Gurteen Knowledge Letter November 2022 Issue 269

Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Issue 269 – November 2022

If you are still not sure what Conversational Leadership is all about or its relevance in today’s complex world, come along to a free webinar on 12th December 2022 What is Conversational Leadership, and why is it so important?

1. Carl Sagan's foreboding on the future of America in 1995
   Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking
   
2. Conversational leadership is an approach to working together
   David Whyte
   
3. Education as an initiation into the conversation of humankind
   Michael Oakeshott
   
4. Certified Knowledge Specialist in Conversational Leadership
   KMI - KM Institute
   
5. New Book: Creating Conversational Leadership
   Aurthor: John Hovell
   
6. Acts of Conversational Leadership
   Adam Grant
   
7. Help Keep My Work Alive
8. Unsubscribe
9. Gurteen Knowledge Letter

Carl Sagan was a fantastic scientist. This ominous prediction is taken from his 1995 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.

Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking.

I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy;

when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries;

when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues;

when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority;

when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

Credit: Carl Sagan (1995)

I have long felt that although we don't all need to be scientists, we need to understand the philosophy of science and the scientific method if we are to make wise decisions in our increasingly technological world.

One of the few people who talks and writes about Conversational Leadership is David Whyte. This is how he defines the concept on his Conversational Leadership website.

Conversational leadership is an approach to working together, emphasizing on the power of conversation.

What are the conversations that enable and disable the quality and performance of work?

As an individual, as a group or team and as an entire organization.

Given the stage you are in, what are the conversations that need to stop, to start or to change?

Conversational leadership does not mean indulging in endless talking but rather identifying and engaging with the crucial and often courageous exchanges.

This facilitates meaningful change, increases adaptability and supports development.

Credit: David Whyte

Defining its as an approach to working together, emphasizing on the power of conversation is almost identical to my view.

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 especially like the line I have highlighted in yellow.

Given the stage you are in, what are the conversations that need to stop, to start or to change?

So what are the conversations that you need to stop, start or change? In particular, what conversations should you stop having?

One aspect of conversation that particularly intrigues me is its history. I've spent considerable time reading about the 17th-century and 18th-century  Coffeehouses of London and the Paris Salons. Still, the history of conversation goes back much further to the Renaissance and the philosophers of ancient Greece.

At the moment, I am reading a fascinating book Conversation - a history of a declining in art by Stephen Miller.

In the book, Stephen introduced me to all sorts of exciting people and ideas. One person, in particular, is Michael Oakeshott.

Michael's writing style is challenging, and I sometimes have difficulty figuring out his meaning or the implications he is implying.

In some ways, this is good as it forces me to think more deeply and come to my own conclusions.

I rather like his view that education is an initiation into the conversation of humankind - an enormous, never-ending conversation that started when we first learned to speak.

As civilized human beings, we are the inheritors, neither of an inquiry about ourselves and the world, nor of an accumulating body of information, but of a conversation, begun in the primeval forests and extended and made more articulate in the course of centuries.

It is a conversation which goes on both in public and within each of ourselves.

Credit: Michael Oakeshott

He also sees real conversation as purposeless. Something that I have long thought myself.

In a conversation the participants are not engaged in an inquiry or a debate; there is no 'truth' to be discovered, no proposition to be proved, no conclusion sought.

They are not concerned to inform, to persuade, or to refute one another, and therefore the cogency of their utterances does not depend upon their all speaking in the same idiom; they may differ without disagreeing.

Of course, a conversation may have passages of argument and a speaker is not forbidden to be demonstrative; but reasoning is neither sovereign nor alone, and the conversation itself does not compose an argument.

Credit: Michael Oakeshott

If you are as intrigued by his thinking as I am, the above quotations are taken from one of his essays, The Voice of Poetry in the Conversation of Mankind — well worth reading.

John Hovell, Donita Volkwijn, Saule Menane, and I will be running a Certified Knowledge Specialist in Conversational Leadership class in partnership with the KM Insitute (KMI) from February 27th to March 3rd, 2023.

The workshop in the new year is an excellent opportunity to learn how to practice Conversational Leadership. If you have not done so yet, take a look - you can find complete information and register here.

There is an Early Bird Discount is 25% if you book before December 31st.

Conversational Leadership is a relatively new discipline; until recently, no books had been written on the subject unless you included my blook.

This has now changed with the publication of Creating Conversational Leadership by my good friend and colleague John Hovell. Congratulations John.

In the book, John makes the case that our global society needs the four broad practices of Knowledge Management, Organization Development, Diversity & Inclusion, and Conversational Leadership.

Both Donita Volkwijn and I have contributed to the book. A foreword by Donita and an afterword by me.

I came across the quotation below from Adam Grant recently on Linkedin. Adam calls all these acts, acts of leadership; I would call them acts of conversational leadership.

I think the last act, which I have highlighted in yellow, is especially noteworthy.

Inviting dissenting views and amplifying quiet voices are acts of leadership.

How often do we do this? We all need to encourage dissent and inspire others to speak up regardless of our position.

The true leader in a group is rarely the person who talks the most.

It’s usually the person who listens best.

Listening is more than hearing what's said.

It’s noticing and surfacing what isn't said.

Inviting dissenting views and amplifying quiet voices are acts of leadership.

Credit: Adam Grant

For almost 25 years, I've been sharing the Gurteen Knowledge Letter each month, and many of you have been reading it for five years or more. My Knowledge Café also reached a milestone, celebrating its 20th anniversary in September 2022.

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Thank you to the 50+ patrons who have already supported me - your generosity means a great deal.

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David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom

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