The document outlines a discussion framework aimed at addressing core business challenges through strategic conversations among participants. It highlights the importance of relationships, knowledge, and identity in facilitating impactful conversations and emphasizes the need for action in a context where business dynamics are changing. Key challenges include managing culture change and achieving strategic alignment, with a focus on deeper engagement and meaningful dialogue.

1. Dinner and Conversation
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Getting Unstuck:
Conversations To Impact The Core Business
Presenters:
Kendra Coleman
Lucy Hatchell
Johnny Kelleher
Eric Sanders
© Sheppard Moscow 2009 2
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2. Objectives
Engage each other to:
● Name key strategic challenges
● Identify and explore underlying issues that cause us to get
stuck with these challenges
● Begin to create agenda for action for ourselves
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Why this topic now
Need to attend to relationships and results greater than ever
● Times are tight ...
● Our work is more needed than ever ...
● Yet we can seem rather marginal to core business change
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3. Conversation
Find Two Other People:
● What challenges are you experiencing in having
conversations that impact the core business?
● What’s the underlying issue(s)?
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Our hypothesis
Knowledge
Identity
& Skills
Relationships
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4. The questions …
Identity
Relationships
Knowledge
• How do we • What’s crucial • What are the
tighten up our in our new
professional relationships knowledge
offer and with bases and
identity so that executives; skills we need
organizational how do we to include in
impact as well have a our continuing
as human different professional
development conversation development?
are assured? with them?
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And the thorny issues …
Identity
Relationships
Knowledge
• Do we have to let • Do we have to • Should we change
go of development take the risk of the focus of our
activities that don’t challenging education and
have clear line of executives on a professional
sight to the regular basis, offer development? Do
business – though more ambitious we have to have
the commitment to and more realistic something
human approaches to substantive to
development is change, and run contribute to
core to many of our the very real risk of business strategy
identities? Eg in being rejected or beyond processes?
our leadership even ejected? Eg in Eg in our market
development our diagnoses … positioning …
programs …
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5. Deepen our conversation
Form conversation groups of 4 or 5
On a piece of flipchart paper:
● What was evoked/provoked for you?
● What’s meaningful in what you heard?
● What are you feeling called to do?
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Synthesize our conversation
Join with 2 other conversation groups
● What’s the breakthrough we need?
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6. Top 4 Practitioner Challenges
● Manage and lead culture change
● Results oriented employee engagement
● Achieve more with less
● Achieve strategic alignment across team/functions
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