Partners for Change

Jen develops and facilitates Leadership Development, Gender Capacity Building, and Mentoring and Sponsorship programs and workshops. These programs constitute an important component of a broader organisational change approach.

Programs and Workshops

Jen’s programs are underpinned by the ‘bifocal approach’ – linking individual development to organizational change.

Partners for Change

Women and men working together to build a more gender equitable workplace

Dr Jennifer de Vries and Tim Muirhead (of the CSD Network) form a male /female facilitator team working with mixed gender groups to create more gender equitable workplaces. If your organisation is ready to bring men more centrally into the gender change effort, then this program provides an opportunity to have courageous conversations about gender.

A partnership model moves us beyond asking men to make the organisation a better place for women, towards men and women working together to make our workplaces a better, more humane place for all.

Bringing men and women into this conversation together opens up different and new approaches to creating change. The Partners for Change program explicitly acknowledges that gender inequity can adversely affect men and women, and greater equity can and should serve us all. Men and women as the dominant/non-dominant group face distinctly different challenges in the workplace and in working for change. Working as a female/male facilitator team opens up the territory allowing deeper exploration of the ways in which both women and men contribute to gender inequality and can be part of the solution.

This program is well suited to staff at all levels, but is particularly suited to middle managers. It is clear that having the best policies does not bring about change unless individual change in attitudes and behaviours also occurs. Middle manager play a critical role in supporting the change effort.

To get a feel for this innovative program check out the blogs in the sidebar or download this collection

A taste of what is included

These 2 video clips were recorded and used when Tim Muirhead (csdnetwork) was unable to accompany me to Auckland to deliver a Partners for Change session.

The first clip is a short reflection on the Men’s Movement and the Women’s movement–and how we might, in partnership, enhance wholeness for all of us.

The second clip looks at the challenge for those of us in the ‘dominant culture’, in moving towards partnership.