The History of Conversational Leadership 1985 to today

Conversational Leadership is a relatively young, rapidly evolving discipline. Although much has been written about the power of conversation over the years, I am interested here in published material that refers specifically to the term Conversational Leadership or closely related concepts.

Conversational Leadership is about how we respond to the complexity of the world we’re living in. It’s about taking responsibility for the changes we want to see, and recognising that none of us can do that alone.

By practising leadership through dialogue, we bring in different perspectives, we listen, we question, and we learn and think together. In this way, dialogue becomes the means by which we create the possibility of a better world.

Credit: David Gurteen

I can’t find any references on the web to Conversational Leadership before 1985, though the term is occasionally used without explanation.

Kevin Barge 1985

This paper, Conversational leadership, organizational identification, and social motivation: A field descriptive study in two organizations, is the earliest reference I can find to the term Conversational Leadership.

William Isaacs May 1999

This article on Dialogic Leadership in the Systems Thinker by William Isaacs was published in May 1999. In the article, William defines dialogic leadership as follows:

Dialogic leadership is a way of leading that consistently uncovers, through conversation, the hidden creative potential in any situation.

World Café 2007

This page, The World Café: Fostering Conversational Leadership, from 2007, announces a workshop on Conversational Leadership, but it does not define what is meant by the term. It appears to be a precursor to the November 2009 paper below.

Tom Hurley & Juanita Brown November 2009

The first substantive reference to the term Conversational Leadership that I can find is in the paper Conversational Leadership: Thinking together for a change by Tom Hurley and Juanita Brown, which appeared in the November 2009 issue of the Systems Thinker.

In the paper, there is a note thanking Carolyn Baldwin for coining the phrase conversational leadership. This is  how she defines it:

Conversational leadership is the leader’s intentional use of conversation as a core process to cultivate the collective intelligence needed to create business and social value.

Jürgen Oschadleus 2009

The next reference I have found is also from 2009 in a paper entitled Conversational leadership: a communication tool to lead and influence organizations by Jürgen Oschadleus.

Successful managers no longer rely on the traditional authority of the “command and control” culture to deliver outcomes. Increasing evidence suggests that force and directive behaviour does not lead to long-term commitment. Instead, managers—and project managers, in particular—need to foster relationships and influence to build commitment and accountability in their teams.

This requires a whole new management style—one focused around conversational leadership.

I can find no record of any further work on the topic by Jürgen, other than a workshop in 2015 and a slide set from 2015

David Whyte March 2010

A major contributor to the field of Conversational Leadership is the poet David Whyte. I don’t know when he first started talking about Conversational Leadership, but his Institute for Conversational Leadership website conversational-leadership.org was first registered in March 2010.

This is his definition of Conversational Leadership.

Conversational leadership emphasizes keen attention, self-discipline, and a certain kind of artistry in engaging and communicating with others. Conversational leadership does not mean indulging in endless talking but rather identifying and engaging with the crucial and often courageous exchanges that facilitate meaningful change.

It begins with a leader understanding that one of their critical functions in shaping and evolving an organization is to consciously address the essential conversations which form how people think and act. Many of these conversations go unspoken in public settings, remaining unaddressed because they often reveal the conflicts or tensions that lie below the surface, bringing controversy and disagreement in their wake. It takes courage for a leader to step into this territory, as it asks them to let go of control and open up to the input and differences of others.

The traditional approach is for the leader to figure out what is right, and then persuade others to do it. Alternatively, engaging in conversational leadership is to “invite what you do not expect”, bringing you to the frontier of what is emerging in your organization and asking you to turn into it, rather than away from it.

Boris Groysberg & Michael Slind June 2012

Although the book does not use the term Conversational Leadership, it is pretty much all about Conversational Leadership, if not in name.

You will find dozens of articles on the web that review, reference, or build on their work.

Tal Shnall June 2013

Developing Conversational Leadership by Tal Shnall

Conversational leadership begins with the philosophy of embracing collective brainpower – the appreciation that we can be smarter, more creative, and more capable together than we could alone.

The challenges we face are global and complex to solve alone.

Conversational leadership takes place when leaders see their organizations as webs of conversation and consider a conversation as a core process for effective positive change.

Great leaders use conversational leadership by cultivating intentional collective intelligence needed to create business and communal value.

By initiating, convening, and holding a conversation that matters, leaders have unparalleled ways to tap everyone’s collective intelligence which can guide action towards a shared vision.

Jim McCann January 2014

David Gurteen March 2014

The first reference to Conversational Leadership is on my Gurteen Knowledge website in April 2014.

I also ran one of my public Knowledge Cafés in London on 26 March 2014 on Conversational Leadership.

This website was registered on 2 July 2015.

My definition of Conversational Leadership is as follows:

Conversational Leadership is about how we respond to the complexity of the world we’re living in. It’s about taking responsibility for the changes we want to see, and recognising that none of us can do that alone.

By practising leadership through dialogue, we bring in different perspectives, we listen, we question, and we learn and think together. In this way, dialogue becomes the means by which we create the possibility of a better world.

Credit: David Gurteen

Dik Veenman & Graham Hart 2014

Dik Veenman and Graham Hart of The Right Conversation wrote about “The Rise of Conversational Leadership” in 2014, but the original article is no longer online. An updated version from 2017 can be found here: The Rise of Conversational Leadership.

Alison Boothby December 2015

From Download to Dialogue: Building conversational leadership

Tom Hurley & Juanita Brown August 2016

This glossy article, “Conversational Leadership: Aligning People with Strategy,” on the Oxford Leadership website appears to be an update of Tom and Juanita’s earlier article in the System Thinker from November 2009.