These slides are from a presentation for the International Leadership Association's annual conference. Here is the short description of the session: Come explore four emerging components and frameworks for leadership education, including systems thinking, a strengths-based perspective, a social justice framework for leadership and professional development, and the Obreau Tripod for empowering shared leadership and conversation. http://tinyurl.com/ohonoht

1. Empowering Shared
Leadership and
Conversation with the
OBREAU Tripod
Presented by
Eric K. Kaufman, Virginia Tech
Don Dunoon, New Futures

2. Objectives for this Session
• Share practical example of empowering
students to take control of opportunities to
learn from one another.
• Highlight components of OBREAU Tripod as a
tool for structuring productive dialogue in a
variety of settings.

3. Desired College Outcomes
(Hart Research Associates, 2015)
“Nearly all employers
(96%) agree that,
regardless of their chosen
field of study, all students
should have experiences
in college that teach them
how to solve problems
with people whose views
are different from their
own.”
“Indeed, employers nearly
universally agree that to
achieve success at their
companies, a candidate’s
demonstrated capacity to
think critically,
communicate clearly, and
solve complex programs is
more important than his or
her undergraduate major.”
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4. Emergence of Eco-Leadership
(Western, 2007; Wielkiewicz & Stelzner, 2005)
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5. Honors Community Seminar
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6. Residential College Model
Fundamental advantage of the residential
college system: “the way students in the
colleges educate one another.”
- A Collegiate Way of Living, by Ryan (2001, p. 24)
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7. UH 2104 Course Description
“Reading based sections within the Honors
Residential College in which small groups of
students work toward two goals: the practice of
discussion, debate, and argumentation; and the
art of community building.”
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8. Overview of Assignments
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9. Face-to-Face Discussions
Facilitator Role
• Select a topic/focus of
personal interest that is
likely to provoke
discussion & debate
• 5-10 minute intro to spark
dialogue
• If video, no more than 10
minutes
Participation
• Everyone participates
• Meet for full hour at least
13 weeks
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10. What discussion do you want:
Vanilla or Neapolitan?
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11. The OBREAU Tripod:
Enabling challenging conversations
• Observation
• Reasonableness
• Authenticity
Three practices to support
challenging
conversations for groups
and individuals
– on virtually any topic
where there are
differences of view
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12. The Tripod is an Antidote,
Counterpoint to 3 Default Behaviors
Working from
negative and
untested
assumptions
about others
Responding as if
“we know” what
the issue is
Side-stepping or
sugar-coating
what needs to be
talked about

13. Video Introductions:
Don Dunoon
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14. Imagine the issue or challenge you face as an iceberg.
Observation focuses on what’s more explicit about the issue,
what can be seen directly, what’s above the waterline.

15. Imagining what could be “going on” for stakeholders,
presuming they are reasonable, in 4 dimensions: their
possible hidden / unspoken assumptions, interests,
feelings, and knowledge regarding this issue

17. Benefits of using the Tripod
• Helps get beyond routine, default behavior
patterns
• Opens up new ways of seeing and framing issues
(through Observation)
• Fosters practical empathy (through
Reasonableness)
• Supports modelling of desired behaviors
(through Authenticity emphasis)
• Aids in making headway with issues that can
otherwise seem intractable

18. Student Posters

19. Student Posters

20. What Questions Remain?

21. OBREAU Tripod content licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International. See www.dondunoon.com
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