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Keeping Conversations strategic

Keeping Conversations strategic . www.stevedenning.com. www.stevedenning.com. /slides. /SLA.ppt. Or: send me an email via www.stevedenning.com. These slides are available from:. www.stevedenning.com/slides/SLA.ppt. Why conversation ?.

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Keeping Conversations strategic

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  1. Keeping Conversationsstrategic www.stevedenning.com

  2. www.stevedenning.com /slides /SLA.ppt Or: send me an emailvia www.stevedenning.com These slides are available from: www.stevedenning.com/slides/SLA.ppt

  3. Why conversation?

  4. Knowledge summit:June 9-11, 2006Ontario, Canada Conversation! Wow! Knowledge management

  5. Conversation are central to KM: • how to deal with knowledge workers • command-and-control doesn’t work • key to the phenomenon of sharing knowledge • Simple transfer doesn’t work • important to avoid knowledge distortion especially in vertical conversations. • central to the challenge of enhancing demand for knowledge. • People have to want to share knowledge

  6. Conversations are key to managing the knowledge worker:

  7. Organizations concern conversations 1. the conversation with their customers 2. the conversation that occurs between those who actually work there. 3. The conversation concerning the unknown future of the industry and its products.

  8. Organizations concern conversations It is difficult to make any of these conversations real if the people who come in through the door every day have no real conversation with their own individuality. David Whyte

  9. Conversation gets us to a deeper level We can draw to the surface undiscussable dangerous issues Most business activities deal with the routine, superficial activities of the human animalwe wake up we eat we drink we go to work we get our job done We come home we sleep, perchance to dream We get ready for the next day

  10. Conversation gets us to a deeper level The business world is often in denial about the realm of deeper feelings— of the joy and exhilaration of being alive of the desire for loving and being loved of realizing that we may not realize our ambitions of balancing our own goals with those of others of coping with a looming sense of our own mortality. Unless we deal with those issues, work becomes inauthentic Conversation can reach this deeper place

  11. Conversation can make us more creative • we can lead people into a space where they are truly thinking together • that in turn leads to dramatic new levels of alignment and capability. • Because real conversations are authentic, it leads to genuine enthusiasm. Sandy Heierbacher The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation www.thataway.org

  12. Conversation helps individuals and organizations • There is no lever for Organizations to pull to activate people’s creativity. • it is just as difficult for any individual to find their own creative powers as it is for an organization. • both the organization and the individual are equally afraid of the creativity. • This meeting place of creative anticipation and fearful arrival is the elemental core of the new conversation in the workplace. • David Whyte: Crossing the Unknown sea

  13. Conversation skill is rare Management in the US is pervasively hierarchical Not getting any better A number of participants are working on it, writing about it or preparing books about it: Larry Prusak: Five conversations on knowledge Nancy Dixon: Peer to peer conversations at Company Command Steve Denning: book reviews at www.OpEdNews.com

  14. Whatis a conversation?

  15. Tell a 60 second storyabout:Either • A time when you found yourself in a good conversation • or • A time when you found yourself in a bad conversation

  16. Broad sense: “A communication between 2 or more people” Specific sense: “Conversation is shared exploration towards greater understanding, connection, or possibility”

  17. Key point: A conversation is an exchange of stories

  18. Who is in the conversation? With a group Yourself One on one Or with an object

  19. What is a “strategic conversation”

  20. Robert Hargrove Collaborative conversation: Collaborative conversations are those in which people in groups seek to realize their noblest aspirations with others from divergent views and backgrounds. It is a purposeful conversation

  21. Different levels of conversation • Agreeing on the purpose of working together • Participants share their authentic goals, thoughts, feelings • 3. Group learns to think and act together to solve problems • 4. Group bonds and makes firm commitments to act together

  22. David Bohm: dialogue Suspend assumptions and keep an open mind. dialogue suggests a "stream of meaning“ flowing among, through and between us, so that new understanding emerges. It is by definition open ended

  23. David Bohm: dialogue Dialogue is a process of genuine interaction through which human beings listen to each other deeply enough to be changed by what they learn. Each makes a serious effort to take others' concerns into her or his own picture, even when disagreement persists. No participant gives up her or his identity, but each recognizes enough of the other's valid human claims that he or she will act differently toward the other.

  24. William Isaacs dialogue Isaacs' working definition of dialogue a discipline of collective thinking and inquiry, a process for transforming the quality of conversation, and in particular the thinking that lies beneath it.

