Boardroom Discomfort

Sometimes C-teams come to us with future challenges they have already discussed intensively and we conclude that more strategic dialogues won’t help them. They need new insights to get unstuck. We have partnered several times with Peter Rombouts, who is both a professional tango dancer and an organizational change expert. He works with the multiple intelligences’ framework of Professor Howard Garner. Through working with movement which he translates into language he activates a broadened consciousness, and stimulates people’s visual and linguistic intelligence, intuition and feeling. It’s not so easy to explain in writing, but when you participate in a session with him you will experience how discomfort can lead to organizational learning. 

Partnering with Peter always begins with a question, such as “how can we take our business to the next level by using the full potential of each board member?” which was the start of a recent two-day strategy and leadership program. Once Peter introduced himself by telling his story of bringing the world of dance to the world of organizational development all the directors started to feel uncomfortable. One of them was courageous enough to voice his fear and said that he is not a man of feeling and dancing, he prefers rationality and thinking. Afterwards, when Peter asked them all to describe the movement they made with each other, he surprised himself and the team with his new insights. By activating the different types of intelligence, the full potential of the team was unlocked, and they dared to make a collective decision to transform their company.

Have you experienced the limits of using words? Which of your business challenges could benefit from multiple intelligences?