
Videos & Talks
The World Needs Dialogue - Birth of the Academy of Professional Dialogue
Why establish dialogue as a profession rather than simply build a network? In the final episode of their podcast series, Jane Ball and Peter Garrett reach the founding of the Academy of Professional Dialogue, joined by AofPD Trustee and executive coach Thomas Kottner.
Drawing on the closing chapters of Peter Garrett's book, this episode traces the reasoning behind creating a formal profession around dialogue, complete with accreditation, rather than leaving it as a loose community of practice. Garrett and Ball discuss what the Academy's founding required: long-term thinking, inner inquiry, and a commitment to thinking from the perspective of the whole rather than individual organisations. Kottner joins as a guest to reflect on the Academy's structure and ambitions. The episode closes with Ball and Garrett reflecting on what the podcast series itself has surfaced, both in the stories told and in their own understanding of dialogue's reach. The argument running through is that organisations are the starting point, not the limit, of what dialogue can do.
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