# Conversational Leadership: an online book by David Gurteen

> Conversational Leadership is a style of working where you understand the power of conversation and take a conversational approach to the way that you work\.

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## Pages
- [Conversational Leadership Future Events](https://conversational-leadership.net/events-future/): This page brings together upcoming public talks, Knowledge Cafés, and workshops related to Conversational Leadership\. These events explore conversation as a practical way to work, think, and learn together, and include both open sessions and more structured learning experiences that I host or support\.
- [Gurteen Knowledge Letter](https://conversational-leadership.net/gurteen-knowledge-letter/): The Gurteen Knowledge Letter is a free monthly newsletter that I create from selected items on my blog\. Its purpose is to stimulate thought about Conversational Leadership and Knowledge Management\. I have published it every month for over twenty\-five years, and it is distributed to over 20,000 people worldwide\. Register to receive the Gurteen Knowledge Letter by email each month You may copy, \.\.\.
- [Gurteen Knowledge Café Registration Form](https://conversational-leadership.net/kc-registration-form/): Gurteen Café Registration Form Please complete this form to receive emails to keep you informed of online Cafés and in\-person Cafés in London and your region\. First Name \* Last Name \* Organization \(optional\) Job Title \(optional\) City \* Country \* Email \* Tick the Café\(s\) you are interested in \(at least one must be selected\): Online Zoom Café London In\-Person Café Would you like to join the Gurteen \.\.\.
- [Gurteen Knowledge Letter Registration Form](https://conversational-leadership.net/kl-registration-form/): Gurteen Knowledge Letter Registration Form Please complete this form to receive the free monthly Gurteen Knowledge Letter by email\. First Name \* Last Name \* Organization \(optional\) Job Title \(optional\) City \* Country \* Email \* If you would you like to receive the occasional e\-mail \(no more than about once a month\) keeping you in touch with my activities such as Knowledge Cafés and other events? \.\.\.
- [Conversational Leadership](https://conversational-leadership.net/): Start reading

## Posts
- [What Makes a Real Community?](https://conversational-leadership.net/community/): A community is more than just a group of people with shared interests\. Many networks and organizations call themselves communities, but they often lack the deeper connections that make a real community\. True communities grow over time through meaningful relationships, shared purpose, and mutual care—not through design or construction\.
- [Listen with the Intent to Understand](https://conversational-leadership.net/listen-to-understand/): Listen with the intent to understand: Don't listen with the intent to judge or reply\.
- [What Is Communityship?](https://conversational-leadership.net/communityship/): Organizations are more than collections of individuals\. They depend on relationships, shared purpose, and our willingness to take responsibility for the whole\. Henry Mintzberg's concept of communityship challenges the emphasis we place on individual leadership and draws attention to what we can accomplish when leadership, responsibility, and care are shared\.
- [A Brief History of Knowledge](https://conversational-leadership.net/history-of-humankind/): Human knowledge has evolved over millennia, shaping our societies and cultures\. However, we often overlook the broad historical context of how knowledge developed\. Understanding the history of knowledge helps us navigate the present and make informed decisions for the future\.
- [The Difference Between Responsibility and Accountability](https://conversational-leadership.net/responsibility-accountability/): We use the words responsibility and accountability loosely in everyday language, but what's the difference? We take responsibility but are held accountable\. We can not make someone responsible for something; we can only hold them accountable\.

## Books
- [The Constitution of Knowledge](https://conversational-leadership.net/book/the-constitution-of-knowledge/)
- [Complex Responsive Processes in Organizations: Learning and Knowledge Creation](https://conversational-leadership.net/book/book-complex-responsive-processes-in-organizations/)
- [Changing Conversations in Organizations: A Complexity Approach to Change](https://conversational-leadership.net/book/book-changing-conversations-in-organizations/)
- [The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual](https://conversational-leadership.net/book/book-the-cluetrain-manifesto/)
- [Enlightenment Now: the Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress](https://conversational-leadership.net/book/book-enlightenment-now/)

