1. For more information about this course, please
contact key lecturer Dr. Gertjan Schuiling,
(g.j.schuiling@vu.nl), or visit the programme’s
webpage at www.abri.vu.nl/lti
VUBS
SCHOOL OF
MANAGEMENT
LOOKING FURTHERwww.abri.vu.nl/lti
LEADING THROUGH INQUIRY
engaging people in meeting competing
demands

2. CREATING VALUE
Increasingly it is collaboration across disciplines, cultures and organizations that cre-
ates value. This requires more permeable and fluid boundaries between inside and out.
The museum Louis Vuitton in Paris designed by Frank Gehry beautifully exemplifies
this new, playful approach to boundaries. It demands an inquisitive disposition from
the visitor, just like the inquisitive approach of designers and builders in the process of
construction.
We take this as a metaphor for leadership. At decisive moments leaders formulate
positions with which others can orientate their actions. At equally decisive moments
leaders pose questions that make people think, including themselves.
This course helps participants to design and lead an inquiry aiming to effect change in
their own work environment. The key issue: how do we improve our agility in collabor-
ating across boundaries, which frequently involves having to meet competing demands.
Participants determine the content and design of their inquiry.
EXAMPLES OF CHANGE INQUIRIES
Everyone here is aware that society asks an essentially different type of product from
us, but at the same time our financial result is unsatisfactory and the workload is high.
Where do we find the time and resources to invest in our future? How do we investi-
gate which actions will be effective in making both our management and our workers
respond collaboratively to the competing demands of efficiency and efficacy? At the
moment this conflict is tacitly dividing the workplace.
Our new CEO is caught up by several pitfalls of our organization because she reasons
from her earlier successes. How do we engage her in an analysis of our change history
and how do we create room for her and for ourselves to develop a shared perspective?
After the radical change of structure we discovered that existing patterns and informal
collaborations have maintained the old ways of working. How can we explore the lived
reality of people in our organisation and find the seeds for real change there? Why are
people so resigned while there is so much energy?
Management has recognized the importance of ‘professional discretion’, but this has
become a synonym for individual autonomy and personal freedom. Is more control a
viable alternative? How can we explore this issue and who should take the lead?
In health care and industry self-management seems to work well and people are much
more motivated. But I hear different stories too. Which findings are reliable for our
organization? How can we explore the available knowledge and simultaneously stimu-
late change in our teams?
LECTURERS
PROGRAMME OVERVIEW
Gertjan
Schuiling
Vrije
Universiteit
ISEOR Lyon
(France)
Van de Bunt
Advies,
Vrije
Universiteit
Vrije
Universiteit,
Thierry &
Schuiling
Trinity
Business
School
(Ireland)
Independent
consultant,
Associate TG
en Sioo
Independent
consultant,
Erasmus
University
Liselore
Havermans
David
Coghlan
Amandine
Savall
Hans
Vermaak
Joost
Kampen
Anne Marie
Weggelaar
Participants develop and implement a change project in their daily
practice. They are senior managers and senior professionals who want
to support their organizational change project with research.
Organizations develop a structured method for addressing difficult
change issues through their participants. Therefore, participation in
pairs of two is preferred.
We use the tetra-model by Schuiling and Vermaak as a guideline. Their
article was awarded the ‘best action research paper 2016’ by the Organ-
izational Development & Change div. of the Academy of Management.
26 sessions spread across four seminars at Vrije Universiteit:
11 to 13 January; 5 and 6 April 13 and 14 September; 15 to 17 November.
The course has 20 participants. Participants are managers, senior
professionals, consultants and researchers who want to conduct action
research.
Closely supervised groups of five participants, in which collective action
and reflection cycles take place in order to gain insight in what works,
what does not, and why that is the case.
(Inter) national lecturers with change management expertise and
experience in doing practice oriented action research share their
knowledge and experience with you.
The course fee is € 6,500. Optionally, participants can get full access
to scientific literature and online research facilities of Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam for € 500.