Modeling Conversations in Complex Collaboration — A Practice-Based Sociotechnical Workshop

Architecture is not just the outcome of our decisions, but the product of the conversations that lead to them. In complex work, what’s missing is often the conversation that never happened—doubts unspoken, assumptions unshared, voices unheard.

This hands-on workshop introduces conversation as a modeling practice. You will experience how to scaffold dialogue that welcomes dissent, clarifies ownership, surfaces the “undiscussable,” and opens new design possibilities. Come and build your sociotechnical skills and level up collaborative modeling.

Maximum number of participants: 25

Target Audience: Architects, Engineers, Team Leads, Agile Professionals, Business Analysts
Prerequisites: Anyone interested in collaboratively tackling technical and human complexity
Level: Practicing

Extended Abstract:
In complex software design and problem-solving, conversations are where knowledge, perspectives, meaning, and relationships merge into understanding, insight, decisions, ownership, and commitment. Yet most of us have walked away from a workshop or collaborative session full of sticky notes and breakout activities — and still felt unseen, unheard, misunderstood, or that “something important never got said.”

Even in well-run workshops, we often rely on accidental conversational habits rather than intentional, skillful ones. As a result, many crucial conversations become stuck, avoided, rushed, or fall into old patterns. And because how we talk shapes how our systems look, every piece of code carries traces of the alignment gaps, misunderstandings, constraints, and compromises that shaped it.

Conversation modeling is the next frontier of Collaborative Modeling (CoMo). Better conversations lead to better modeling, better decisions, and better collaboration.

Join this workshop to:

• Share stories and perspectives about challenges in complex collaboration around software
• Learn foundational concepts from sociotechnical systems and living-systems complexity
• Understand why conversation modeling is a necessary sociotechnical practice for improving software modeling
• Practise a subset of Peter Block’s Six Conversations
• Explore conversational leadership — whether you are convening a group (“Leader as Convener”) or contributing from within (“Leader as Connector”)
• Practise naming the undiscussables and initiating conversations that matter
• Build skills and confidence in designing conversations that tap into doubt, resistance, curiosity, and authenticity — while doing complex work together

This workshop is designed for anyone who wants to level up collaborative modeling in complex sociotechnical environments — and for those who see themselves as change agents at heart. You will leave with practical moves you can apply immediately in architecture discussions, design reviews, backlog refinement, strategic sessions, and cross-team alignment work.