CoachingOurselves was co-founded by Henry Mintzberg and Phil LeNir. It is built on a simple but powerful idea that we learn best not from courses or content alone, but through structured conversations with peers about our own work.
Its approach centres on short, practical guidebooks known as topics. These are written by experienced thinkers and practitioners, including Henry Mintzberg, Amy Edmondson, Edgar Schein, and David Cooperrider. Their topics include leadership, psychological safety, culture, helping, strategy, and change.
Small groups use these topics to reflect on real issues, share experiences, and think together. The emphasis is not on teaching theory, but on helping people make better sense of what they already know, face, and practice day to day.
In this sense, CoachingOurselves is deeply conversational. Learning emerges through dialogue, not instruction. Insight comes from interaction, not transmission.
That is why I was delighted to write a new CoachingOurselves topic on Conversational Leadership.
The guidebook introduces the idea of Conversational Leadership and invites small groups to explore how conversation shapes leadership in everyday work: how we listen, question, disagree, make sense of issues, and take responsibility for the conversations that matter.
It sits naturally within the CoachingOurselves approach: practical, reflective, and grounded in people’s own experience.
If you would like to learn more about CoachingOurselves and the guidebooks they have available, including mine on Conversational Leadership, here is where to go: CoachingOurselves
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Knowledge Letter: Issue: 311 (Subscribe)
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Image Credits: Midjourney
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