Conversational Leadership

There is a piece of communication in organizations and in the workplace that I think is really missing. We are the only part of creation that has been given the gift of dialogue.
However, there is a problem:  Words have lost their power and intentionality.  Who doesn’t want to be part of a place where words matter? Or even where words become matter, creations that lead to changes in our workplace, in our organizations, in our lives. We are hungry for that.
     One of the things that I want you to see is that meaningful dialogue in an organization is a portal for vision and purpose, not just in the mind of the leader, but it is in the heart of an organization. Dialogue is also the pathway to teamwork.  Teamwork is a kind of collaboration where we see what we do together enables us to achieve results we can’t on our own. Then, I believe dialogue is the essence of leadership.  The essence of leadership is to facilitate the conversation. Twenty-first-century leaders know how to dialogue and know how to facilitate this.
     I don’t mean that dialogue is “buying in” to someone else's vision. Dialogue is not endless chatter. Dialogue is neither decision making. Better decisions will come if dialogue occurs, but they are two different things. Dialogue is not an equal voice for all people in the organization. Many leaders go around dialogue because they’re afraid of how much time it might take.

What does meaningful dialogue look like?
     Dialogue is, first of all, mutual discovery.  Three questions you can ask:

What are you passionate about?
What can we be best at in the world?
What’s our economic driver?

Dialogue brings people around the invisible, so that they can begin to talk about what is not yet but could be. The flip side of that is, what is in our organization that isn’t good?  A mutual discovery process needs to go on at every team and individual level.
     Dialogue is also a mutual shaping. It is not just about words; it is about action. What is emerging in our organization changes rapidly in our day. That’s why dialogue is so important – you can lose your entire industry without even knowing it in the 21st century.
     Dialogue is reflective.  This is where many leaders stumble. In the book Good to Great, the author speaks of four mechanisms: lead with questions, not answers; engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion; conduct autopsies without blame; and build in red flag mechanisms.  All of those require a kind of reflection.
    Dialogue is generative. It is what words lead to.  Conversation leads to implementation in an organization.

How can you get the dialogue rolling in your organization?
Learn to become a great storyteller. Listen to the stories that are going on.  Life is a story. Stories ignite the heart.  That’s why Jesus told so many.  Listen for stories.  Tell them.  Be the great storyteller on your team and connect that to what’s happening on your team.
     Here are five things that you can do as an emerging conversational leader to keep the conversation going:
    1. Ask many questions. Leaders should listen at least as much as they talk. Why?  Because the question is the tool for exploration.
    2. Unearth what you discover. Remember, vision is emergent. It’s first about discovery and then it’s about exploration as a team.
     3. Encounter. The people on your team matter.  Out of six billion people, why are you together with the team that you’re together with? Because the gifts they have and the things they hold are necessary for us to accomplish the vision.
     4. Look for serendipity.  There is a moment in dialogue where we see what we need to go after. Leaders learn to read that moment of emergence and invite everybody.  Do you see it?
     5. Finally, lead to change because you’ve grown. Dialogue happens as we do it together. If you are experiencing chaos on your team right now, that is the very place where the most potent change can occur.

     There’s where your change is going to come.  The choice is yours.  You’ve got vocal chords.  What are you going to do with them?

By Dave Flemming
Guest Lecturer for
MA in Organizational Leadership
Biola University

(C) 2007 Biola University