Collective Leadership

A system has “collective leadership” when people are attuned to each other so well that, even when separate, they naturally act in harmony with each other and the goals of the common enterprise. Dialogos has consulted with teams to enable collective leadership in a variety of circumstances, both within organizations and across organizational boundaries.

Most leadership teams, including those at senior levels, are far from fulfilling their potential. They meet as individuals, squeezing time from their more urgent work, debating from their individual perspectives and concentrating on their individual domains of authority. Their actions, and the actions of those who report to them, consequently take place at cross-purposes, and they often seem trapped in cycles of opposition and breakdown.

The Dialogos approach is designed to help teams build the capacity to reflect together in service of collective leadership. While focusing on the critical priorities that brought them together, they develop new ways of conducting meetings. These pioneering, long-lasting and powerful methods of thinking together will stay with each of the individuals even if this particular leadership team dissolves.

Teams involved in collective leadership work closely with a Dialogos principal. They articulate their common priorities, choose the initiatives and actions that they will sponsor, build deeper awareness of their relationship to the larger system around them, and embark on an extended process of developing themselves while they develop the capabilities of the organization as a whole. We assume that the team will meet in this fashion at least once every two months, for at least a year. Depending on the team's own goals and desired results, more projects and core elements may be brought into play.