
The annual Lessons in Leadership series returns this Spring and features Fred Dust’s new book Making Conversation: Seven Essential Elements of Meaningful Communication. Each session in our 2021 Lessons in Leadership series will be facilitated by dynamic speakers and will draw from key themes in Dust’s book, engaging and inspiring attendees with strategies and tools to foster more meaningful conversations.
Conversations are one of the most fundamental means of communicating we have as humans. At their best, conversations are unconstrained, authentic and open—two or more people sharing thoughts and ideas in a way that bridges our individual experiences, achieves a common goal. At their worst, they foster misunderstanding, frustration, and obscure our real intentions.
In his practice as a designer, Fred Dust began to approach conversations differently. After years of trying to broker communication between colleagues and clients, he came to believe there had to be a way to design conversation itself with intention and purpose, while retaining its artful and playful qualities. Making Conversation codifies what he learned and outlines the four elements essential to successful exchanges: Commitment, Creative Listening, Clarity, and Context. Learn how these four elements, taken together, form a set of resources anyone can use to be more deliberate and purposeful in making conversations work, and examine how we can come together to tackle difficult topics and bridge our individual experiences to achieve better communication.
Spring 2021 Dates
8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Active LGH Members Register Here:
This series is free to members of Leadership Greater Hartford and HYPE (Hartford Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs)!
Join or renew your LGH membership today and attend the entire series at no cost.
$20 per session for non-members.
Zoom Webinar – details to join will be sent via email upon registration.
Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 |
Thursday, Feb 18 Thursday, Feb 25 Thursday, March 4 Thursday, March 11 |
Kara Fenn
Vice President for Development and Marketing
860.206.5064
kara.fenn@leadershipgh.org
About the Author
Fred Dust was a Senior Partner and Global Managing Director at international design firm IDEO. A leading voice and practitioner of human-centered design and networked innovation, he helps organizations in media, finance, retail, and health confront disruption stemming from shifts in consumer behavior, social trends, economic pressures, and new technology. Prior to IDEO, Dust worked as an architect and spent eight years working with independent artists and major art organizations. He chairs the board of Parsons and sits on the board of the New School, NPR, and the Sundance Institute. He was named a Fast Company Most Creative Person of the Year, and has written for Fast Company and has been interviewed by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CBS Sunday Morning and New York’s NPR affiliate WNYC. He lives in New York City.