The Argonauts’ Conversational Fluency™ methodology is based on 60+ years of Harvard’s adult development theory. Combined with over 5 years of broad and rigorous testing on 2,000+ leaders, we discovered our formula for expanding conscious leadership for entrepreneurs, executives, and change-makers of all types.
Trusted by more than 2,000 leaders worldwide
The Argonauts Conversational Fluency™ methodology has been designed to expand conscious leadership at both the personal and professional level. At its core, we define conscious leadership through a simple formula: IQ + EQ = CQ. This refers to a leadership paradigm that encompasses not only cognitive intelligence, but adds empathetic intelligence to reach collective wisdom. These key elements shape the leadership of the future.
As individuals, organizations, and the world as a whole, the challenges we face are manifold: From feelings of disconnection and loss of trust and purpose to increasing despair regarding the state of the world. We believe that to meet these challenges, we need to adopt a new way of leading and living:
We developed the Conversational Fluency™ methodology to enable conscious leadership transformations at scale. It is based on over 60 years of research around adult development theory, drawing on work from scholars including Harvard’s Robert Kegan and Susan Cook-Greuter and many others. In addition, we have spent the past 5 years working with over 2,000 leaders, from executives to individual change-makers, to refine our formula.
This refers to the skills, know-how, and thinking we use to lead in a more conscious way. For instance, how to best cultivate culture and manage conflict.
EQ refers to how we read, manage, and connect with the emotional states of not only ourselves, but others too. It’s how we move beyond our own stories to better harmonize with the group.
CQ is the concept of moving beyond the individual to start thinking and operating as a collective. We compare this to a musical orchestra, with each individual playing their own part in sync with the collective and together creating something larger than the sum of its parts.
Embarking on the path of conscious leadership demands more than just augmenting your existing skills—it invites a profound expansion of consciousness. This is a journey we navigate together through our innovative Conversational Fluency™ methodology, but we don’t stop at merely expanding your skills, or what we refer to as ‘horizontal development’.
We take you a step further, diving into ‘vertical development’, which involves nurturing intricate ways of thinking, fostering a deeper level of wisdom, and unearthing illuminating insights that serve as a beacon on your leadership path.
This transformative journey involves deep self-exploration, where you uncover your psychological predispositions and understand your current state of consciousness. It aids in enhancing your ability to empathize and form meaningful connections with others.
Simultaneously, you’ll develop an effective problem-solving mindset, arming you to tackle both personal and professional challenges with dexterity. A significant part of this consciousness elevation journey involves aligning your individual purpose with the collective goals or systemic objectives, seamlessly integrating these newly honed skills into your everyday life.
Our unique Trust Circle™ stands as your ally on this journey towards conscious leadership. Within the Trust Circle™, we employ a wide array of mechanisms designed to support holistic growth and transformation. This fusion of fresh insights and abilities prepares you to bring the power of conscious leadership into every facet of your life.
Our approach is guided by two dimensions of human growth: horizontal and vertical. By combining both, we forge a fresh operating system essential for creating enduring transformation.
From our testing, we learned that becoming a more conscious leaders requires many different components. But one concept makes the biggest impact: Facing the difficult and “missing” conversations.
Conversations in a safe environment with like-minded peers are the most powerful way to raise consciousness. As you likely recognize in your own life and in society at large, there are many conversations that we need to have but fail the courage to do so. This is why they need a dedicated space, structure and facilitation.
Over time, we learned that there are certain principles that need to be followed to have these conversations in a meaningful way:
There are also certain skills that need to be practiced during the conversation:
Oxytocin, a trust enabling hormone, is released when we experience these behaviors. This enables us to move toward empathy (EQ) and more collective ways of working (CQ). When we fall back into advice giving and telling, Oxytocin quickly disappears. These communication protocols not only have a psychological impact, but also affect us at a biochemical level too.
During the Trust Circle journey, the Conversational Fluency methodology will be taught and practiced. Each Trust Circle has its own rhythm of consciousness, of slowing down, allowing more silence, hearing all voices equally, reflecting deeply, applying insights and creating tangible actions.
Pillars of the journey include the 12 qualities of conscious leadership, the four waves, as well as the guiding principles A.R.E and A.C.T.
To democratize conscious leadership at scale, we turned the Conversational Fluency™ methodology into three flagship programs:
The Navigator Trust Circle program is aimed at individuals who want to become more conscious leaders. This could be for the goal of fulfilling purpose and creating impact by expanding consciousness and collaborating with others at the top of their fields. It could also be for the purpose of becoming your best self and creating lifelong connections within a community of like-minded leaders.
The Team’s Trust Circle program is aimed at executives and change-makers who want to bring conscious leadership into their teams. This could be for the goal of building a culture with trust and purpose at its core to boost engagement, create alignment, and reduce the negative effects of traditional corporate culture. Trustful work cultures increase team engagement by 600%.
The Conversational Fluency Enterprise program is a customizable solution for transformations across all levels of hierarchy. Identify the torchbearers in the organization as you embark on a phased journey towards a sustainable culture transformation. This process culminates in the creation of an internal community, which serves as a powerful launching pad for collective growth and development.
Although each program has different focuses – personal, team, enterprise – they all follow a similar process based on the Conversational Fluency™ methodology.
In the beginning, you as an individual or with your team will undergo an online assessment to gauge your current conscious leadership state. Your individual profile is made up of different states which reflect different attitudes, perspectives, and orientations towards life in this current moment. This is used to help you gain a better understanding of yourself, in addition to understanding team members or Trust Circle members who you will converse with.
The Master Class serves as a form of initiation to the Trust Circle journey. In a condensed time frame, you will be introduced to key ideas of Conversational Fluency™ and become accustomed to the Trust Circle format. Through the guidance of the expert facilitator, you will learn to start stepping out of your comfort zone and see first hand the importance of having difficult conversations in a safe, structured, and facilitated environment.
After the Master Class, participants are welcomed into conversation with a trained facilitator or moderator from The Argonauts. From here, there will be a discussion which next step makes sense from both sides.
It is important to note that the subsequent Trust Circle journey isn’t for everyone. Because of this, we maintain a strict selection criteria. The Trust Circle Journey is also a big psychological commitment, one where individuals will be pushed out of their comfort zone and potentially make significant changes. Although we believe everybody is capable of change, only 15% are willing to take the first step before others follow.
Depending on which program you enroll in, you will be onboarded into a cohort of participants who will form your Trust Circle™.
The Trust Circle consists of 6-8 peers, in addition to a professional facilitator, who gather together each month to engage in the difficult conversations that expand conscious leadership. As the name suggests, trust is built through the creation of a safe psychological environment, guided by the facilitator using the Conversational Fluency™ methodology.
