The Four Conversations
An introduction to Creating Spaces for Dialogue
Leadership impact is shaped moment by moment through the quality of conversation.
This 45-minute interactive webinar offers space to pause, notice your conversational patterns, and experience what changes when dialogue is leveraged.
45 minutes | Live | Interactive
Choose one of two live sessions
Tuesday 20 January 2026 10:00 AM (AEDT)
Wednesday 21 January 2026 2:00 PM (AEDT)
Why this conversation, now
In many organisations, momentum is not lost through lack of effort, but through what isn't spoken about openly.
People sense where progress is being constrained, yet conversations circle around symptoms rather than addressing what is actually shaping behaviour, alignment, and follow-through.
Tension sits in the conversation space. Differences become fixed. Time is consumed without corresponding movement.
In complex conditions, effectiveness depends less on better answers and more on the quality of engagement with what is uncertain, contested, or unresolved.
This session explores conversation as a core leadership capacity for working with that reality, creating the conditions for trust, alignment, and meaningful movement in real organisational life.
What you’ll experience
During the session, you will:
Develop awareness of the conversational patterns influencing your work
Experience how dialogue expands what you are able to notice and consider a range of proven techniques that will positively impact future interactions.
Notice what you do when progress stalls, tension rises, or decisions start to fragment
Leave with practical tools and insight you can apply immediately in your leadership
The emphasis is on direct experience, integration and reflection, rather than instruction.
The four conversations
In organisational life, conversations commonly apply a limited number of recognisable forms. In this session, we explore four patterns that shape how people think and work together:
Monologue
Where perspectives are expressed without shared exploration
Controlled Discussion
Where views are exchanged within clear (often tighly held) boundaries, to reach decisions
Dialogue
Where people inquire together and develop shared understanding
Generative Dialogue
Where new insight, coherence, and direction emerge
You will explore the strengths and limits of each, and what supports movement between them in everyday work.
Who it’s for
This session is relevant for people who:
Carry responsibility for outcomes, whether or not they hold formal authority
Work with complexity, uncertainty, or competing perspectives
Influence culture through how they lead, hold meetings, or participate in conversations
Have a sense that the way people talk together could be more effective, generative, and aligned
Reserve your place
Choose your session and complete the registration below.
Hosts
Robert McVicar and Sarah Cornally, with Murray Wright and Andrea Munro
Sarah and Robert work with leaders and organisations navigating cultural and systemic change, with a focus on building the relational and conversational capacity required for sustained transformation.
Acumen Associates Murray Wright and Andrea Munro will join Sarah and Robert.
Murray brings deep experience working with leaders and teams navigating complexity, growth, and change. Known for his calm presence and practical wisdom, he supports organisations to slow down the conversation enough to see what really matters, and to act from that clarity. Murray’s work is grounded in creating the conditions for trust, shared understanding, and meaningful progress.
Andrea works at the intersection of leadership, culture, and human dynamics. She is particularly skilled at helping people surface what is often unspoken in teams and systems, enabling more honest dialogue and stronger collective outcomes. Andrea brings warmth, insight, and a strong capacity to hold reflective space, even in challenging conversations.
A natural next step
This webinar introduces Creating Spaces for Dialogue, one of Acumen’s flagship online programs for leaders who want to hone their ability to convene engaging conversations that support collective intelligence in groups and the broader organisation.
For participants who wish to continue, the program beginning in February offers a deeper, practice-based pathway.
Attendance at either session does not require any further commitment.