Using our differences to create greater organizational performance is a critical success factor for leaders and organizations in the global economy. Often the differences between people, different ways of working, and different cultural backgrounds create conflicts and barriers to success rather than enhancing collective capability. By inquiring into the nature of our differences, exploring what they are and how they affect us, synergic inquiry releases the energy of conflicts and differences and channels that energy into positive, collective action.

In this workshop, practitioners will have an experience of synergic inquiry, a process developed by Yongming Tang, Ph.D. The inquiry entails a four-stage process. The first stage is self-knowing, when one reflects on a personal situation or experience, surfacing one’s assumptions and beliefs about the experience. The second stage is other-knowing, when we learn about someone who is different from us, and through deep listening and by reflecting back the other person’s story, we gain the ability to understand another’s experience with empathy. The third stage is differences holding, when we learn to value our own experience and another’s as equally valuable and relevant experiences. This enlarged perspective is gained by embodying and reliving both our story and another’s as if we were inside the experience. The final stage of synergic inquiry is differences-transcending, in which limiting patterns and beliefs are transcended and we create new approaches to dealing with challenges and dilemmas, approaches that are free from limiting patterns and assumptions. New meanings and ways of being emerge and differences are transformed into positive action.

Nancy Southern's work is dedicated to creating communities of learning and practice that seek to understand complexity, appreciate difference, and promote responsible action toward a sustainable world. She teaches graduate students in the Organizational Systems programs at Saybrook University who are interested in applying systems thinking and design to complex problems, using inquiry and dialogue as a way to support transformative learning and change.  As a consultant, she works with executives and management teams to build cultures of collaboration, through systemic organizational assessments, retreat design and facilitation, change management and organizational learning strategies, and leadership development.
Bernice Moore-Valdez's work is dedicated to creating communities of learning and practice that seek to understand complexity, appreciate difference, and promote responsible action toward a sustainable world. She teaches graduate students in the Organizational Systems programs at Saybrook University who are interested in applying systems thinking and design to complex problems, using inquiry and dialogue as a way to support transformative learning and change.  As a consultant, she works with executives and management teams to build cultures of collaboration, through systemic organizational assessments, retreat design and facilitation, change management and organizational learning strategies, and leadership development.