Christopher's Forums:

"Professionals and managers attending the Forums all say this is the most effective way they have ever experienced to:
                        - gain, create and apply new ideas       
                        - co-operate
                        - grow as leaders"

The Story:

Sponsored by Fujitsu, Christopher Evatt started his Leaders Forums in Finland in the early 2000s with Pekka Pirhonen of Fujitsu Services. In the 1950's his parents in New Zealand set up their "forum" which ran for 25 years, bringing together a diverse range of people from applied arts, medicine, law, publishing and the heads of university faculties and students who wished to broaden and deepen their understanding on a wide range of topics. With this as his role model, plus five years using "group reflective listening" facilitated by thought-leader David Breuer of Auckland, coupled with Christopher's "open dialogue" work at Sonera (Finland) and his own discoveries about what works and does not work with conferences and seminars, he developed his Leaders Forum method.

The Principles:

Self-leadership, self-responsibility, sharing ideas, creating together, learning by doing and sharing the outcomes

 

Benefits:

Vastly increased gains from knowledge
The gains in knowledge and new ideas relative to time spent are vastly greater and more relevant than most other methods

Shared understandings; trust; respect:
A fast and effective way to create shared understandings, trust and respect.

Meaningful collaboration:
Meaningful collaboration occurs between those of diffent disciplins, cultures, experiences and understandings.

New ideas, creativity and innovation:
New ideas are created and tested with application.
               
Application-learning:
Results-outcomes from application are shared for fast and deep learning. Minimising lost time; maximising outcomes

Greatly increased personal energy, inspiration, motivation, clarity of thought and purpose

Creating increased value:

Within organisations:

- improved collaboration between diverse interest groups
- greater shared understanding
- increased trust, respect and improved working together
- sharing, developing and using best practices
- creation of new ideas
- innovation of new value

e.g. between:
           - divisions
           - diciplins
           - organisational levels

Between the organisation and their

- customers
- suppliers
- other stakeholders
to develope understanding, trust, respect and better ways of working together

Between Public and Private Sector Organisations

Open Forums...with members from different organisations representing the same or different disciplins

How run:

For groups of up to 15; meeting for no less than once a month for 2 hours or more. Programmes are designed by Christopher, with the Forum members, to suit their interests.

Feedback:

Comments from Finnish managers include:

The best meeting of the month
What I have learnt is incredible
The increase in inspiration and energy lasts us from one meeting to the next.
We have all grown in ways we never thought possible

Read an article about Christopher's forums (Fakta magazine)