In the knowledge/information age, increasing productivity and effectiveness is difficult because something has changed. What has changed is the very nature of work. People used to say “Talk less, work more”. Not now, because for most people their work is a conversation. Working means talking. And the effective organisations and individuals are the ones who are adept talking. We truly are living in McKinsey’s Interaction Economy.
The most powerful idea in the world today, is the idea of a real conversation. Real conversations can create insight, influence thinking and bring people together to solve problems. Three conversations matter:
- Conversations with ourself, which shape our thinking and behaviours.
- Conversations with important others that aim to influence, inspire, negotiate, coach and facilitate.
- Conversations that surround our own and provide the context and meaning to our own conversations. This is culture.
To make these conversations real, we need to bring greater consciousness to what’s happening in the conversation – who are we, what are we trying to achieve, who is our audience, what do they want to achieve, how do we tailor our conversation to different people/situations.
Those are the moments that count!
My father used to say that conversation is the second greatest thing in life – love being the first. Conversing is probably genitically imprinted in us – it has been very effective for sensing, informing, influencing, measuring and testing since small family groups of half a dozen sat around a fire at night. Perhaps that is why we can so quickly persoanlly relate to small numbers of people? Relationships are developed through such conversations that may be focused or meandering. Shared values and understandings help to visualise and bring into one’s own context other’s perspectives. Only then can one contemplate building pathways between them and then into the future. If leaders can not understand the perspective of their team members, how are the members to understand the leader? There goes my team, and I must follow them, for I am their leader!
Your father was a wise man.
Think all great leaders have the ability to make sense, at a personal level, to their teams. Usually at the emotional level. And it’s impossible to do this without knowing them as individuals.