## People
- [Stephen R\. Covey](https://conversational-leadership.net/person/stephen-r-covey/)
- [Edgar Schein](https://conversational-leadership.net/person/edgar-schein/)
- [David Whyte](https://conversational-leadership.net/person/david-whyte/)
- [David Bohm](https://conversational-leadership.net/person/david-bohm/)
- [Martin Buber](https://conversational-leadership.net/person/martin-buber/)

## Videos
- [Touchy Feely Crap](https://conversational-leadership.net/video/touchy-feely-crap/)
- [On Leadership \.\.\. with Christien Oudshoorn](https://conversational-leadership.net/video/on-leadership-with-christien-oudshoorn/)
- [Great Leadership Is a Network, Not a Hierarchy](https://conversational-leadership.net/video/leadership-is-a-network/)
- [A Time to Think](https://conversational-leadership.net/video/time-to-think/)
- [How Can Groups Make Good Decisions?](https://conversational-leadership.net/video/how-can-groups-make-good-decisions/)

## Quotations
- [Knowledge Management Is a Bullshit Issue](https://conversational-leadership.net/quotation/knowledge-management-is-a-bull-issue/): I think "knowledge management" is a bullshit issue\. Let me tell you why\. I can give you perfect information, I can give you perfect knowledge and it won't change your behavior one iota\. People choose not to change their behavior because the culture and the imperatives of the organization make it too difficult to act upon the knowledge\. Knowledge is not the power\. Power is power\. The ability to \.\.\. \| Michael Schrage
- [Democracy Is a Conversation](https://conversational-leadership.net/quotation/democracy-is-a-conversation/): Democracy is a conversation \.\.\. Modern democracy as we know it, it's built on top of specific information technology\. Once the information technology changes, it's an open question whether democracy can survive\. And the biggest danger now is the opposite of what we faced in the Middle Ages\.In the Middle Ages, it was impossible to have a conversation between millions of people because they just \.\.\. \| Yuval Harari
- [Not All of Us Can Do Great Things\. but We Can Do Small Things with Great Love](https://conversational-leadership.net/quotation/small-things-with-great-love/)
- [Epistemic Loneliness](https://conversational-leadership.net/quotation/epistemic-loneliness/)
- [There Are No Problems in Complex Systems](https://conversational-leadership.net/quotation/no-problems-in-complex-systems/): The idea of a “problem” in a complex adaptive system is misleading, as it suggests the existence of a clear, identifiable issue that can be resolved independently\. In reality, what we perceive as problems are often symptoms of deeper, systemic patterns and interactions\. \| David Gurteen

## Papers
- [Aggregated Knowledge From a Small Number of Debates Outperforms the Wisdom of Large Crowds](https://conversational-leadership.net/paper/aggregated-knowledge/)
- [Group Discussion as Interactive Dialogue or as Serial Monologue: the Influence of Group Size](https://conversational-leadership.net/paper/group-discussion-as-interactive-dialogue/)
- [Why Do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory](https://conversational-leadership.net/paper/why-do-humans-reason/)
- [The Dialogic Mindset: Learning Emergent Change in a Complex World](https://conversational-leadership.net/paper/dialogic-mindset/)
- [Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Cafés – a Case Study in Higher Education](https://conversational-leadership.net/paper/knowledge-sharing-and-knowledge-cafes/)

## Events
- [Are We Offloading Our Thinking to AI?](https://conversational-leadership.net/event/offloading-our-thinking-to-ai/): Can AI help us think more deeply, or does it sometimes spare us the thinking through which we learn? In this Knowledge Café, we will explore cognitive offloading, our experiences of thinking with AI, and what it means for conversation and collective thinking\.
- [Event: Gurteen Knowledge Café Workshop](https://conversational-leadership.net/event/kcafe-workshop-dec-2026/): Organizations rely on meetings and workshops to think together, explore issues, and make sense of complex situations\. Many sessions drift into presentations or debate, leaving little space for shared thinking or real conversation\. A Gurteen Knowledge Café provides a clear, practical approach to designing and hosting focused, participatory conversations\.
- [Event: What Is the Impact of Anthropomorphising AI?](https://conversational-leadership.net/event/anthropomorphising-ai/): AI increasingly speaks to us in ways that feel remarkably human\. Treating it as a person may change how we trust, question and converse with it, while carrying those habits into our human relationships\. This Knowledge Café offers a space to examine these effects together through conversation and shared experience\.
- [Event: Interthinking: How Can We Think with AI?](https://conversational-leadership.net/event/interthinking/): We often think of thinking as something we do alone\. Yet many of our best ideas emerge through conversation with others\. Interthinking offers a way of understanding how people, and perhaps AI, can think together\.
- [Event: Conversational Leadership Workshop 2026](https://conversational-leadership.net/event/ckscl-2026/): We are living and working in conditions of uncertainty, complexity, and rapid change\. Many leadership approaches still rely on control, expertise, and tools that no longer fit the realities people face\. This week\-long, in\-person workshop brings people together to practise Conversational Leadership as a shared, lived experience\.

