Genuine Contact: A Holistic Approach to Organizational Development

Join us at Genuine Contact Summer Academy this year as we take a deep dive together into the Genuine Contact approach to Holistic Organization Development!

Constant change in the world and in organizations presents us with the challenge of how to lead into the unknown. Adopting a holistic organizational development approach is one way to meet this challenge. This approach has evolved over thirty years of experience, including with the international Genuine Contact Organization. By providing an opportunity to explore what you need to guide organizations through their ongoing evolution, this workshop can help determine if you wish to adopt this approach either a leader or as a consultant.

A piece of wisdom among indigenous peoples is to do your best for your generation and for seven generations to come. What principles, concepts, laws, and values are we working from as we take this wisdom on board, and put systems in place that are on the right track for now and for generations to come?

What you will learn

Throughout this learning program, you will explore, create and learn:

  • The dominant world view about organizations today, alternatives, and making a choice about your world view.

  • Principles, whether explicit or implicit in the organization, their influence, and making a choice about the principles that seem best suited to you.

  • Changing concepts and approaches about organizational development for the best future and making a choice about the concepts and approaches you adopt.

  • Laws such as the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, and their implications in organizational development.

  • Values that are meaningful to you to choose in order to anchor your organization and sustain its integrity through all change.

  • Skills, knowledge, and capacity for developing an organization using a holistic organizational development approach.

  • Simple multi-purpose tools from the Genuine Contact toolkit, to support your work using a holistic organizational development approach.

  • A roadmap for your ideal organization using a holistic organizational development approach.

What to expect

Pre-work will be given as part of the workshop. Four weeks before the GC Summer Academy, you will receive a link to the Learning Hub for the Summer Academy where you’ll find the pre-work. Make sure you give yourself some time to start diving in to the material.

The workshop is facilitated using the participatory whole systems method Whole Person Process Facilitation.

You will find yourself in a variety of configurations, sometimes working in pairs, small groups, individually and in the group as a whole. Activities are designed for you based on best adult learning practices. Questions are offered to stimulate reflections and conversations. Consider that you are entering a learning experience that taps into a combination of playfulness with wisdom, engaging all learning styles.

Who should attend

This workshop is for all those who are interested in and involved in Holistic Organizational Development:

  • Formal leaders, managers, and consultants who have roles in preparing the organization to adopt a holistic organizational development approach and leading with that intention in mind.

  • Everyone who identifies as a stakeholder of the organization and is curious to learn about the holistic organizational development approach and the intended shift in the culture of the organization.

  • Throughout the organization, skill, knowledge, and capacity are needed to adopt a holistic way of operating as an organization, for the benefit of individuals and the whole organization. If this holds your interest this is the right workshop for you.

Practical Information

Dates: We start at 9:00AM on June 24th and finish at 4:00PM on June 28th. The daily schedule is from 9:00AM to 6:00PM.

Location: De Lunterse Boer, located in Lunteren, a small conference venue in the center of the Netherlands, approximately one-hour from Schiphol Airport.

Workshop price: €1950.00 + 21% VAT (Total €2359.50). Included in the workshop price are the workshop fee, workshop materials, and workbooks, refreshments, lunch, and dinner during the Summer Academy.

Coming with Colleagues: If you come from colleagues from your organization you will receive a 10% discount on the price of your ticket.

Special discount for members of the Genuine Contact Organization: You will receive 10% reduction on the ticket price if you are a member of the Genuine Contact Organizations at one of the following levels: Friend (Orange), Partner (Green), Ambassador (Blue), Steward (Purple), and Elder (Gold). Please indicate your membership level on the registration form.

Workshop Accommodations

You can book a single or double occupancy room at the workshop venue. If you choose for double occupancy, you will need to make arrangements with the person who you would like to stay with. We recommend that you stay with us at the venue, but it is also possible to make your own arrangements.

Once you have registered, we will send you a welcome package that includes information about how you can book your accommodations at De Lunterse Boer.

Price of accommodation

  • Single Occupancy | €116.00 per person per night.

  • Double Occupancy | €67.25 per person per night.

  • Exclusive Dutch Tourist Tax (€2.25 per night).

These prices include hotel room and breakfast on the nights you have stayed over.

We recommend that you stay at the venue on Sunday the 23rd of June, so that you are able to arrive relaxed to the first morning of the workshop on the 24th of June.

Your Facilitators

Photo of Birgitt WilliamsBirgitt Williams is an international management and organizational solutions consultant, author, meeting facilitator, teacher, keynote speaker and executive coach. Her business focus is to assist leaders in closing the gap between their own potential and results, and closing the gap between the potential and results in their organizations. She is an advocate of creating and nurturing a culture of leadership in which every individual and every team works from their authority to carry out the responsibilities that they are accountable for. Birgitt has mastery in possibility thinking and in working with the full potential of both tangible and intangible assets in organizations of all kinds including private sector, public and government sector, communities, consortiums, and strategic collaborations. She is skillful at system change, team cohesion, strategy focus, multi-disciplinary teams and cross cultural work.

Birgitt is a creator of the  Genuine Contact program, Co-owner of the Genuine Contact Group, LLC., President of Dalar International Consultancy, Inc., and author of The Genuine Contact Way: Nourishing a Culture of Leadership.

Photo of Rachel BoltonRachel Bolton is a senior consultant and coach with Dalar International Consultancy, Inc. She specializes in and loves work with Small Businesses, Solo Entrepreneurship, and  Start-Ups. She has worked with leaders, consultants, and their organizations around the world to develop their organizations using our Genuine Contact Way processes and brings this wealth of experience into our workshop.  Her unique blend of coaching and Genuine Contact training bring high-level insight and practical suggestions to this work.

Rachel is the current Director of the Genuine Contact Organization and Program, supporting leaders, consultants and coaches around the world who work with the Genuine Contact program in their organizations.

Your Sponsors

Photo of 4 people outdoors, left to right are Mariëlle Cuijpers, Yolanda van der Hooft, Richard Metcalf, and Doris Gottlieb, sponsors of the Summer Academy in the Netherlands.Mariëlle Cuijpers, Doris Gottlieb, Richard Metcalf and Yolanda van der Hooft are part of a growing group of professionals in the Netherlands engaged in the Genuine Contact Way of working. Each of them apply the powerful frameworks, methods, and principles of Genuine Contact to their diverse work environments that include work:

  • Inside organizations and as external consultants.

  • Working in the private sector and in public organizations.

  • Two having been born in the Netherlands and two who make our home here but come from other countries.

All are dedicated to bringing the powerful approach offered by Genuine Contact into the Netherlands and are part of a developing Hub of people who are working and living the Genuine Contact way.

They are excited to host and work with you during the Summer Academy.

This is a Genuine Contact Way Workshop

Birgitt Williams, Ward Williams and Rachel Bolton of the Dalar team have created these Genuine Contact Way learning modules with a focus on creating and nourishing a culture of leadership in organizations. We believe that when a culture of leadership exists in an organization, productivity increases, employees work both more effectively and with greater satisfaction on their own and in teams, and the organization thrives. Every Genuine Contact Way module provides participants with a complete skill and knowledge set that is beneficial used on its own. Every module is also designed to be part of a multi-purpose blended approach for leadership and organizational development. You may find added benefit to take this module in conjunction with other Genuine Contact Way modules as well as modules of the Genuine Contact ProgramContact us to find out what the right ‘bundle’ is to meet your unique leadership and organizational development and business goals.

Terms and Conditions of Registration