  25. William Isaacs: dialogue Instability of the container the initial phase when participants have concerns for safety and trust which they must move through, Instability in the container, members struggle with polarization and conflict due to the clash of personally held beliefs and assumptions. Inquiry in the container people inquiring into polarization and fragmentation often with collective pain Creativity in the container new understandings based on collective perceptions emerge and people engage in more generative thinking together.

  26. What are the characteristics of a (strategic) conversation?

  27. Conversation is inquiry: the intention is to inquire, not to advocate; To discover, not to convince." Tom Atlee The Co-Intelligence Institute www.co-intelligence.org

  28. Conversation is about values “Conversation is about what we value and how we define it. It is about looking beyond the superficial and automatic answers to our questions. It is about exploring the frontiers of what it means to be human, in relationship to each other and our world." Louise Diamond, Ph.D. The Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy www.imtd.org

  29. What conversationIsn’t…

  30. Conversation is not argument Argument is adversarial… Conversation is collaborative …

  31. Conversation is not debating Conversation is not discussing with a view to convince the other, arguing for our point of view, examining pro's and con's.

  32. Ten steps towards managing a strategic conversation

  33. Prepare carefully

  34. Preparing to the conversation: A. The story of the change A. Understand your strategy

  35. Preparing to the conversation: A. The story of the change • What is your strategy? • where are you heading? • And what is going to change? • your organization your community your family your town your country your planet

  36. Preparing to the conversation: A. The story of the change • Unexpected finding: • Big problem in strategy: • Leaders often don’t make up their mind exactly whichdirection.

  37. Preparing to lead: 1 The story of the change Preparing to the conversation: A. The story of the change • This is not a trivial undertaking! An 18 hour workshop just on this may not be enough!

  38. Preparing to the conversation: A. The story of the change • Getting clear on the change idea… David Whyte “A firm persuasion is a kind of self-knowledge… It must be discovered, cultivated, worked at, earned.” D. Whyte: Crossing the Unknown Sea

  39. Preparing to the conversation: A. The story of the change Before clarity After clarity Goal seems small, mediocre & boring It could have an impact Beating around the bush Saying things you don’t mean Reasons why goal may not be achieved Goal is nice but… not necessary This will never happen here Goal seems Larger, bolder & more exciting Will make a big difference focus on the real issues Saying what you really mean Reasons why goal must be achieved Feel strongly the goal isVital for the future This must happen here! • Getting clear on the change idea…

  40. Preparing to the conversation: A. The story of the change After clarity Sharp focus • Getting clear on the strategy… Before clarity Blurred

  41. Preparing to the conversation: A. The story of the change • Getting clear on the strategy… “I don’t pay you to tell me it’s 50-50!”

  42. Preparing to the conversation: A. The story of the change After clarity + Whole person mind and heartYou are committed! • Getting clear on the strategy… Before clarity Cerebraltacticalprovisional

  43. Preparing to the conversation: A. The story of the change Drilling down to the core message Focus on one particular change. It will have three parts. (a) what’s wrong now (b) what would it look like if the problem could be fixed? (c) how would we get from here to there? Exercise in strategy

  44. Preparing to the conversation: B. The other person’s story B. Understanding the story of the other person

  45. Preparing to the conversation: B. The other person’s story If people agree, there is no conversation!

  46. Preparing to the conversation: B. The other person’s story We often underestimate the difficulty of strategic change 1993: Lou Gerstner comes to IBM: from hardware to services • 1996: Jim Wolfensohn at the World Bank from lending to “the Knowledge Bank” • 2001: Jeff Immelt at GE from process-driven to “imagination at work” Who are You? What’s this about? I don’t get it! Not for me, pal!

  47. Preparing to the conversation: B. The other person’s story Exercise Tell the story of a person who doesn’t want to change as persuasively and coherently as you can. What are his values? The story will end: “That’s why this person does not want to change.” Understanding who you are communicating to

  48. Preparing to the conversation: B. The other person’s story Understanding who you are communicating to • Followup exercise: • Then tell the same story in the second person. It ends, “And that’s why youdon’t want to change.” • Then tell the same story in the first person. It ends, “And that’s why I don’t want to change.” get inside the mind of the person who doesn’t want to change!

  49. Preparing to the conversation: B. The other person’s story The story of the person who doesn’t want it Keep both stories in mind The story of your strategy:where are you heading?

  50. 2. Create the container for the conversation • A. Physical space • a place where you can hear and be heard

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