Lewin Dialogues: From Insight to Action

Conversations for the questions this moment is asking.

Lewin Dialogues bring people together for timely, participatory conversations about leadership, societal change, and the evolving needs of our communities and institutions.

Inspired by Kurt Lewin’s belief that meaningful understanding is built through engagement with the world around us, each dialogue creates space to listen across perspectives, make meaning together, and explore a simple but consequential question:

What does this insight ask us to do next?

These are not lectures or traditional speaker series events. Each gathering combines perspective, inquiry, and conversation, inviting participants to contribute their own experiences and ideas.

Across the anniversary year, the Dialogues will explore different topics while contributing to our larger 20th anniversary question:
What does the world need from us now?

Upcoming Dialogues:

Kurt Lewin’s Legacy in Motion: If conversation can change a system, what kinds of conversations should we be creating now?

  • November 17, 2026 at 11:30 – 12:30 EST
  • Virtual, Zoom
  • Register here
  • About Our Speaker: John Hovell,  Managing Director and co-founder of Stratactical LLC, and Lewin Center Board Member is a practitioner, speaker, and author in Organization Development (OD) and Knowledge Management (KM) strategies and their application to current organizational challenges.
  • Event Description: What happens when we treat conversation not simply as a way to talk about change, but as a major part of how change actually happens? Consider “conversational dynamics” as similar and different to “group dynamics”. Kurt Lewin’s work reminds us that people, relationships, groups, and the situations around them are deeply interconnected. He also taught us that understanding a system requires engaging with the people who are part of it.

 

In this highly participatory Knowledge Café, we will explore the role conversation plays in helping groups make sense of their world, surface different perspectives, challenge assumptions, and discover possibilities that may not have been visible before.

The Process of the Knowledge Café
The Knowledge Café, developed by David Gurteen in relation to Dr. Juanita Brown’s World Café, is a simple, conversational process in which participants explore a pertinent question together, rather than being told an answer. After a brief introduction to the topic and the Café question, participants move into 3 rounds of randomized small groups for open conversation – without a host, facilitator, or note-taker. The Café concludes by bringing everyone back together for a whole-group conversation, not to formally debrief or aim for consensus, but to share insights, questions, connections, and shifts in thinking/feeling. The emphasis is on dialogue, listening, curiosity, and learning from one another, with participants leaving with whatever insights they find meaningful and useful in their own lives and work.

Past Dialogues:

Kurt Lewin’s Legacy in Motion: An Origin Story and Its Relevance To Us Today

  • September 30, 2026 at 11:00 – 12:30 EST
  • Virtual, Zoom
  • About Our Speaker: Michael Papanek, Kurt Lewin’s Grandson, will share his grandfather’s origin story and how his work today as an executive coach, leadership and team consultant is inspired by that foundation.
  • Event Description: What can the life and work of Kurt Lewin teach us about leading and creating change today in a world of turbulence?

For our first Lewin Dialogue, Michael Papanek, Kurt Lewin’s grandson, will bring Lewin’s story to life and explore how that legacy continues to shape his own work as an executive coach and leadership and team consultant.

Together, we will consider not only where Lewin’s ideas came from, but why they continue to matter and how they might help us respond to the challenges facing leaders, organizations, and communities now.

This will be a participatory conversation, with time to hear from Michael, reflect together, and engage with other participants.

Additional Dialogues: Coming Soon!

The conversation continues throughout our 20th anniversary year.

Additional Lewin Dialogues are planned each exploring a different question at the intersection of leadership, change, community, and the common good.

More details and registration information coming soon.
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From Conversation to Collective Learning

Each Dialogue is part of a larger anniversary conversation. As the series unfolds, we will share highlights, reflections, resources, and recordings, where available, so the ideas generated through these gatherings can keep traveling. Ultimately, these conversations will help inform our 20th Anniversary Culminating Event, where we will bring the year’s learning together and ask: What will we carry forward, and what will we create next?
[Learn About the Culminating Event]