Dialectic is creating inclusive workplace cultures and mental health supports through full suite of e-learning tools

Shortly after receiving his Ph.D. in philosophy from Western University, Aaron Barth made the decision to leave his career in academia and start Dialectic.

“The idea for Dialectic really began with the idea of helping business leaders use insights from the cognitive and behavioural sciences to improve their critical thinking skills, make better decisions, and solve problems faster,” says Aaron. “I felt that critical thinking skills would be something the business community could really use. I was still very passionate about teaching, so I started building training based on learning science and on the latest empirical studies about how our brains work and why we make the decisions that we do.”

Dialectic’s first product was in-person workshops that taught business leaders critical thinking skills in a practice-driven, dynamic way. As the business grew and received more interest from potential clients – including e-learning - Aaron identified a new value proposition: Often customers would ask for custom training on topics other than critical thinking but designed from the same science-based approach for which Dialectic was becoming known. Aaron decided to pivot Dialectic to providing science-driven custom training and e-learning on any topic.

Over the course of a few years, Aaron created a dynamic, collaborative team of scientists and creatives that included social psychologists, cognitive scientists, instructional designers, and multi-media developers.

In that time, Dialectic developed a suite of learning options that used social scientific methods including hypothesis testing, literature reviews, and quantitative and qualitative analyses, to understand an organization’s complex people problems and to provide evidence-based training solutions that addressed soft skills development, leadership skills, and EDI awareness.

Like many other startups, Dialectic was significantly impacted by the pandemic. With lockdowns and remote work, Dialectic was no longer able to offer the in-person training sessions and employee simulations that had formed the foundation of their successful business. However, its e-learning business continued to grow.

To adapt to this new reality, the Dialectic team pivoted once again to develop a new offering that could be leveraged by companies remotely and asynchronously. The new offering, called Learning Snippets, is a series of 2-minute micro-learning scenarios that can be accessed virtually to help organizations develop their employees’ soft skills from any device, anywhere.

The Learning Snippets platform allows Dialectic to scale its offerings without sacrificing its quality and evidence-based learning methodologies. Through Learning Snippets, the company was also able to further expand the scope of its expertise for customers on timely and relevant topics such as diversity, equity and inclusion, mental health in the workplace, and emotional intelligence.

Today, through Learning Snippets, Dialectic offers a full suite of e-learning tools that help businesses use science to build inclusive workplace cultures, help their teams develop inclusive habits, and address biases in a remote and asynchronous way that works for leaders and teams alike.

Help us celebrate Dialectic’s incredible startup journey at the AC’s graduation ceremony happening on October 26th. We're looking forward to celebrating with you as we add six more outstanding companies to the graduate wall!