Continuing Education & Training

Con­flicts often drain ener­gy from ope­ra­ti­ons — and get real­ly expen­si­ve when they esca­la­te intern­al­ly. The­re are clear tech­ni­ques, atti­tu­des, prin­ci­ples and tools of de-escala­ti­on and reso­lu­ti­on of con­flicts. In focu­sed half-days with short inputs and space for prac­ti­ce and trans­fer to your own lea­der­ship world, we explo­re basic con­cepts, pro­ven tools and com­mon pit­falls of con­flict resolution. 

The­re is now good tech­no­lo­gy for working online. Only that does­n’t seem to be the pro­blem. The que­sti­ons that dri­ve many teams are dif­fe­rent: How do we shape rela­ti­on­ship in spaces whe­re we are not phy­si­cal­ly pre­sent? How can we com­pen­sa­te for what is local­ly the door-to-door con­ver­sa­ti­ons or the break cof­fee? How do we design more com­plex set­tings for col­la­bo­ra­ti­on? And how do we secu­re joint­ly sup­port­ed decis­i­ons? In short: How do we design online for­mats so that they suc­ce­ed? The more that hap­pens online, the more important this que­sti­on beco­mes for whe­ther teams can work tog­e­ther in the long term: whe­ther the­re is a tan­gi­ble sen­se of tog­e­ther­ness, whe­ther peo­p­le are wil­ling to pull tog­e­ther in dif­fi­cult times — all fac­tors for resi­li­ence, fluc­tua­ti­on and sick leave.
The­re are prin­ci­ples and tech­ni­ques for desig­ning such suc­cessful set­tings — and pit­falls to avo­id. With ten years of my own work expe­ri­ence with online for­mats, I took a rese­arch trip on this topic in 2020 tog­e­ther with about 50 con­sul­tants — this trai­ning was crea­ted from the con­den­sed experiences. 

Pre­sence means being able to respond fluid­ly to situa­tions and chal­lenges, kee­ping your own space even when inten­si­ty ari­ses. Bey­ond vel­vet glove mindful­ness, this trai­ning is about real­ly stay­ing the­re: With inner move­ments, with chal­lenges from out­side, and gai­ning a fine sen­se of one’s own power and drift. This is not always easy, becau­se we incre­a­sing­ly feel what is actual­ly hap­pe­ning. This requi­res cou­ra­ge and deter­mi­na­ti­on to want to face it — and that is the basis for a path in which new move­ment is crea­ted pre­cis­e­ly by staying. 

At its core, syste­mic con­sul­ting is about not­hing less than how to coope­ra­te effec­tively. With other peo­p­le, with lea­ders, with insti­tu­ti­ons or with one’s own uncon­scious inner world. Theo­re­ti­cal­ly sound and prac­ti­cal­ly lea­ding the con­sul­ting world for deca­des, the syste­mic approach helps to under­stand pro­blems and deve­lop solu­ti­ons, to harness rela­ti­on­ship and coope­ra­ti­on skills despi­te dif­fe­rent per­spec­ti­ves, and to deal more crea­tively with chal­lenges of all kinds. This trai­ning bund­les the basics and effec­ti­ve prin­ci­ples of syste­mic con­sul­ting from 15 years of own prac­ti­ce in orga­nizatio­nal deve­lo­p­ment, team deve­lo­p­ment, super­vi­si­on and the­ra­py. We cla­ri­fy basic theo­re­ti­cal ide­as and prac­ti­cal inter­ven­ti­ons, prac­ti­ce on real-life cases, and explo­re limits of syste­mics and pos­si­ble respon­ses to them. In my view, syste­mic con­sul­ting is a blue­print for con­sul­ting that also takes com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on and coope­ra­ti­on in day-to-day busi­ness to a new level.