Our Story

Helping companies transform their leadership and organizational culture.

Dr. Aaron Barth discovered his passion for teaching as a philosophy professor at Western University. By 2011, he noticed the science of decision-making was changing quickly. But there was a problem: these advancements were not accessible to the companies that could benefit the most.

Luckily, helping people grasp the nuances in complex ideas was Aaron’s specialty. He started developing lessons to teach business leaders the most important scientific skill: critical thinking. Soon, he had developed a series of workshops exploring this science through an audience-friendly lense. Dialectic was started to deliver these workshops.

As the list of Dialectic clients grew, we were asked to solve more and more kinds of behaviour change problems. Soon, we were developing and delivering custom training and e-learning to meet this growing demand, always with the same ethos of making cutting-edge science accessible to a wide audience. Each successive project helped to hone our processes into what would become the I2E^® methodology.

Even in the early days, we recognized though the market for training was rapidly shifting online, there was very little innovation happening. We recognized a real opportunity to harness novel elements of e-learning to design person-centred training that could demonstrably change behaviour and organizational culture.

Dialectic grew deliberately, bringing in professionals of varying backgrounds—from philosophy and social psychology, to marketing and graphic design—to generate scientific insights, validate them, and then build the most effective workplace training available.

Today, this approach drives our passion for improving the health of organizations and their employees. Often, we’re building solutions to help organizations develop leadership and culture, aid digital transformation, or reemphasize the behaviours of an inclusive workplace. We value co-creation and work closely with our clients, encouraging them to join our team and make key contributions at each stage of the I2E^® process.

As we look to the future, we are letting our curiosity drive us. We can’t wait to uncover what makes your organization unique, so we can work together to foster a workplace culture that attracts, retains and develops the best people.

Meet Our Team

We bring a team of learning specialists, researchers and creative designers to the table.

Aaron Barth, Ph.D.

FOUNDER and PRESIDENT

Aaron Barth is an innovator working at the convergence of science, smart design and technology to change behaviour and transform organizations.

His deep expertise in critical thinking, decision-making and problem-solving is grounded by a PhD in Philosophy from Western University. Inspired by the need for transformational, evidence-based solutions to business challenges, he left a burgeoning career in academia to launch Dialectic in 2010.

Cindy Holland

DIRECTOR OF MEDIA DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

Cindy has an unrelenting passion for all things creative. She earned her Advertising Diploma from Conestoga College, and she possesses a diverse skillset resulting from her extensive experience in the fields of graphic design, print production, and marketing. Her critical thinking and creative insight are integral to our products and to the unique customer experience we deliver.

Carrie Knuckey

CLIENT EXPERIENCE DIRECTOR

Carrie brings her client focused, structured approach to her work as the Manager of Client Experience at Dialectic. She is passionate about helping organizations and individuals thrive in their authentic pursuit of social justice through understanding themselves, their workplace and the world. Using empathy, active listening, and effective communication, along with her years of experience in developing and implementing complex programs, Carrie ensures that projects and programs at Dialectic are deployed to the delight of clients.

Dominique Attrell

DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND CREATIVE DESIGN

Dominique is a researcher and creative designer who has a knack for synthesizing complex information and creating impactful learning experiences. An experienced narrative writer, Dominique communicates key learning concepts while honouring social and emotional nuance. She crafts learning solutions that engage, enlighten, and motivate learners. She is also the host of Just One Q, a biweekly podcast that spotlights DEI practitioners with big ideas for driving real cultural and behavioural change.

Abbas Safdari

DIRECTOR OF SALES

Abbas Safdari has a passion for improving the world using innovative solutions. His philosophy is based on deeply understanding customer needs and pain points before recommending a solution to help. A graduate from the Economics program at the University of Waterloo, and having been an entrepreneur for most of his career, Abbas brings an innovative energy to every deal to make sure customers are satisfied. He envisions a world where people are empathetic and understanding of each other's perspectives and cultures.

Jake Stallard

INTERACTIVE MEDIA DEVELOPER

Jake is an award-winning designer with a passion for clean, functional design. A graduate of the Advertising program at Conestoga College, Jake’s analytical approach creates focused solutions. His editorial and in-house design experience brings a wide range of skills and experience to the Dialectic team. Whether working within a client’s brand guidelines or free from restrictions, Jake brings function, purpose and creativity to elevate every project.

Meet Our Collaborators

Subject Matter Experts

To ensure our training is effective and comprehensive, we work with a variety of subject matter experts to validate the content. By fusing insights from industry leaders with our scientifically-proven approach to training, we can offer e-learning that drives lasting behaviour change and positive shifts in organizational culture.

Ashland Johnson

Founder, Inclusion Playbook

Ashland Johnson is the founder and president of The Inclusion Playbook, a sports impact consultancy. An attorney, equity and inclusion strategist and former Division I athlete, Ashland has over a decade of civil rights experience working with social justice communities, advising sports leaders and serving in leadership roles in advocacy organizations.

Camille Dundas

Co-Founder, byblacks.com

Camille Dundas is the co-founder of byblacks.com, public speaker and corporate DEI consultant. An intersectionality expert, she puts a specific emphasis on the idea that effective diversity work must go beyond gender. Camille’s approach is heavily rooted in explaining what allyship looks like and giving tangible steps to transforming how teams understand how this plays out in the workplace.

Colleen James

Principal Consultant, Divonify

With over fifteen years of experience promoting inclusive environments in public, private, education and not for profit sectors, Colleen has been able to blend her passions of education and diversity. As the Principal consultant at Divonify, she provides equity diversity and inclusion (EDI) training to organizations, companies and individuals.

Brian Carwana

Executive Director, Encounter World Religions

Brian has a PhD from the University of Toronto and has spent twenty years at Encounter delivering engaging programming to workplaces, schools, and organizations to increase religious literacy in our communities. An Associate of the Canadian Centre of Diversity and Inclusion, he is honoured to work with leaders and staff in government, health care, police, manufacturing, high-tech, and service sectors.

Adriana Leigh

Founder and Principal Consultant, ALG Consulting

Adriana Leigh (she/her/hers) brings 19+ years of diverse global experience as a workplace human rights lawyer and facilitator in gender equality, sexual harassment, and gender-based violence prevention and diversity and inclusion. Trilingual in English, French and Spanish, Adriana leverages her well-rounded background to support organizations to build harassment-free, inclusive environments and relations through training, policy development, coaching, thought leadership and knowledge building and sharing.

Partners

We recognize many organizations are doing great work in the soft skills and DEI space. By collaborating with the following organizations we can increase our impact and create real change.