July 2026 | Responsible Conversations: ‘An approach for maximising collaboration and creativity in mentoring and project management practice’ with Shirley Thompson and John Chisholm

Shirley Thompson was a project manager in the last few years of her 30+year tech career with IBM, and since 2005 has been a professional coach, achieving a doctorate in coaching and mentoring, conferred in 2018. She is a coach supervisor and mentor for students of The Coaching Academy, as part of a small coaching practice, though her focus is increasingy supporting project professionals.

Responsible Conversation has based on the work of Shirley’s doctorate and is part of Responsible Project Management (responsiblepM.com) The idea aims to help leaders strengthen their conversation and relationahip skills to achieve better collaboration with stakeholders.

John Chisholm is the founder of Crescente Ltd and an experienced organisational development consultant, coach and facilitator. He has worked with leaders, managers and project professionals across a wide range of sectors, helping them develop the skills needed to lead people through complexity and change. A long-standing contributor to PMI’s mentoring programme, John specialises in coaching, mentoring and dialogue-based approaches to leadership.

Responsible Conversations is a practical approach that equips project managers with the skills to navigate complexity, build trust, surface diverse perspectives and lead more effective conversations with stakeholders, teams and sponsors.