recording
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Class 4 Workbook
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