Background: The Great Conversation was originally launched by The Sage Group® as a forum to help Chief Security Officers and their teams become strategic advisors to their Executive Management Team and their Board of Directors. (Twenty-four years ago, we liked to say, “Getting a seat at the table”.)
We said “and their teams” because of the need to transform the mindset of their organization as well. And “their teams” had a double meaning. It directly spoke to the security ecosystem of consultants, specifiers, technology manufacturers, resellers, and integrators (the extended team) who influenced decision makers, and ultimately their success managing risk, resilience, and security.
Ron Worman, the founder of The Sage Group acted as the emcee and “convener” of The Great Conversation. Harnessing the discussions he had formally and informally, he would craft the curriculum of each conversation.
During Covid, Worman pivoted to a broader conversation via The Great Conversation Podcast, with the bold statement: “Ideas matter. Ideas shape markets. Ideas change the world”. Worman finds and curates the ideas across markets, nations, and generations that define how we think, feel, and act. “I have a bias toward root causes. I am not only looking for how they think, but how they themselves were formed that led to their ideas”, said Worman. “At The Sage Group, we call that the art of seeing and the journey of acting on and building that idea we call The Path to Value™.”
In this podcast, (each podcast is embedded at the end of the blog, published on the most popular podcast platforms, and socialized through LinkedIn and X.) Worman hands over the podcast to his colleague Dr. Daniel Hallak to convene two founders who have chosen to work together to harness their combined learnings to help business owners and their teams on their Path to Value™: Ron Worman, The Sage Group and The Great Conversation, and Dr. Mark L. Vincent, author of Listening, Helping, Learning. Dr. Vincent is a serial innovator. He established and helped guide three organizations that have helped executives and business owners advance their personal and professional lives.
· Society of Process Consulting: seeks to elevate the field of Process Consulting by providing premier credentialing and professional development to practitioners in the field. They do this by offering multiple levels of certifications that challenge practitioners to advance their understanding of the core competencies of Process Consulting and inquiry approach.
· Design Group International: a community of Process Consultants who are co-creators of strategic outcomes with their clients through their process consulting expertise
· Maestro-level Leaders: A four-year peer-based leadership journey to explore, map, and implement what succession, sustained organizational success, and legacy look like in each leader’s unique life and organizational context.
Ron Worman’s summary of this great conversation follows:
Process Consulting emerged as a specialized field within management consulting during the mid-20th century. The concept was significantly shaped by Edgar Schein, a prominent organizational psychologist, who introduced the philosophy of "process consultation" in his seminal work Process Consultation: Its Role in Organization Development. Schein emphasized the importance of helping organizations solve their own problems by focusing on interpersonal and group dynamics rather than providing direct solutions.
Today, Process Consulting is widely practiced by leading firms such as McKinsey & Company, Accenture, and Deloitte, which are recognized for their expertise in process management. These firms continue to refine and expand the methodologies introduced by pioneers like Schein.
However, learning the science of Process Consulting is much different than living it with and through others. This is where Worman meets Vincent. I pursued Mark Vincent for The Great Conversation Podcast. He has written extensively about "The Third Turn," focusing on leadership transitions and the development of Maestro-level leaders. You can explore his articles on topics like succession planning, leadership legacy, and governance on Design Group International's blog or their dedicated Third Turn section. These resources provide valuable insights into navigating the complexities of leadership and organizational development.
Once we connected, I began having conversations with Dr. Daniel Hallak, a partner at Sage and a practice leader in Human Capital Management. Hallak has also been instrumental in advancing Dr. Rob McKenna’s research and company on Whole and Intentional Leadership Development (WiLD Leaders). Hallak was instrumental in WiLD becoming a client of The Sage Group. Vincent became a certified WiLD Leaders practitioner. His expertise as a WiLD Facilitator complements his work in process consulting by integrating leadership development with organizational systems. The WiLD methodology emphasizes building trust, aligning performance with well-being, and fostering sustainable growth within organizations.
This connection to process consulting lies in the shared focus on guiding organizations through complex challenges by addressing both visible and invisible dynamics. Process consulting, as Vincent practices it, involves helping organizations solve their own problems, while the WiLD approach equips leaders with tools to enhance trust and performance. Together, they create a holistic framework for organizational and leadership development.
Through many conversations, it became apparent that Sage and Vincent based their methodologies and work on a shared value of advancing the owner’s journey. For WiLD it is a journey to wholeness. To Vincent it is a co-creation journey from seeing and understanding to acting, advancing, and flourishing. For Sage it is about starting with the end in mind. A three-fold journey of personal, professional, and organizational development that ends in a strategic acquisition that acts as the economic engine for Vincent’s Third Turning.
This journey is in the hands of the owner. It is their story. It is their legacy. It is their Path to Value.
Enjoy this podcast. Then join us all on the Path to Value.