Don Dunoon

Hello. My passion is in helping executives, managers and professionals, regardless of field or role, to build their skills and confidence in engaging safely and productively with others for change and improvement.

“Change” here is not just about conventional change management. It might be a very specific matter of giving feedback to a colleague, requesting a different behaviour. Or change might refer to a bigger corporate initiative.

Whatever the challenge – and including to do with such things as behaviour, collaboration, conflict, development, performance, teamwork and values – I can help your people speak with greater confidence and clarity to better achieve desired shifts, while reducing threat and defensiveness all round.

I teach people to apply an easily understood yet extremely powerful framework: the OBREAU conversation model, with OBREAU comprising the first two letters each of observation, reasonableness, and authenticity.

OBREAU, which I’ve developed over more than a decade, is far more than a method for having difficult conversations. Whilst being easily understood, the structure has much power and depth, and fosters ‘vertical development’ (growth of ‘mindset skills’) in those who use it.

People who practise OBREAU stand to become better at recognising and questioning their assumptions and biases, less prone to reacting and judging others, and more able to step into difficult situations and speak and take other action for what matters to them.

Working with OBREAU helps people develop their emotional intelligence and soft skills more broadly, as well as their leadership effectiveness. OBREAU can also be used to support personal reflection and, depending on the context, large group dialogue as well.

OBREAU has gained significant international recognition. A workshop on OBREAU was awarded ‘outstanding educator workshop’ at the 2016 conference of the Association of Leadership Educators in the US, and the method has been taught at US universities including Kansas State and Virginia Tech.

Since 2019 I have partnered with Canada’s peak hospitals and health services organisation, HealthCareCAN and their learning arm, CHA Learning. Our joint OBREAU-based course, ‘Talking About Tough Issues’, as well as being used by health services across Canada, is now available to long-term care (aged care) workers in Ontario.

Over the past 3 years, I’ve developed an extensive set of snappy and engaging e-learning modules to help people understand and utilise OBREAU, including with a range of scenario examples.

To aid learners in applying and socialising their learning, I work with them in workshops – and the workshops can be tailored to your needs. Or, I can train your internal trainers to conduct workshops to build on the online learning experience.

You and your business partners will be amazed at the growth in your learners’ personal and interpersonal effectiveness that can be achieved from this training!

I also offer individual coaching sessions to help executives, managers and other professionals apply OBREAU to make headway with challenges they face.

Closely related to my work on helping people engage with uncomfortable issues, I also offer more comprehensive leadership development services, including with action learning, coaching and – through a colleague’s firm – 360-degree feedback.

While I am available for face-to-face workshops and coaching sessions, most of my work is done online via Teams or Zoom. I can work with people pretty much regardless of location and at mutually convenient times – potentially including outside regular hours.

To find out more, please get in touch to arrange an obligation-free chat. My email address is ddunoon@newfutures.com.au (or ddunoon@betterworkconversations.com).

You might also like to have a look at my article in Training and Development magazine, December 2024. There’s also my Better Work Conversations site: https://betterworkconversations.com/.

I hope to hear from you!

Cheers, Don Dunoon