The Top Team is where leaders need to lead together. Having climbed a career ladder being rewarded for personal accountability at each step, Directors now need to understand and live the concept of mutual accountability. They need to grasp together the thorny organisational issues that determine the future health and prosperity of the organisation, make sound decisions and have healthy conflict. And they need to invest in relationships so that they are robust enough to withstand that conflict.

To underpin all of this they need to develop the courage, maturity and skills to engage in Dialogue – the practice of thinking together. Not arguing, not debating, not even discussing – but openly, transparently, and patiently thinking – together.

The art of dialogue is rarely mastered by Top Teams. But when it is, it promises great dividends for the whole organisation – an edge that in today’s lean and competitive environment could be the difference between having a sustainable business or not.

Siobhan has been studying Dialogue since it first came to light in the late nineties, courtesy of management guru Peter Senge (MIT), author of The Fifth Discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. She has developed an initial diagnostic, followed by a step-wise approach for taking Top Teams through the various stages of capability.

Chief Executives who have been supported by Siobhan will often invite her to work with their Top Teams.

Not for the faint-hearted, this is truly the SAS of Top Team development. Has your team got what it takes? Great. Does your team want to have what it takes? That’s good enough. Get in touch!