Allianz Global Investors AG

Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI) is a global asset management firm with a strong presence in the U.S. and Germany. With over EUR 1 trillion assets under management and around 4,750 employees, AllianzGI is one of the world’s largest and most successful active asset managers.

In March 2009 AllianzGI established, under license of Dialogue Social Enterprise, a unique training facility in Munich dedicated to professional human resource development. Our methods are Dialogue in the Dark and Dialogue in Silence which have proven to be creative and powerful tools for human resource development. The training sessions are conducted by visually and hearing impaired trainers.

After participating in Dialogue in the Dark workshops and gaining interesting insights in the dark, representatives of AllianzGI realized that this method could be a very useful tool in their internal training curriculum.

In early 2008 AllianzGI’s CEO and COO agreed to set up their own in-company Dialogue Training Center (DTC) and formed a partnership with Dialogue Social Enterprise. The Dialogue Training Center was built up between Q4 2008 and Q1 2009, and opened with the AZI event in March 2009 when about 230 Allianz top executives participated in workshops in the dark.

Since this time we have been developing our training concepts, included Dialogue in Silence in our training curriculum, expanded our facility and opened it to external companies.

Reasoning

Dr. Joachim Faber, former CEO of AllianzGI:

The experience is highly relevant to our business; it makes you humble, aware and mindful. I think our industry in general can benefit from more of these qualities.

Marna Whittington, former COO of AllianzGI:

Through the planning process, the DTC developed into something bigger than was originally planned – into a training and management development program. It teaches us about trust, leadership and diversity. I was always impressed by the impact on the participants and the creativity and atmosphere that evolved as a result of this experience.

Beat Bucher, Global Head of HR, AllianzGI:

We brought Dialogue in the Dark to AllianzGI because it’s an innovative way of providing training for our employees, and building a culture of trust within AllianzGI. While Dialogue in the Dark is not a CSR project, it does serve to raise employees’ awareness and understanding of working with diverse groups. Dialogue in the Dark as well as Dialogue in Silence are effective because participants don’t passively listen to a lecture, they have an active role in experiencing and learning.

Angelika Antz-Hieber, Head of Dialogue Training Center, AllianzGI:

Dialogue in Silence works complementary to Dialogue in the Dark. In Dialogue in Silence (DiS) you cannot hear or talk, so eyes become heavily concentrated on reading body language. Approximately 80 percent of what we communicate is relayed non-verbally, so it’s important to understand just what messages our expressions and gestures convey. These exercises force you to reach beyond your comfort zone, challenging you to dig into expressive areas within yourself that may have become buried over the years.

AGI and the Dialogue Training Center

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