DR DOUGLAS OʼLOUGHLIN is the Principal of The Dao of Thriving and an Associate Consultant with the Civil Service College (CSC) and Harthill Consulting. Douglas believes that organizations and communities can flourish and contribute to the growth and development of individuals, and believes that polarity thinking can help make this happen.
Originally from New York, he first visited Asia when he was with AT&T, and ended up living in Singapore in 1993 after a series of serendipitous events. He has worked as a Senior Principal Consultant in the Singapore Public Service and has worked across all sectors and in more than 20 countries. His passion is enhancing peopleʼs lives and the systems we live and work in, particularly the public service, healthcare, and social sector.
Douglas has facilitated Polarity Thinking workshops for all types of groups, has done a TEDx talk on polarities (you can search on ted.com), and is a certified practitioner from Polarity Partnerships. He has seen how understanding polarity thinking has created shifts for individuals and organizations, like managing stability AND change, being firm AND kind, practicing candor AND diplomacy, advocating data sharing AND data privacy.
His PhD research was on how the frameworks and tools of Adult Development Psychology, specifically Action/Leadership Logics and Action Inquiry, can impact Personal and Organization Development.
He wrote Facilitating Transformation: 12 Strategies for Creating Breakthroughs with Groups as a way to share the wisdom he has gained from working as a consultant/facilitator over the years. He recently created a “Quotes for Expansive Living” calendar.
Douglas is married with Christy, and they do their best to manage the polarities in their relationship. Thanks to her for coming up with the name of the book, ANDlightenment.