## Blog Posts
- [Events](https://conversational-leadership.net/blog/events/): I host regular Knowledge Cafés, both in person in London and online via Zoom\. Open to all, they provide an opportunity for shared learning, reflection, and conversation\. My next Zoom Café, “Are we offloading our thinking to AI?”, takes place on Tuesday 3 November 2026, 14:00 to 15:30 GMT \(London time\)\. We will explore cognitive offloading: when AI helps us think more deeply, and when it may spare  \.\.\.
- [Reading Worth Your Time](https://conversational-leadership.net/blog/curated-links-october-2026/): Each month, I share three articles that made me stop, think, and sometimes rethink my own assumptions\. I hope they stimulate your thinking as much as they did mine\. Dartmouth Dialogues Dartmouth College is making dialogue a deliberate part of university life\. Dartmouth Dialogues aims to equip students, faculty and staff to engage across differences through respectful listening, open exchange and c \.\.\.
- [Quote of the Month](https://conversational-leadership.net/blog/qotm-10-2026/): Each month, I feature a quotation that I have found particularly thought\-provoking\. If you enjoy it, you might also like my Quote of the Day service, which delivers a carefully selected quotation by email at a frequency you choose\. You can browse the collection and subscribe here: \[InsertQuote id="convening\-conversations" comment="yes" align="" break="no"\]
- [We Have More Freedom Than We Think](https://conversational-leadership.net/blog/more-freedom-than-we-think/): I give quite a few talks, webinars, and Knowledge Cafés on Conversational Leadership, and one question comes up again and again\. “What if I work in a command\-and\-control culture where I don't feel free to speak up or do things differently?” Sometimes the concern goes further\. People tell me that taking initiative could be seen as challenging authority or even put their job at risk\. These are real  \.\.\.
- [Knowledge Management at the Scale of Society](https://conversational-leadership.net/blog/km-at-the-scale-of-society/): I have spent much of my recent working life in and around Knowledge Management\. But I have never thought of it as being solely about how organizations manage their knowledge\. A much bigger question is this: how do we, as a society, create knowledge we can reasonably trust? That question has been on my mind again since I discovered Jonathan Rauch and his book The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defens \.\.\.

## Knowledge Letters
- [Gurteen Knowledge Letter October 2026](https://conversational-leadership.net/newsletter/issue-316/)
- [Gurteen Knowledge Letter September 2026](https://conversational-leadership.net/newsletter/issue-315/)
- [Gurteen Knowledge Letter August 2026](https://conversational-leadership.net/newsletter/issue-314/)
- [Gurteen Knowledge Letter July 2026](https://conversational-leadership.net/newsletter/issue-313/)
- [Gurteen Knowledge Letter June 2026](https://conversational-leadership.net/newsletter/issue-312/)

## html
- [Table of Contents](https://conversational-leadership.net/html/table-of-contents/)

## Cafes
- [Café: Introduction to Conversational Leadership](https://conversational-leadership.net/cafe/conversational-leadership/)
- [Café: Our Gutenberg Moment](https://conversational-leadership.net/cafe/gutenberg-moment/)
- [Café: Four Levels of Knowledge Management](https://conversational-leadership.net/cafe/four-levels-km/)
- [Café: How Do We Disagree Constructively?](https://conversational-leadership.net/cafe/disagree-constructively/)
- [Café: Innovation Through Conversation](https://conversational-leadership.net/cafe/innovation-through-conversation/)

