Take Your Community Engagement Consulting To The Next Level

Become a CDS Practice Associate through our accreditation program. 

Interested in becoming an accredited CDS Practitioner? We offer a specially designed progressive accreditation program that provides mentorship from CDS Master Practitioners, first through the Learning Program, and then as you gain increasingly more experience in organizing and operating Challenge Dialogues. 

Once you become a Practitioner, you get ongoing access to all CDS resources, development opportunities and other Practitioners to grow a successful community engagement consulting practice within your organization, or independently, using the Challenge Dialogue System.

There are 5 levels of CDS accreditation: Apprentice-1, Apprentice-2, Associate, Lead and Master. With accreditation, you can use your CDS knowledge, skills, and support materials to:

 
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Improve the quality and performance of your own work.

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Help teams improve the quality and performance of their work.

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Become a CDS Practitioner and convene your very own Challenge Dialogues. 

THE ACCREDITATION PROCESS

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“One of the lessons I have learned in dealing with complex environments is the need for interdisciplinary teams to really understand and deal with the whole picture. Having all of the right people at the table as enabled by the Challenge Dialogue approach is one of the keys to success, and being accepting of other points of view is critical to finding shared solutions.”
— Evert Kenk, CDS Practice Associate

COMPONENTS

  • 9 self-learning modules

  • Electronic contextual access to an extensive set of Challenge Dialogue principles, processes, tools, guides, templates, checklists, and examples for each of nine Modules and overall application of CDS

  • Facilitated access to peer-to-peer learning and relationship support from other FLP/ALP Learners and CDS Practitioners

  • 6 x 1.5-hour scheduled Check-In Webinars focused on: setting the context, preparing, launching and acting on the results of a Challenge Dialogue

  • Comprehensive, progressive series of Task Assignments, by Module, for both Foundation and Action Learning Programs with detailed personal feedback by a Master Practitioner

  • Foundation Learning Program - up to 4 hours of individual mentoring as a mix of video-conferences, phone and/or email, and feedback on task assignments

  • Action Learning Program - up to 4 hours of individual mentoring as a mix of video-conferences, phone and/or email, and feedback on task assignments and then 4 additional hours of focused mentoring support for thinking through, designing and planning-out your entire 8-step Challenge Dialogue plan and establishing and orienting your Organizing Team

  • CDS Network - quarterly, moderated 1.5-hour Meet-Ups with other CDS practitioners and learners

  • CDS Network - ongoing access to updated, enhanced, and new CDS materials and related developments as they become available

  • CDS Network - being listed on this website as a CDS Practitioner once you are accredited

  • CDS Practitioner Network LinkedIn Group to keep our practitioners connected and well informed including for more direct opportunities for members to communication with one another about CDS practice-related events, questions, developments, opportunities, and items of interest

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE?

Talk with one of our Practice Masters to learn more about the accreditation process.