Testimonials

It was very important to the Tyrolean Parliament to enable the citizens of Tyrol to participate in the brainstorming around the Conference on the Future of Europe. Due to the challenges caused by the corona pandemic, we had to develop a new, innovative and participatory format for the dialogue – Ursula Hillbrand and her team supported us in this in a very professional manner.

We asked Ursula Hillbrand to help us work with the different leadership concepts in our management teams including executives. Her diplomatic way of working accepts different styles and cultures elegantly, and still she smartly invites everyone in the room to create a shared purpose, which she was able to hold for us from the background in a sustainable way through a longer process. We also have a great experience of an away day she designed and facilitated for my staff. She has a great talent to work with the non-manifested potential of a group and make it visible.

Ursula has a unique capacity to hold a whole system lens, while simultaneously cultivating the personal and professional leadership skills at the team level that are also needed to help shape positive futures.  Her use of dialogue and other participatory approaches for honouring multiple perspectives provides pathways for accessing both collaborative intelligence and wise action. In these challenging times, Ursula’s special gifts are sorely needed and I value them greatly.

The Efficiency Act affects many different stakeholder groups and we had great respect for the evaluation of this controversial law. In the course of many workshops and discussion rounds with the support of Ms. Hillbrand, it was possible to work out the core problems and identify concrete needs for change. At the end of the process, not all interest groups were of the same opinion, but solutions could be identified to balance interests.

Ursula is an extraordinary leadership trainer and mentor. I have had the pleasure to learn from and work with Ursula in a professional and personal context for almost a decade. Under her mentorship, I learned how create the conditions for meaningful dialogue in teams and have seen such “hosted” conversations catalyse positive change in business and academia. Over the years, I have seen Ursula transform teams from diverse backgrounds spanning public policy to industry through the principles of meaningful dialogue.

I regularly apply the principles I learned from Ursula in my professional life and saw them enable effective co-creation in the board room, when I worked as management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, and more recently in research and teaching at the University of Cambridge.

The moment I walked in as a director of the COST Association, I knew I wanted to make this an even more innovative organisation. Networks of researchers need networked leadership. After a training on designing and leading participatory meetings we booked Ursula for helping us towards excellency on the ground. We now have a wonderful community of practice supporting each other’s needs, and we are skilled not only in hosting participatory meetings to instill engagement and ownership in its participants but also do that with souvereignty online. A big thank you!

Ronald de Bruin was appointed Director of the COST Association in June 2016. Before joining the Association, he was Director of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and Head of Department of the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA).

In the first week after the conference, which is so important for us, I would like to sincerely thank you and your team for your professional and confident work. It was perfect in preparation and implementation. Your cooperation was completed with a human and warm attitude,  which created a very positive memory.

The Efficiency Act affects many different stakeholder groups and we had great respect for the evaluation of this controversial law. In the course of many workshops and discussion rounds with the support of Ms. Hillbrand, it was possible to work out the core problems and identify concrete needs for change. At the end of the process, not all interest groups were of the same opinion, but solutions could be identified to balance interests.

 

“The State Archives in Belgium are almost 225 years old, but have many young archivists in their ranks. Young employees who are often recruited on a project basis, sometimes only stay for a short time, but want to commit themselves to provide public services to a maximum extent. Capturing commitment and allowing fresh ideas to flow through the decision-making process is less obvious than it seems. External help can be very useful to achieve these goals. And that is exactly what Ursula offered us when guiding our Young Archivists project.
In a very short time, Ursula understood what kind of organisation we are and what our needs are when it comes to searching for more dynamic and less hierarchical forms of cooperation. She made us realise that the process (of entering into dialogue) is as least as important as the (final) result. That online meetings don’t have to be boring at all, and certainly for introverted employees can be a trump card for daring to speak out more freely.
I see Ursula as someone who dares to question processes, who keeps going until everyone knows what is expected of him/her, and who can bring about innovation in a diplomatic manner, at both individual and collective level.”

The many positive feedbacks from our participants clearly show that the professional, empathic facilitation and the co-design of the concept by Ursula Hillbrand have contributed to the success of our networking meetings; for this reason, I always look forward when I get to work with Ursula Hillbrand and her team.

Former Chairman of the Architects Section of the State Chamber for Upper Austria and Salzburg, Heinz Plöderl, architect