Our views often contradict much of the conventional wisdom about leadership and human nature. Our work is intended as a signpost and a challenge.

Leading Edge Thinking: Oasis Salon Events

Bring practical wisdom to shaping great organisations and responsible practice. Enter into deeper dialogue and meaningful action in a relaxed environment.

Oasis Salons introduce conversation starters, followed by small group dialogues enabling co-creation of shared understanding, wisdom through difference and actions to encourage new insights, learning and transformation.

Previous topics have included:

• Leaders and the Human Element: Implications for Developing Organisations, with John Knights, author of Leading Beyond the Ego.
• Power, Conflict and Cooperation: The Challenges of Working in a Peer-based Organisation with Clare Short, Chair of the Cities Alliance and former MP; Ed Mayo, Secretary General, Co-operatives UK and Mary Hodgson, ex Head of Research, The Young Foundation
• Kindness and Trust in Leadership, with Gay Haskins, former Dean of Executive Education and CEO of Oxford University Saïd Business School.

Our Salon events run every quarter and cover a vast range of topics that attract business leaders, CEOs, L&D and HR Directors. Find out more about our next Salon event.

Sharing Our Leading Edge Practice

Over our 30 years we’ve been privileged to be involved in many pieces of research around leading edge practice, much of which has been instigated by our own learning with the clients we’ve worked alongside and some of it ongoing. Below you will find a summary of the key pieces with links to read more.

Whole Person Learning

Oasis has been involved from the beginning of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative in 2009 and co-created Whole Person Learning – a new approach to education for globally responsible practice.

Co-directors, staff and associates took part in four cycles across five years of a Co-operative Inquiry into Whole Person Learning from 2011. The research focused on how the approach lives in practice.

Download Whole Person Learning in Action manual.

A new publication is in progress to be jointly published with the GRLI.

PEERWorks

PEERWorks is a five-year journey by a group of organisations exploring peer-based working. It has been an exploration of ways of working that allow people to reach their full potential, while also sharing the responsibilities of joint leadership. This helps teams to flourish, and organisations to achieve their objectives in sustainable and life-affirming ways.

The PEERWorks booklet has been designed to capture the learning and act as a catalyst in your life and work.

Download publication.

Deans and Directors Global Innovation Cohort

The role of a dean of a learning institution in the 21st century is increasingly challenging, multifaceted and complex – the context ever-changing and the learning environment more diverse and demanding than ever.

Associate Director Claire Maxwell co-facilitates the Deans and Directors Cohort – a collaboratory where deans and directors work with peers on inquiry themes such as collective actions for systemic impact, inter-organisational partnerships and empowering students as agents of change.

Find out more.

Corporate Responsibility through Whole Person Learning NIT and U of Leeds

Oasis directors and associates have designed and delivered modules for MBAs at the Northern Institute of Technology Management, Hamburg; Nanjing University of Astronautics and Aeronautics; and the University of Leeds. The focus has been on corporate and social responsibility for the next generation of business leaders using a Whole Person Learning approach.

COMMIT

As part of the GRLI’s commitment to catalysing the development of global responsibility in the next generation of decision-makers, Oasis Associate Chris Taylor has been mentoring the COMMIT group (Change of Management Education and Methods In Teaching). This student body is focusing on integrating sustainability in business education – changing things from the students’ side.

Discover more about our work with COMMIT.

C&A Foundation Global Humanitarian Partnership

The complex issues of our times cannot be solved by traditional evaluation approaches or reports. Evaluations are only effective at creating change if they fully involve all stakeholders and are then acted upon. A publication is in progress examining the adoption of the Whole Person Approach (WPA) in the evaluation of the Global Humanitarian Partnership between C&A, C&A Foundation and Save the Children.

UK Leadership Inquiry

A UK Leadership Collaborative Inquiry held by Oasis led to a series of Developing Collaborative Leadership Retreats for CEOs, Directors and change agents from across the UK and a publication on authentic collaboration.

Discover more about Working Relationships for the 21st Century: A Guide to Authentic Collaboration.