Dialogic

Dave

I'm here to help organisations navigate their most complex challenges, not with off-the-shelf solutions, but by fostering genuine understanding and collaborative action. My approach is rooted in dialogue – the powerful space where diverse perspectives meet, assumptions are surfaced, and new possibilities emerge.

With a PhD in Anthropology focused on Systems Change, I bring a truly unique lens to organisational development. For over a decade, I've had the privilege of working alongside senior leaders and teams across the public, private, and third sectors, helping them to unlock their collective intelligence. My work isn't just about tweaking processes; it's about diving deep into the heartbeat of an organisation – its culture, its unspoken rules, and its ways of making meaning.

My Approach

I believe lasting change isn't dictated; it's co-created. That's why I specialise in:

• Systemic Team Coaching: Guiding executive and leadership teams to see the bigger picture, understand interconnectedness, and improve how they interact.
• Unearthing Culture: Using anthropological insights to diagnose the real dynamics at play within an organisation, rather than just the visible symptoms.
• Building Bridges: Facilitating multi-stakeholder engagement that brings different voices to the table, ensuring everyone contributes to a shared future.
• Strategic Change & Inclusive Leadership: Helping organisations evolve effectively and develop leaders who genuinely inspire and include every voice.

From supporting the Department for Transport's "Connected Leaders Programme" to leading systemic culture transformation at Network Rail, and even applying ethnographic methods to improve domestic abuse services in local authorities, my experience spans a diverse range of complex environments. I've seen firsthand how authentic dialogue can shift entrenched patterns, build robust partnerships, and empower teams to achieve remarkable outcomes.

Ultimately, my goal is to help you cultivate cultures where candid conversations lead to deeper insights, stronger relationships, and more resilient, adaptive organisations. Let's start a dialogue about how we can transform your challenges into opportunities.

By the way, check out my awesome work.

The work

I’m an Organisational Anthropologist — which means I explore organisations much like an anthropologist would explore a community or culture, except my “fieldwork” happens in boardrooms, project teams, frontline operations and every space in between.

What does this look like? I ask lots of annoying questions in meetings…

I look at organisations as living systems — networks of people, relationships, rituals, and unspoken rules — and I’m fascinated by how meaning is made in the everyday conversations, decisions, and interactions that shape them. Using ethnographic observation, I pay close attention to what’s said and unsaid, the stories people tell, the symbols they value, and the patterns that repeat over time.

Systems thinking keeps me focused on the emergent properties of people when they come together and how these create organisational ripples, sometimes in surprising ways. It’s about understanding not just the formal structures, but the human dynamics: trust and tension, cooperation and conflict, the way power moves quietly or loudly through the system.

My work is part detective story, part mapping, part coaching. I help leaders and teams notice the forces shaping their reality, and together we make sense of them — not as abstract theory, but as lived experience. Meaning-making is central: when people see themselves, their roles, and their relationships more clearly, they can choose differently, collaborate more deeply, and create change that actually sticks.

Services

How I Partner With You

Systemic Team Coaching: Beyond the Surface

When executive teams hit barriers, it often signals deeper systemic patterns at play. My coaching approach combines diagnostics with facilitative dialogue to help your team:

• Understand interconnectedness and perceive the whole system
• Surface unspoken assumptions and mental models
• Improve communication and collective decision-making
• Develop strategies addressing root causes, not just symptoms

As one Central Government Director noted: "Dr Dave was instrumental in aligning the organisation towards a significant piece of change... He approaches leadership and team development with organisational strategy for real impact" (New Value Proposition.pptx, Page 2).

Organisational Anthropology: Unearthing Culture

I explore your organisation like a living culture through ethnographic observation – paying attention to stories, rituals, and human dynamics that shape reality. This cultural diagnosis helps you:

• Understand the "unwritten rules" governing behaviour
• Identify cultural patterns and barriers to change
• Make sense of how meaning is created
• Find leverage points for sustainable transformation

Strategic Facilitation & Leadership Development

Navigating complex challenges requires purposeful interaction. I design bespoke workshops to:

• Ignite cross-functional dialogue
• Foster inclusive leadership practices
• Cultivate systemic thinking capabilities
• Catalyse collaborative innovation

Organisational Development & Strategic Change

Implementing lasting change requires understanding your organisation as a living system. We partner to:

• Design and execute strategic change initiatives
• Embed sustainable practices for organisational development
• Map influence and information flow using tools like Organisational Network Analysis

My approach draws from the dialogic tradition in Organisation Development, which recognises that "change results from changing the conversations that shape everyday thinking and behavior through involving more and different voices, altering how and which people talk to each other"

Contact

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