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Welcome to the site.

Leadership, change, mindful communication, intervention, collaboration, learning, and results. These are among the themes that run through my work. At a deeper level, this work stems from the idea that collective and individual effectiveness in organizations are very much related to how contentious – messy – problems are dealt with.

Leadership - and in particular, mindful leadership - is necessary to overcome these problems, yet often there is little evidence of leadership actually being practiced. Contentious problems are often skirted around, avoided or just managed along. Stakeholders commonly have a huge amount of relevant knowledge and experience. Yet these mental resources can remain hidden, submerged, and untapped.

Leadership action in working through these problems implies surfacing and working with some of this hidden intelligence – and doing so in ways that promote safe conversation – to enable and support change.

My work centers on helping groups and individuals communicate more mindfully and demon-strate productive leadership in working through contentious problems to achieve desired results.

The site includes information on the specific services I provide, and on the concepts and frameworks I draw on, which are described in my book, In the Leadership Mode.

On the present page, if you scroll down, you'll see a "welcome to the site" video, and below that a slideshow outlining some of my key concepts, frameworks, and tools - including the ARIES Framework (Attending, Reflecting, Inquiring, Expressing, and Synthesizing) for making sense of, and intervening with, contentious problems.

I hope you find the site useful - and please get in touch if you'd like to talk (see the Contacts page).

Don Dunoon
 

Welcome to Don Dunoon.com site video


ARIES: What Others are Saying

“As a manager and learning and development specialist, I firmly believe that before you can lead others you need an understanding of where they are coming from and what is important to them.  I find the ARIES framework is a very useful tool in helping me to gain this insight.  It’s almost like a cheat sheet for being able to think on your feet.”  Sally Van Ede NSW Australia.

“Dunoon’s genius lies in his concept of learning-centered leadership that positions leaders to learn their way through contentious issues using the ARIES framework (attending, reflecting, inquiring, expressing, and synthesizing). The framework allows leaders to go below the surface issues and determine what lies beneath the surface uncovering issues related to the culture of the organization.”  David Vardaman, College Professor (Read longer statement here) 

(Don Dunoon comment: I’m flattered by David’s remarks but uncomfortable with the “g” word in the first line)

"Dunoon's (2008) ARIES framework provides a theoretical foundation for addressing contentious issues in the workplace that is easy to comprehend and assists leaders in engaging more effectively with followers to achieve optimal solutions to the contentious issues.”  Damita Williams, Medical Administrator

"ARIES provides a very useful framework which has helped to shift my thinking about how to approach contentious problems, which seem to play quite a part in my daily work life. ARIES also lines up with my interest in mindfulness meditation outside of work to connect my work life and outside work life in ways I hadn't expected." Denise Martin, Faculty General Manager, Flinders University