A New Era For Conversation?
Making Conversation
The next time you hear someone saying, ‘I’m just trying to make conversation’, entertain the idea behind that. Look up, open up, listen up, but most of all, step up to what it means.
Conversation is an art, and we are mostly pretty rubbish at it.
We are entering a new era of conversational/constitutional AI. A powerful byproduct could be that we improve our conversations.
These new tools (LLM/GPT etc.) force us to ask better questions/prompts. As a consequence of each answer, we refine the next ‘better’ question - essentially a core part of conversation.
We are in a world where everything is underpinned by technology. And, we allow ourselves to be consumed at our peril.
We should not be competing with technology but conspiring with it to make progress and make the world safer and better for everyone.
We have skills that are not (yet) replaceable. We have our brains, our emotions, and our superpowers - and we have conversations. Computers are only just entering the game for most of us.
Conversations allow us to do amazing things. It’s where everything sparks, whatever the thing. And especially the creativity required for a business to win. Conversations are the best way to solve problems, align teams, change cultures, build new strategies and develop competitive advantage.
Only through conversation will the thing catch fire.
It’s the technique humans have to explore/show empathy, feeling, worth, value exchange, compassion, creativity and imagination.
Through conversation and related actions, we can show others we care. They have our respect/our full and undivided attention. We share knowledge, tell stories and make emotional connections that build relationships.
“When compared to humans, technology is dark and cold, with algorithms lacking anything close to a soul. When everything is technology, your sustainable strategic advantage is being human. When something is a commodity, success means being different.”
Conversational Strategy
Making a strategy is a conversation - a critical one. Strategies are deeply personal. The strategy will fail if the leaders don’t emerge from that conversation with confidence and understanding.
What Have Conversations Ever Done for Us?
They encourage consideration and compassion across teams and individuals
They’re the best mechanism for humans to appreciate, negotiate and make decisions
They create harmony and balance
They’re a leveller and encourage common-sense
They expand the context we need to think more widely about things
They expand the range of choices available for thinking about any topic
They broaden our thinking and help us to articulate problems in new and different ways
They deepen our confidence in the narratives - these are the stories we need to convey about important topics
Left alone with our own conversation, we will probably make knee-jerk and subconscious choices. We tend to do what feels right versus what could be better with others’ perspectives. Conversations give us much-needed pause regarding the big decisions required for the strategy.
As part of creating great foundations for conversation assessments of people’s perspectives, an analysis of where the differences and tensions are - they’re all insights worthy of conversation
Deliberate conversations within a structure or framework enable us to stop, reflect and figure things out
The right frameworks will cause ‘out of the box’ thinking - the correct structure never restrains fresh or innovative ideas. It demands them. Quite literally something entirely new
Conversation has the power to generate previously unimaginable thoughts. This is what I often describe as riffing. The collision of conversations and energies between people creates incredible concepts and forms entirely new hypotheses.
Conversations bring alignment or at least some kind of coherence between people.
Conversations allow teams to share knowledge and overcome ignorance. They reduce the risk of errors because we democratize knowledge and learning fast. And as complexity increases, so does the probability of error
As the business world increases in complexity, the challenge is building better tools and techniques for leaders and senior teams to deal with it.
Strategic Conversations Are The Better For Facilitation
We need conversations to overcome ourselves.
With an open mind, they remind us how biased and subjective we can be. This creates defensive positions and self-selection of reality for our convenience and beliefs. Facilitation adds objectivity and enormous value by defusing tension.
A structured framework for conversation is both checklist and a facilitator.
It’s both a stimulus and a showcase of the conversation as it emerges. No matter how expert or experienced an individual is, the challenges of strategic planning are now so complex and expansive we need equipment/tools to cover and contain it all.
Part of the power of the proper framework is the systemic nature of today's business. They’ve always been systemic, but it’s a different level altogether nowadays.
A strategy is a set of interrelated choices that position the organization to win.
And alongside that truth - the principles of systems thinking to explain that there are no perfect solutions; our choices will impact other parts of the system.
These interrelated choices need to be informed. It understands the impact of each trade-off. Minimize risk and maximize the advantage of every part of the system.
The proper framework will enable us to visualize this system and be able to tell the story to every stakeholder - especially those responsible for its operation or delivery.
This, in turn, sets up further conversations that evolve the quality of the strategy/blueprint for operations—dramatically increasing the confidence and engagement of those involved in change or delivery programs.
