Courses and Certifications
The Bushe-Marshak Institute creates customized courses for organizations that want to develop their employees’ skills and knowledge in Dialogic Organization Development. We curate a learning journey that can include on-site, in-person online, asynchronous online, action learning, and coaching. We offer top-of-the-line learning experiences with top-of-the-line, highly experienced, Dialogic OD practitioners from around the world.
Currently, we are working with:
OCP in Morrocco, developing internal Dialogic OD practitioners in partnership with the Africa Business School
NHS , South, Central and West Transformation Consultancy in England, developing a team of internal Dialogic OD practitioners.
Certification
For those wishing to develop into certified professional dialogic OD practitioners, we offer two levels of certification:
Level 1: Certificate of Completion
In order to attain our certification of completion of a program of study in Dialogic Organization Development, applicants must successfully complete 80 hours (e.g., five 2-day courses) of in-person courses (onsite or online) and the three online, asynchronous courses produced in partnership with Lacerta Academy. The asynchronous courses can be completed at any time, and cover basic theoretical background on topics like the social construction of reality, complexity and emergence, and organization development.
Follow this link for more information on our courses at Lacerta Academy.
Level 2: Certification as a Dialogic OD Professional
To be certified by the Bushe-Marshak Institute as a Dialogic OD Professional, you must complete level 1 and then participate in an ongoing peer action learning team with coaching by one of our faculty, until such time as our Faculty are satisfied that you are competent at using Dialogic OD methods. To participate, you must be in a position to use Dialogic OD in your work. Action Learning Teams will normally be less than five members, meet monthly, online, and workshop real issues, review the past month’s activities and help plan future actions. Depending on one’s past experience and competence, a person might be quickly certified or might require up to a year of participation in a team.
Faculty
(in alphabetical order)
Tova Averbuch MSc
Tova Averbuch (she/her) has over 40 years of experience as an Organization Development consultant. She designs and facilitates accelerated change by working with the whole system in the room. Tova specializes in using generative change methods that liberate life energy and collective intelligence, inviting self-organizing and personal leadership. Since 1999 she has pioneered applying the dialogic mindset and methods in and across businesses, government, and communities in Israel and internationally. She has taught in various university training programs including the Masters in OD program at Tel Aviv University School of Business from 2010-2015. Tova contributed chapters in The Handbook of Large Group Methods and in Dialogic Organization Development. Her new book, due in the fall of 2021 for the BMI Series, is Initiating Generative Change: Entry and Contracting for Emergent Outcomes in Result Driven Organizations. Tova brings vitality, creative energy, a spirit of generosity, and genuine human contact, creating resilient partnerships and emergent solutions to complex adaptive challenges. She earned a BSW at Hebrew University and an MSc in Organization Behavior at Tel Aviv University. She lives in Holon, Israel.
Bennett Bratt MA, MA
Bennett Bratt (he/him) is CEO and Founder of The Team Effectiveness Project, LLC and the author of The Team Discovered: Dialogic Team Coaching (BMI, 2020). Previously he was VP of HR at T-Mobile USA leading the Talent and Organization Capability function, and he has had various leadership and internal roles at Sun Microsystems, Volkswagen of America, and Ford Motor Company. His Team Elements™ framework and coaching methodology have helped hundreds of teams and leaders de-mystify and re-envision their team experience, take ownership for their path forward, and ensure that each diverse voice is included in the process. His clients range from the C-Suites of Fortune 100 corporations to teams of all varieties in non-profits, governments, and higher education institutions. He earned BA and MA degrees in Political Science (Calvin College and Tulane University, respectively) and an MA in Counseling from Michigan State University. He resides near Seattle, Washington.
Mike Burrows
After gaining a Hons 1st Class in Mathematics at Imperial College, London, Mike (he/him) went into software development, eventually becoming CTO of an energy risk management startup, taking it successfully to scale and eventual acquisition. He has since run his own private consultancy focused on aiding agile teams improve, and helping managers use agile-inspired approaches for creating change and more adaptive organizations. He is known for his creativity in helping teams use generative, outcome-oriented, and pattern-based approaches to strategy, change, and delivery. The author of three books, Mike was the instigator and curator of a collaborative effort to lead the Agile community away from solution-driven approaches and toward utilizing more of a Dialogic OD mindset. Founded in 2015, Agendashift has grown rapidly in terms both of the practices developed and the size, breadth, and depth of the community, going well beyond Agilists to include OD, systems, and strategy practitioners. He recently helped found and was an Advisory Board Member of the Open Leadership Network. He lives with his family in Chesterfield, England, close to the Peak District National Park.
