Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Issue 311 – May 2026
John Hovell and I have regular Zoom conversations, and for some time I’ve wanted to bring AI into them as a participant, not just something sitting on the side. With quite a bit of help from ChatGPT, I’ve now managed to make that happen on my Windows laptop. It involves a small audio mixer and a slightly fiddly setup, but once it comes together, it works really well.
The AI can hear both of us and respond naturally, which significantly changes the feel of the conversation. We’re even planning to experiment with bringing it into our In Conversation podcast.
If you are interested, you can find the full setup instructions here: AI in the room.
Contents
- A Guidebook on Conversational Leadership
A practical peer learning resource from CoachingOurselves - Let the AI Critique Itself
Why critiquing the critique can sharpen your ideas - Talk Before Text
Why writing follows dialogue not the other way round - Dialogue Begins with Connection
Daniel Schmachtenberger on the conditions for better conversation - Information Is Not Enough
Why sharing information does not always change what people do - Rethinking Modern Knowledge Management
Looking again at knowledge, people, and technology - Help Keep My Work Alive
- Coaching
- Unsubscribe
- Gurteen Knowledge Letter
A Guidebook on Conversational Leadership
A practical peer learning resource from CoachingOurselves
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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Let the AI Critique Itself
Why critiquing the critique can sharpen your ideas
When I write something with ChatGPT, I often ask it to critique the ideas rather than the writing. Sometimes I just say, “Criticize this”—more often, I use a more detailed prompt to probe assumptions, gaps, and weak reasoning.
This is useful, but the more interesting step comes next. Once it has finished, I ask it to critique its own critique.
This can be quite revealing. The first response often sounds critical, but it may still be shaped by the way I have framed the piece. It can pick up on my tone, my interests, and the direction of my thinking, and feed something back that fits too comfortably.
The second critique is not necessarily more truthful. It is still the same system responding to another prompt. But it can create a little more distance. It may notice where the first critique was too soft, too abstract, or too accepting of my assumptions.
For me, the value is not that the AI suddenly becomes objective. It does not. The value is that the loop makes the interaction more visible. I can see more clearly how my framing shapes the response, and where the model may be following my lead rather than challenging me.
So the simple sequence is: write, critique, critique the critique.
It is not a method for finding the truth, but it is a useful way of slowing down, testing the thinking, and becoming a little less easily persuaded by a response that sounds plausible.
Talk Before Text
Why writing follows dialogue not the other way round
I recently read a thoughtful piece by Rod Naquin that really resonated with me. His point is simple. We think by talking. Writing comes later. Text is downstream of conversation.
That fits closely with how I’ve come to see things. We don’t form ideas in isolation and then express them. We work them out together, in conversation. If that upstream work is missing, the writing that follows is thin.
This feels even more relevant now. AI can generate fluent text instantly, but it cannot replace the human experience of thinking things through together.
If you are interested in dialogue in education, this is well worth a read:
https://rodjnaquin.substack.com/p/why-talk-is-where-it-happens
We are dialogic creatures, shaped by conversation before we ever put pen to paper.
The written word, logical reasoning, even scientific inquiry—all of these emerge from something more primary and mysterious: the human capacity for dialogue.
When we ignore this hierarchy, when we privilege text over talk, we’re building our educational house on sand.
Dialogue Begins with Connection
Daniel Schmachtenberger on the conditions for better conversation
I recently came across an excellent post by Daniel Schmachtenberger on the quality of dialogue. What I like about it is that, like Martin Buber and David Whyte, he does not treat dialogue as a technique, but as a way of being with another person.
He says that dialogue starts with intent, respect, listening, connection, humility, and care. He then moves into practical guidance on speaking, common traps, discernment, and the virtues that make good conversation possible.
Schmachtenberger’s key point is simple but profound: that connection matters more than content because content flows through connection. That makes this post highly relevant to anyone interested in dialogue, sense-making, conflict, and, of course, Conversational Leadership.
Resource: A few guidelines that tend to support the quality of dialogue
Information Is Not Enough
Why sharing information does not always change what people do
Knowledge Management is often described as getting the right information to the right people at the right time. This matters. If someone needs a policy, procedure, document, or factual answer, clear and accessible information can make a real difference. But this view can be taken too far.
In many situations, people already have the information they need, yet little changes. The issue may be context, constraints, incentives, trust, risk, or the need to make sense of things together.
The Information Deficit Model names the assumption that better information will lead to better decisions or changed behaviour. Sometimes it does. Often it does not.
In KM, this matters because we can easily mistake information delivery for knowledge work. Repositories, intranets, FAQs, and AI tools all have their place, but they do not remove the need for conversation, judgement, interpretation, and action.
The question is not only whether information has been shared, but whether it has made a difference.
Continue reading: Knowledge Management and the Information Deficit Model
Rethinking Modern Knowledge Management
Looking again at knowledge, people, and technology
I was pleased to collaborate recently with SearchUnify on their Expert Hub, sharing a few thoughts on the questions shaping modern knowledge management.
As I say in the piece:
But knowledge is not content. It is not something that sits in a repository waiting to be used. It is something we enact. It shows up in how we make judgements, how we respond in context, how we act together in uncertain situations.
You can read it here.
Help Keep My Work Alive
Sustaining 25 Years of shared learning and conversation
For 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.
If my work has made a difference to you, I'd be grateful if you could consider supporting it. A small monthly donation or any one-off contribution would greatly help cover some of my website hosting costs.
Thank you to the 50+ patrons who have already supported me - your generosity means a great deal.
Coaching
Bringing Conversational Leadership into your daily practice
If you're curious about how a more conversational approach might shift the way you work with others, whether in leading, learning, or collaborating, I offer one-to-one coaching tailored to your context.
We explore real challenges and possibilities through dialogue, helping you develop your own way of practicing Conversational Leadership in daily work.
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The Gurteen Knowledge Letter
A monthly reflection on Conversational Leadership and Knowledge Management
The Gurteen Knowledge Letter is a free monthly email newsletter, in its 25th year, designed to inspire thinking on Conversational Leadership and Knowledge Management. You can explore the archive of past issues and subscribe here.
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David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom
