Comment: Williams captures how conversation is both a testing ground and a release, carrying ideas into unexpected new places.Conversation is the vehicle for change.
We test our ideas. We hear our own voice in a concert with another.
And inside those pauses of listening, we approach new territories of thought.
A good argument, call it a discussion, frees us. Words fly out of our mouths like threatened birds.
Once released, they may never return. If they do, they have chosen home and the bird-worms are calmed into an ars poetica.
Credit: Terry Tempest Williams
Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
Tags: argument (33) | conversation (188) | social change (20) | Terry Tempest Williams (1) | thinking (41) | voice (5)
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Conversational Leadership Workshop
In-person, 7–11 September 2026
Warbrook House, Hampshire, UK
In-person, 7–11 September 2026
Warbrook House, Hampshire, UK
We are living and working in conditions of uncertainty, complexity, and rapid change. This week-long workshop offers a space to practise Conversational Leadership as a shared, lived experience.
This quotation is part of a blook on Conversational Leadership. It is one of many quotations that have influenced my thinking on the subject. Parts of this blook have restricted access. You may browse the pages open to you, but you will need to register and be approved before you can login and access the full site. When you register, you may also sign-up to receive a quotation of the day by email.