John Dengate

Challenging groups to reach their goals

Bachelor of Metallurgy, Cert IV Assess and Training

My approach is to challenge groups and organisations to look beyond the symptoms when seeking solutions to problems. I work with groups to reveal the deeper organisational and cultural issues that often need to be addressed and tackled to begin developing sustainable solutions.

I ask the difficult questions. Often people dance around issues they think of as ëundiscussableí and find rational reasons to avoid difficult issues. With respectful curiosity I help groups to reveal and engage with those issues so that they can build more robust decisions and solutions.

Conflict and emotion are usually strenuously avoided, but they can provide the energy for change. I support people to harness that energy to deliver substantive outcomes, and do so in a safe environment that protects self esteem and improves the relationships.

I sincerely believe in people, and that each person has inherent discretionary energy that they can tap into to deliver much more. I am passionate about working through the tough stuff to help groups get the outcomes they need.

John is a Senior Consultant and joined Twyfords in early 2004 following a successful career in the steel and manufacturing industries over 20 years. He has strengths in stakeholder engagement, change management, strategic thinking, relationship management and business process improvement.

Of particular interest to John is the importance of developing effective relationships through skills and awareness of individual personality styles, personal values, communication, negotiation and conflict resolution. He is an Accredited Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Administrator and is also equipped with the knowledge of various other group and personal effectiveness diagnostic tools.

John enjoys the challenge of assisting organizations and stakeholder groups to diagnose their relational and business cultures, and designing appropriate interventions and activities leading to improved performance from both individuals and groups. He has developed and delivered a number of leadership and change programs for both Private and Public sector clients.

John is an experienced facilitator, and is a member of International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) and Australian Facilitators Network.

He is a licensed trainer for the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) and has delivered the Certificate Course in Public Participation in Australia, New Zealand and the US.

John has managed and implemented stakeholder engagement projects for a wide range of clients, both in the public and private sector, with an emphasis on capability building. This allows him to integrate the training effectively into on ground projects leading to better decisions.

John's technical background, combined with his ability to diagnose less obvious cultural issues, provides a powerful combination as he guides clients through the messy and often uncertain challenges of effective community engagement.