Introduction: Principles of Conversational Leadership The Principles of Conversational Leadership

The problem – our world is a mess. The context – our world is complex. The outcome – our old ways of working are failing—the response – read on.

The story so far

Our world is hyper-connected, and these connections create massive complexity. As human beings, we are also complex organisms with highly complex natures. This complexity, in turn, leads to a world that is

• volatile
• uncertain/unpredictable
• confusing
• ambiguous

We try to control it even though it is futile. Although possible, it isn’t easy to reduce complexity. We need to learn to embrace it, and we need to understand our human nature better and factor it into our decision-making processes.

What’s the response?

In a complex world, there are no solutions – only responses.

Many people write about how to deal with complexity. Most get it wrong and say you can “simplify away complexity.” I hope it is clear that this is almost impossible by the very nature of a complex system.

Others write fluently and provide insight and new ways of looking at things but offer little in the form of practical suggestions. Saying that people should do this or that or need to change does little to help.

We need new practical responses.

Conversational Leadership

The phrase Conversational Leadership has two components, leadership and conversation. Let’s take each in turn.

Conversation

First, we need to recognize face-to-face conversation’s extraordinary and underutilized power.

Conversation is a relationship-building and community-building tool. It helps us better understand each other and, in doing so, better understand ourselves. It helps us to build trust and respect for each other. It allows us to form and sustain strong interpersonal relationships, enabling us to cooperate better and collaborate.

Furthermore, conversation is a collective sensemaking tool. It helps us to figure out new ways of seeing the world by bringing different perspectives to bear on an issue. This, in turn, leads to improved decision-making, better strategy-making, and improved innovation.

Leadership

Second, we need a new approach to leadership.

One person or a small elite cannot make sense of the world, set the vision, and control things towards a better future, however hard they try. Vision, plans, and control are usually counter-productive in a complex world.

We need a distributed, participatory, more democratic form of leadership.

We need everyone who cares deeply about an issue to take responsibility, step up to the mark and lead through their influence. We need everyone to be engaged.

Conversation and Leadership

So leadership and conversation are what you might term the two pillars of Conversational Leadership, but Conversational Leadership is more than this, as you will learn in this blook.

Conversational Leadership rests on a few fundamental principles.

Principles of Conversational Leadership

Conversational Leadership is about appreciating the transformative power of conversation, practicing leadership, and adopting a conversational approach to the way we work together in a complex world.

Credit: David Gurteen

1. I. Take Responsibility We can choose to take responsibility for the changes we wish to see in the world
2. II. Embrace Complexity We need to understand complexity & its implications
3. III. Practice Leadership We need to practice leadership
4. IV. Leverage the Power of Conversation We need to improve our conversational skills
5. V. Nurture Community We need to care more about each other

There is no silver bullet. Conversation Leadership is not a panacea for all our problems.

Conversation Leadership alone will not directly solve all the problems, but it will help create the conditions that make it possible.

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