Gervase Bushe PhD
Gervase Bushe (he/him) is the Professor of Leadership and Organization Development at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser U in Vancouver, Canada. He earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior at Case Western Reserve. His career spans four decades of transforming organizational structures, cultures, and processes away from command and control toward more collaborative work systems. He is an award-winning author of over 100 papers and four books on organizational change, leadership, teams, and teamwork. Gervase has consulted blue-chip corporations and start-ups, public sector and business corporations, in a variety of sectors, using highly collaborative processes of inquiry to create transformational change. His recent book, Dialogic Organization Development: The Theory and Practice of Transformational Change, co-edited with Robert Marshak (Berret-Koehler, 2015) builds on his ground-breaking research into processes of generative leadership and change and has garnered international acclaim. His latest book, The Dynamics of Generative Change (BMI, 2020), offers a practical alternative to traditional planned change, better aligned with the needs for agility and engagement in today’s organizations. Since 2016 HR Magazine in the UK has identified him as one of the 30 most influential HR Thinkers. A chapter on his life and work appears in the Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers. He lives in a rainforest, with his family, in North Vancouver, Canada.
Michael Cody, PhD, LLM
Mike Cody (he/him) is a leadership and team collaboration consultant and a partner in ClearLeadership.com. He did his PhD at the University of British Columbia on Dialogic Law and Regulation. He has had a broad array of experiences in the law, business, and as an entrepreneur. He has practiced as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt, was a General Counsel or in-house counsel for three TSX listed companies, was the Director Patient Services for LifeLabs, and is the founder and owner of two wine importing companies – one of which pioneered the use of dialogic techniques to sell natural wines. He has a BA (Western), L.L.B. (Western), L.L.M. (UBC) and Ph.D (UBC). He was the Gold Medalist at Western Law, held the prestigious SSHRC Canada Graduate Doctoral Scholarship during his PhD, is the recipient of numerous other academic awards and scholarships, has published multiple academic articles and book chapters, has lectured at UBC and Simon Fraser University, and lives in the Quebec countryside with his wife, son, and eight chickens.
Judith Katz EdD
In 2007 Judith Katz (she/her) was named one of forty Pioneers of Diversity by Profiles in Diversity Journal. Now in semi-retirement, she was an intellectual and practice leader at The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group (KJCG) from 1985, creating new paradigms in organization development and cutting-edge approaches to white awareness, inclusion, the leveraging of differences, covert processes, and strategic change. She has consulted to many Fortune 50 companies, government agencies and non-profits to create inclusive and engaging places to work. Judith’s writing has broken new ground in OD and other fields. Her landmark book, White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-Racism Training (1978), was the first systematic training program to address racism from a white perspective. . Judith earned her doctorate in Organization Development and Social Change at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. and was a tenured Associate Professor before she joined KJCG. She has received many honors and awards, including the OD Network’s Lifetime Achievement Award. With close to 100 published books, chapters and articles, she has been on faculty at numerous universities in the United States and around the world. Judith currently serves on the Fielding Graduate University Board of Trustees. She lives in Washington, DC in the USA.
Sarah Lewis, C.Psychol
Sarah Lewis (she/her) is a chartered organizational psychologist and a Dialogic Organizational Development practitioner. She is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Principal and Founder Member of the Association of Business Psychologists. A well-respected positive psychology author, she lectures at the post-graduate level in Singapore and the UK. Sarah runs her own consulting business Appreciating Change and hosts The Positive Psychology Shop, a source of development resources. She has authored a number of books including Positive Psychology at Work (2011) and Positive Psychology and Change (2016). She is a regular conference speaker at national and international conferences. Sarah lives in London, England
Robert Marshak PhD, MPA
Robert Marshak (he/him) is one of the leading contemporary thinkers about organizational consulting and change. He began his career as a management analyst in a U.S. government scientific agency, earned his doctorate at American University in Washington, DC, and later served in senior executive positions in science policy before starting his own consulting practice. As a consultant, coach, and educator, he has worked for more than 40 years on strategic change initiatives. Bob has led OD and change leadership programs at universities and institutes in the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan; and taught for 40 years at American University, Washington, DC, where he is now Distinguished Scholar in Residence Emeritus in the School of Public Affairs. He has won numerous awards, including the OD Network’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Bob is co-editor with Gervase Bushe of Dialogic Organization Development; The Theory and Practice of Transformational Change (2015), as well as three other books and more than 100 articles and book chapters on organizational consulting and change. His most recent book is Dialogic Process Consulting: Generative Meaning-Making in Action (2020). Bob is especially known for his pioneering work on covert processes in organizations, the use of metaphors and symbolic meaning in organizational change, and, with Gervase Bushe, the development of Dialogic OD theory and practice. Bob lives in Florida, USA.
