Why listening?

At Convu, we believe that listening is valuable and powerful. It connects us, empowers us, and helps us become our best selves (as well as our best teams, families, cultures and communities).

We also believe that, in our times, listening is an overlooked and undervalued--yet abundant-- resource: a hidden treasure!

Why not just more information?

Sometimes we don’t need more advice or information; we just need to catch our breath, feel what we’re feeling, and hear ourselves think.

Our Mission

The mission of Convu is to make good listening available, wherever and whenever it is needed.

When good listening is present, a convo becomes a convu–a learning conversation that connects people and reveals possibilities

As enough members of a team, organization or community engage with openness, others follow suit, reciprocating with lowered defenses and higher trust

As people get used to learning together, they become more open still, creating the soil for a healthier culture, and ultimately higher levels of buy-in, trust and performance

Conversation

Community

Culture

Expanding circles of influence

Who do we support?

Participants

For participants, Convu’s Peer Coaching Initiatives are designed to offer

The benefits of being listened to
with CARE (Curiosity, Attentiveness, Respect and Engagement)
A chance to practice (and improve) their own natural ability to listen effectively

If you are a participant in a Convu Peer Coaching Initiative (PCI), you will get:

Support in working through stresses and challenges
Skills that will serve you in your professional and personal life
A feeling of connection to other people (starting with your peer coach)

learn more: participants

Organizations

For organizations seeking to sponsor a PCI in your workplace, classroom or community, you can expect to get:

More trust and openness
Less defensiveness and political infighting
Greater creativity and collaboration

That’s because your members who participate will be

More self-aware (having taken time to reflect in their peer coaching conversations)
Better at listening (having practiced their listening skills and gotten feedback)
… and therefore more open, honest, respectful and generous in their interactions with others

Facilitators

For coaches and facilitators who are interested in helping their clients put listening into practice and build healthier cultures, Convu offers Peer Coach Facilitator Training.

Convu facilitators learn to run Peer Coaching Initiatives and to make all of the benefits of peer coaching available to their colleagues, community members, and clients.

learn more: facilitators

learn more: organizations

An Evidence-based Approach

Ninety percent of participants responding to the program evaluation in December 2024 stated that they often or very often “stay curious about another person’s thoughts and feelings” even if they disagree with them.

Our initial pilot (at Harvard in 2021) established that participants—as compared to a control group of waitlisted students—experienced:

Less Loneliness

Less Imposter Syndrome

Greater curiosity about another's point of view, even when disagreeing

Greater thriving (as measured by the Brief Inventory of Thriving)

Greater willingness to share challenges and difficulties

The program has now drawn interest and participation from every School at Harvard, including a demographically diverse set of students and/or researchers in Education, Public Health, Medicine, Law, Business, Engineering, Design, Divinity, Dental Medicine, and the undergraduate College.

In addition, since 2019, Convu has run peer coaching initiatives at:

A Major Research Hospital
A Premier Leadership Development Consulting Firm
A London-based Financial Services company
A public, open-enrollment program
A Nonprofit Initiative (we trained 8 nonprofit leaders in how to facilitate peer coaching)

How is Convu Peer Coaching Different?

Convu peer coaching is not like mentoring or peer counseling programs you may be familiar with. The difference with Convu is that participants take turns with their partner (alternating between "coach,” and “coachee”).

Neither partner gets stuck in a role.
As coach, participants learn to rely on their capacity to be present and enliven the learning process, rather than on their expertise and “having the answer.”
As members of a community, organization, or team, they become examples of a better way to interact, helping to change their culture from the inside out.
For organizations seeking to foster trust, collaboration, creativity and innovation, peer coaching is a cost effective way to include more people in your leadership development programs.