TelePresence participants appear life-size and can look one another in the eye. TelePresence is a sophisticated technology tool, but what it enables is the recovery of immediate, spontaneous give-and-take. Chambers also records a video blog about once a month—a brief, improvisational message delivered by e-mail to all employees. The use of video allows him to speak to his people directly, informally, and without a script; it suggests immediacy and builds trust. And despite the inherently one-way nature of a video blog, Chambers and his team have made it interactive by inviting video messages as well as text comments from employees.
At its best, personal conversation is an equal-opportunity endeavor. It enables participants to share ownership of the substance of their discussion. As a consequence, they can put their own ideas—and, indeed, their hearts and souls—into the conversational arena. In the process, such leaders raise the level of emotional engagement that employees bring to company life in general.
Inclusion adds a critical dimension to the elements of intimacy and interactivity. Whereas intimacy involves the efforts of leaders to get closer to employees, inclusion focuses on the role that employees play in that process. It also extends the practice of interactivity by enabling employees to provide their own ideas—often on official company channels—rather than simply parrying the ideas that others present.
It enables them to serve as frontline content providers. In the standard corporate communication model, top executives and professional communicators monopolize the creation of content and keep a tight rein on what people write or say on official company channels.
But when a spirit of inclusion takes hold, engaged employees can adopt important new roles, creating content themselves and acting as brand ambassadors, thought leaders, and storytellers. This can and does happen organically—lots of people love what they do for a living and will talk it up on their own time. But some companies actively promote that kind of behavior. Coca-Cola, for instance, has created a formal ambassadorship program, aimed at encouraging employees to promote the Coke image and product line in speech and in practice.
The Coke intranet provides resources such as a tool that connects employees to company-sponsored volunteer activities.
To achieve market leadership in a knowledge-based field, companies may rely on consultants or in-house professionals to draft speeches, articles, white papers, and the like. But often the most innovative thinking occurs deep within an organization, where people develop and test new products and services.
In recent years Juniper Networks has sponsored initiatives to get potential thought leaders out of their labs and offices and into public venues where industry experts and customers can watch them strut their intellectual stuff. To communicate their perspective to relevant audiences, Juniper dispatches them to national and international technology conferences and arranges for them to meet with customers at company-run briefing centers.
When employees speak from their own experience, unedited, the message comes to life. The computer storage giant EMC actively elicits stories from its people. Leaders look to them for ideas on how to improve business performance and for thoughts about the company itself. The point is to instill the notion that ideas are welcome from all corners. As just one example, in the company published The Working Mother Experience —a page coffee-table book written by and for EMCers on the topic of being both a successful EMC employee and a parent.
The project, initiated at the front lines, was championed by Frank Hauck, then the executive vice president of global marketing and customer quality. Several dozen EMCers also write blogs, many on public sites, expressing their unfiltered thoughts about life at the company and sharing their ideas about technology. Of course, inclusion means that executives cede a fair amount of control over how the company is represented to the world. But the fact is that cultural and technological changes have eroded that control anyway.
Thus inclusive leaders are making a virtue out of necessity. Scott Huennekens, the CEO of Volcano Corporation, suggests that a looser approach to communication has made organizational life less stifling and more productive than it used to be.
The free flow of information creates a freer spirit. Some companies do try to set some basic expectations. And quite often, leaders have discovered, a system of self-regulation by employees fills the void left by top-down control. As it says in Ecclesiastes , there is a time to be silent and a time to speak. Leaders who want to facilitate conversations that foster deeper engagement need to be intentional about silence.
We can encourage those who feel compelled to speak to honor silence and practice restraint. We can invite those who find it difficult to speak to listen within for a nudge. Silence is a foundational practice for any meaningful conversation. Shared silence is a spiritual practice that transcends and can unite participants and build understanding. When we pause in silence, we learn that our ability to be present to one another doesn't always depend upon words.
We remember that the deepest level of communication is beyond words; it is an invitation to communion. For two decades, the Nashville nonprofit has modeled organizational sustainability and growth while helping women recover and rebuild. COVID has complicated how we determine the scale of our work, but asking key questions can help, writes the executive director of Leadership Education at Duke Divinity. A return to in-person work brings the opportunity to make our offices more equitable, writes a communications specialist with Leadership Education at Duke Divinity.
Registration is open for the Calvin Symposium on Worship. The conference is sponsored by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and the Center for Excellence in Preaching and features worship services, learning sessions and roundtable global conversations. Management Diane M. Millis: Silence and the art of conversation Some of the most essential practices for genuine conversation include not only the words we speak but also the silence that surrounds them.
Link to author Diane M. Millis By Diane M. Millis Leadership consultant. All the while, I could hear a voice in my head growing increasingly annoyed: "He really likes to hear himself talk. Is this a convenient time or would you prefer this afternoon?
Take care of it at the first opportunity. After you present the situation, the employee needs a chance to talk. Ask a question in a neutral, curious tone to allow her to share any relevant information. Occasionally there will be an understandable reason for the poor performance. For example, the person may have been late because of a car accident.
Start with a review of the expectations, then ask for his thoughts on how to resolve the issue. Ask one or two open-ended questions to check for understanding and one closed-ended question to secure commitment. Be the first to ask a question about Leadership and the Art of Conversation. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list ». Community Reviews.
Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Feb 11, Rita H. This book is a foundational piece for the work I do as a generative coach and consultant. My thinking, listening and speaking has changed dramatically since I put the concepts into practice. Empowerment and creating extraordinary results is a by-product of reading and embracing the concepts within this book. Jun 30, James Pritchert rated it it was amazing.
I originally hear a review of this book on National Public Radio. I immediately read the book and then called the author. I wanted to hire them as a speaker but it never came about. Jan 02, Lynn rated it it was amazing. This little book can be hard to find, but it is worth the hunt. It's accessible and filled with useful distinctions for anyone to use to move possibility conversations into conversations for action. Lcaraher rated it it was amazing Sep 30, Alicia Fletcher rated it really liked it Mar 25, Susan Escalona rated it it was amazing Aug 13,
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