Ever wonder why it’s easier to get people excited about football than saving the world? You may be passionate about your cause, but ultimately success depends on your ability to communicate and inspire others. Gabriel Grant’s research on purpose and work with purpose driven leaders gives him a unique window into the potential pitfalls of advocacy and how people effectively share what they most care about. Whether your gridlock is political or personal, Gabriel can give you the skills to authentically convey your message and create the change you’re wishing to see in the world.
Breaking Through Gridlock
Think about the last time you tried to talk with someone about political, social, or environmental issues who didn’t already agree with you. How well did it go? All too often, well-meaning attempts to effect change get stuck in the noisy traffic jam of competing ideas, priorities, and ideologies. Polarization is holding the United States and other countries across the globe hostage, illustrating on a large scale how rare it is for individuals to break through and produce results for oneself, one’s organization, or our society as a whole. With Breaking Through Gridlock, Gabriel Grant shares clear-cut and actionable pathways for having hard conversations. These well-tested methods can be applied to any conversation where change is needed, allowing you to begin a process of transforming paralysis into positive change and teaching you how to be effective in the difficult conversations that matter most.
When Gabriel was a child, his parents went to work each day to contribute toward making the world a better place. He couldn’t wait to grow up and do the same. Today Gabriel’s work supports organizations in creating cultures of purpose, trust, and engagement. He creates opportunities for people to grow – for people to share their whole selves, just as they are, just as they’re not, and as who they want to become. Gabriel envisions a world where people experience their work as a calling, they come alive, they bring their whole selves and contribute to the flourishing of all life around them.
All too often, well-meaning attempts to effect change get stuck in the noisy traffic jam of competing ideas, priorities, and ideologies. Indeed, gridlock is holding the United States and other countries across the globe hostage, illustrating on a large scale how rare it is for individuals to break through and produce results for oneself, one’s organization, or our society as a whole. With Breaking Through Gridlock, Gabriel Grant shares clear-cut and actionable pathways for having hard conversations. His well-tested methods can be applied to any conversation where change is needed.
Over the past fifteen years, he has provided training for more than one thousand purpose-driven leaders and world-class change agents, including sustainability directors and vice presidents from more than 150 major brands and social entrepreneurs from more than 20 countries. He is the CEO of Human Partners and cofounder of the Byron Fellowship Educational Foundation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s in ecological systems engineering from Purdue University and a master’s and Ph.D. in leadership and sustainability from Yale University.
Gabriel has provided content and training for meetings and conferences including Sustainable Brands,GreenBiz, Flourish and Prosper – Businesses as Agents of World Benefit, RILA Sustainability Conference, CECP CEO Force for Good Summit, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, NetImpact, and more.
Sample Conference Experiences
Keynotes and workshops are designed to fit the interests and needs of your community of change agents. Here are a few sustainability related examples:
Beyond the Choir: Navigating Pitfalls and Pathways in Conversations for a Better World
Participants take on stuck conversations from their own work or lives and create actionable pathways for transforming them from gridlock and polarization into sources of innovation and flourishing. Participants leave having articulated actionable pathways and timelines for moving forward and for reporting back breakthrough results. (3 or 4 hours recommended, 105 minutes minimum) (includes abbreviated exercises similar to those in chapters 1-7)
Flourishing from Within
Designing Sustainability Initiatives to Support Innovation and Flourishing
Ever wonder why it’s easier to get people excited about football than saving the world? The quality of motivation (not quantity) predicts high performance, including sustainability performance. Internal or self-determined motivations are regenerative and life-giving. They contribute toward vitality, creativity, fulfillment, and engagement and are capable of inspiring others. When present, they provide a stark contrast to the frustration and angst more commonly associated with the low quality controlled motivations we share in the sustainability discourse. If you’re experiencing frustration and resignation, you’re probably trafficking in controlled motivations. Participants leave having articulated their own high quality motivations for sustainability capable of supporting their own flourishing and the flourishing of those around them. (75 minutes recommended) (includes exercises similar to 12, 13, and 14 from chapter 5 and can be used as a lead up to the Thriving amid Complexity workshop)
Thriving amid Complexity
Transforming Tensions and Complexity into Sources of Creativity and Innovation
Participants transform internal sources of angst and polarization into drivers of creativity and innovation and articulate actionable pathways for inviting others into a healthy design space, including people they’ve previously most struggled to collaborate with. (75 minutes recommended) (includes exercises similar to those in chapter 7)