## Resources
- [The Neurochemistry of Positive Conversations](https://conversational-leadership.net/resource/the-neurochemistry-of-positive-conversations/)
- [Embodied Cognition](https://conversational-leadership.net/resource/embodied-cognition/)
- [Rethinking Trust](https://conversational-leadership.net/resource/rethinking-trust/)
- [Human Systems Are Almost Always Based On Trust](https://conversational-leadership.net/resource/human-systems-based-on-trust/)
- [Longtermism: The future is vast – what does this mean for our own life?](https://conversational-leadership.net/resource/longtermism-the-future-is-vast/)

## Insights
- [Don't Treat Reasoning as an Individual Activity \- Treat It as a Social One](https://conversational-leadership.net/insight/reasoning-is-social/): We often assume that good reasoning happens inside individual minds\. The evidence suggests otherwise\. Human reasoning evolved primarily to exchange, test, and evaluate ideas with other people\. Better thinking emerges through conversation, challenge, and shared inquiry, not through isolated reflection alone\. The Argumentative Theory of Human ReasonWe did not evolve to reason individually but to \.\.\.
- [Don’t Write to Show What You Know, Write to Change What Others Do](https://conversational-leadership.net/insight/write-to-change/): We are taught to write to display knowledge, yet in practice this rarely changes anything\. Writing only matters when it creates value for the reader, shifts their thinking, or helps them act\. Stop centring the writer\. Start understanding the reader, their doubts, their concerns, and the conversation they are already in\. Crafting Writing That Drives ChangeLarry McEnerney's insights on good \.\.\.
- [Don’t Give Advice, Listen Instead](https://conversational-leadership.net/insight/dont-give-advice-listen-instead/): We assume that when people ask for advice, they want answers\. Often they just want to be heard\. Advice closes conversation, imposes judgement, and replaces their thinking with ours\. Listening keeps the inquiry alive\. Resist the urge to advise, create space for reflection, understanding, and better self\-directed action instead\. Don’t Give AdviceEspecially when it is soughtDon't give advice: \.\.\.
- [Don’t Treat Decisions as Final, Treat Them as Hypotheses](https://conversational-leadership.net/insight/treat-decisions-as-hypotheses/): In a complex world, decisions should not be seen as endpoints but working hypotheses\. Treating them as final closes conversation and hides doubt; holding them lightly keeps learning alive, surfaces risk, and allows us to adjust as reality unfolds\. Decisions as HypothesesWhy decisions work better as hypotheses than conclusionsIn complex environments, nothing stands still\. Time passes, conditions \.\.\.
- [Stop Looking for Solutions, Start Responding to Complex Systems](https://conversational-leadership.net/insight/no-solutions-to-complex-problems/): In complex systems, solutions are illusions\. Each action shifts conditions\. Focus on learning, responding, and adapting as the system evolves\. Let go of solutions, engage in continuous response\. There Are No Solutions to Complex ChallengesOnly an endless series of adaptive responsesComplex systems defy simplistic problem\-solving\. Rather than definitive solutions, we can only respond to the \.\.\.

## Categories
- [Conversational Leadership Habits](https://conversational-leadership.net/category/conversational-habits/)
- [Conversational Leadership Methods](https://conversational-leadership.net/category/conversational-methods/)
- [The Power of Conversation](https://conversational-leadership.net/category/conversation/)
- [Knowledge Management](https://conversational-leadership.net/category/knowledge-management/)
- [Appendix](https://conversational-leadership.net/category/appendix/)

## Tags
- [conversation](https://conversational-leadership.net/tag/conversation/)
- [knowledge cafe](https://conversational-leadership.net/tag/knowledge-cafe/)
- [complexity](https://conversational-leadership.net/tag/complexity/)
- [David Gurteen](https://conversational-leadership.net/tag/david-gurteen/)
- [dialogue](https://conversational-leadership.net/tag/dialogue/)

## Optional
- [Sitemap index](https://conversational-leadership.net/sitemap_index.xml)