Mark McKergow PhD, MBA
Mark McKergow (he/him) has been at the forefront in developments in organizational change and facilitation for some three decades. He has written six books including The Solutions Focus: Making Coaching & Change SIMPLE (with Paul Z Jackson), Host: Six new roles of engagement (with Helen Bailey) and Hosting Generative Change (BMI, 2020)). Mark combines a Ph.D. in physics studying complex systems at the University of Birmingham, with years of practical experience in helping organizations make progress in tough situations both effectively and efficiently. His work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Organisations & People, Long Range Planning, Coaching At Work, and the International Journal of Leadership in Public Service. He was a visiting research fellow at the University of Hertfordshire from 2013-2017, and edited InterAction: The Journal of Solution Focus in Organisations from 2009-2016. Mark was worked on every continent except Antarctica and worked for international clients including Shell, Lilly Industries, AstraZeneca, and British Nuclear Fuels amongst many others. He also works with consultants from all over the world to enhance their practice and has led an online Solution Focus Business Professional class with the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee since 2011. His latest book is The Next Generation of Solution Focused Practice (Routledge, 2021). Mark is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and also plays jazz saxophone.
Frederick Miller
For many years Fred Miller (he/his) has led the Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group, a highly respected consultancy specializing in strategic culture change with an emphasis on building inclusion and organizations where differences are embraced. Fred’s work in some of the largest corporations and public agencies combines a concern for organizational performance with a concern for human dignity and social justice. Cited as a forerunner of corporate change in the book, The Age of Heretics: A History of the Radical Thinkers Who Reinvented Corporate Management, Fred’s outstanding contributions to creating truly inclusive and collaborative workplaces, are widely acknowledged. Among his many honors are selection as one of the Legends of Diversity by the International Society of Diversity and Inclusion Professionals, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the OD Network. Fred is the author of dozens of articles and books and has taught courses at American University and as a member of NTL. He lives in Troy, New York.
Haesun Moon PhD
Haesun Moon (she/her) is a communication scientist, educator, and author. She cares about people experiencing better conversations at home and at work—and she does that by training, coaching, and consulting. Haesun teaches brief coaching at the University of Toronto, and she serves as executive director at the Canadian Centre for Brief Coaching and principal at the Human Learning Institute. She believes that conversations can change the world, and she defines this process as hosting dialogic conditions in which people participate to imagineer their own change. Her academic and professional research in coaching dialogues and pedagogy from the University of Toronto led to the development of a simple coaching model, the Dialogic Orientation Quadrant (DOQ). The DOQ has transformed the way people coach and learn to coach worldwide. Her most recent book is Coaching A to Z: The Extraordinary Use of Ordinary Words. Haesun received her Ph.D. in Adult Education and Community Development from the University of Toronto. When not writing, she enjoys filmmaking, carpentry, and golf. A lover of early mornings, naps, good coffee, and fine pens with fine nibs, Haesun resides in Toronto, Canada.
Gwen Stirling-Wilkie MSc, MBA
Gwen Stirling-Wilkie (she/her) is a practitioner-educator in organization development and applied behavioral science. A former executive leader in commercial and charitable organizations, she is an experienced consultant, educator, and author who has been consulting in different industries and sectors for 21 years. Her book on virtual Dialogic OD, ‘From Physical Place to Virtual Space’ (BMI, 2021), was an Amazon best-selling Business Consulting book in 2021. Formerly a Director of OD in a UK consultancy, Gwen now runs her own consulting business, Seeds of Transformation, from the UK, and works with global clients in different industries and sectors. Her consulting work focuses on shaping and guiding organizational transformation, culture change, executive leadership development, and team coaching. In addition to her consulting practice, she runs programs to develop OD and transformation skills in others, and mentors new OD practitioners and those moving from internal to external consulting roles. She is visiting faculty for Leeds University Business School MSc in Management Consulting. She has led the System Transformation Skills program design and delivery for NHS England Southern Leadership Academy. Gwen has a range of OD qualifications including the NTL OD Cert, NTL HI Lab & T Group Trainer, Relational Organisational Gestalt, Ecological Constellations, NLP Master Practitioner & Coach, and holds an MSc in Organizational Consulting and an MBA from Ashridge Hult Business School. She is a member of NTL, ODN, and a former Co-Chair and Board member of ODN Europe. She lives in the south of England.
Jacob Storch PhD
Dr. Jacob Storch (he/him) is the co-founder of and Director of Development and Research at Joint Action in Copenhagen. He is a leading Scandinavian organizational consultant and practice-researcher. He is an executive advisor to government agencies and the largest public organizations in the Nordic countries. Jacob built, and was the CEO of, the largest Dialogic OD consulting firm in all of Scandinavia. Early in his career his was ranked in the top 10 talent within the counseling industry and won awards for leading the fourth fastest growing company during 2002 and 2007 in Denmark. He taught Process Consulting and Dialogic OD to master’s students at Aarhus University, Denmark, from 2002 to 2018. He has taught at universities in Norway, Finland, China and the USA. He is a regular speaker at international conferences, most recently about his success transforming public organizations into dialogically and collaboratively oriented agencies able to co-create more effective and cost-efficient solutions with citizens, civic society, and across professional and organizational boundaries. He has authored or co-authored 7 books and published continuously on dialogic leadership, coaching, and consulting. He holds a doctoral degree from the University of Bedfordshire, UK in Applied Social Sciences. He has been trained by some of the pioneering systemic and social constructionists in and around the KCC Foundation and TAOS Institute, and is a certified SCRUM master and EMCC Certified Coach (with honours). He lives with his family in Aarhus, Denmark.
Tanya Cruz Teller MA
Tanya (she/her) has over 20 years of international organization development experience. She is committed to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive world through building great organizations using dialogic approaches. As a Dialogic OD practitioner, Tanya has worked for and with governments, global non-profit organizations, and businesses to create a more equitable society through maximizing inclusion, innovation, and inspired action. Tanya is an expert panelist for the Global Diversity Equity and Inclusion Benchmarks, a TAOS Associate, and a member of the South Africa and International Organization Development Networks, the Diversity Collegium, and served on the boards of the Rutland Corner Foundation and ATD Editorial Board. Tanya earned her MA in International and Intercultural Management (School for International Training) and has a BA Psychology and Sociology Cum Laude (Brandeis). She is a certified Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator Trainer (CAI), Trainer of Trainers and an Assessor (South Africa) and she teaches in the David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry at the Robert P. Stiller School of Business, Champlain College. A chapter on her Appreciative Leadership OD work in South Africa has been published in the book, Inclusive Leadership: Transforming Diverse Lives, Organizations, and Societies (2020). The title and dialogic methodology of the book Tanya co-authored, Thriving Women, Thriving World: An Invitation to Dialogue , Healing and Inspired Actions (2019) directly reflects her vision and action in the world. She lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Caryn Vanstone MSc
Caryn Vanstone (she/her) has experience in transforming a wide range of international organizations. She was Director of OD in a utility company for several years before joining Ashridge Business School in the UK in 1998 – heading the Consulting Change Practice for some years. There she led a number of award-winning consulting projects and taught in the ground-breaking MSc in Organisational Change for over 20 years. Her academic community is now Exeter University Business School, where she supervises and teaches on a range of MSc and MBA programs, in the field of dialogic and adaptive approaches to innovation and change, with a focus on sustainability, deep resilience, and social integrity. She has a passion for research, bringing a constantly refreshed set of grounded ideas to her clients, in ways that are pragmatic and directly applicable. She studies how psychology, sociology, behavioural economics, and applied neuroscience can transform the way people can learn and change together with purpose and enjoyment. Recently she has expressed her professional lifetime of learning in videos, toolkits, and downloadables, on Lacerta Academy’s e-learning portal. She is a natural ‘see-er’ of patterns, and is therefore useful as a ‘supervisor’ to other OD professionals, helping them to “connect the dots” and see/transcend any institutional ‘games’ or cultural blind-spots they might be facing as they facilitate others and learn their dialogic craft. Caryn is based in the south west of the UK, where she lives with her French husband and business partner Bruno and chickens and honey bees, on their organic ½-acre, ‘permaculture’ inspired wildlife, fruit and vege garden.
