Author: Tenneson Woolf

Last week I cohosted a leadership conference in Kingston, Ontario. A longer harvest of the shape of that day is here.

One of the gifts / learnings for me of the conference was spoken by Juanita Brown. Juanita and I hadn’t seen each other in over three years. Yet it felt like it could have been three weeks ago. Such it is with dear friends and colleagues. Juanita offered a playful framing of conversational leadership that pointed to how the very paradigm of talking to one another has been discouraged or even punished for many of us in our early years. It is what many of us grew up with and is thus present in learning contexts today.

To indicate this, she asked how many of us by show of hands had grown up hearing things like, “Stop talking and get to work!” Or, “Stop asking so many questions and give me some answers!” Or, “Don’t talk to your neighbor!”

I smile to think of each of these. To remember it from my child years makes me chuckle. Most hands in the room went up, accompanied with a slight groan. Clearly a shared experience. Yet, when I think of how these expressions — patterns really — show up in todays learning, it is deeply concerning. So much more feels possible from the perspective of conversational leadership. This was in fact Juanita’s point. What becomes possible when we “start talking because it is our work” or “start asking more questions with permission to not have answers for a while” or “talk to our neighbors and coworkers and families”?

Juanita’s invitation was to see systems as living networks. Communities. Places that we work. Families. Municipalities. Everywhere. Conversation is one of the mediums through which these systems live. As important as water to the fish. Important as the air we breathe. That’s a paradigm shift. Conversation is one of the ways that we human beings connect with each other so that we can do what we need to do. Or do what we need to do with vibrancy and richness and innovation and sustainability and, and, and.

Juanita later named conversation as the new form of work. She offered story from her early community building with farm workers in Mexico. She talked of house meeting after house meeting where she witnessed people shift from dispositions of “if only…” to questions of “what if…” to convictions of “why not!”

Get talking. What a helpful invitation. And it is good to see it as the paradigm shift. I don’t feel, by the way that we are at the beginning of this paradigm shift. It feels more like a taking-off point. People of all sectors, and organizations in all sectors, are more and more inviting and requiring us to get talking, talk to our neighbors, ask questions.

And with my kids, yup, it is the new world I’ve been raising them in all of their lives. To encourage their curiousity — this is sweet. To ask them what questions they are asking of themselves and with their friends these days — this is sweet. Makes me wonder what questions they’ll be asking when they are older that evolve us even further in our capabilities as collectives.

Last week I was in Kingston, Ontario cohosting a third annual leadership conference offered by Providence Care. Providence Care does great work in the community and region of Eastern Ontario. My colleagues and friends at Providence, in particular Lauri Prest — she works with deep insight and devotion — as well as several key senior leaders (Dr. Ken LeClair, Dr. John Puxty, Sandra Carlton, Dale Kenney) are doing an amazing job of building their own internal capacity for conversational leadership as well as the capacity that is in the community.

My cohosts included Lauri, Juanita Brown, Phil Cass and Teresa Posakony. Sara Heppner-Waldston created really beautiful graphic illustrations that require deep listening skills as much as anything. Angie Wagner contributed an amazing level of beauty in print materials. Jessica Herbison was always there supporting a level of logistics in this conference. It is important for me to name this team because the depth of work in these times requires a deep holding. Just as many hold the birth of a child into the world, so it is in the birth of a new view and practice of working together.

The conference was called “Conversational Leadership: Thinking Together for a Change.” It was a weave of speakers followed by small group and cafe conversations. We offered as starting point, a definition of conversational leadership offered by cafe host and friend Carolyn Baldwin. We tweaked it a bit for this group: “The intentional use of conversation as a core strategic process to cultivate collective intelligence to create business and soical value.”

The Honorable Ray Romanow, Former Premier of Saskatchewan and Commissioner on the Future of Health Care in Canada opened the conference. He is an inspiring speaker with much experience behind him. He is also a key figure in accellerating the impact of the Canadian Index for Well-being.

Teresa and I followed him, the beginning of several conversations during the day where she and I would have attendees turn to each other to learn. Teresa is beautiful to host with in her deep intuition and ability to see what is happening in the room. The conversation we invited of the small groups was simple — “How does what Mr. Romanow shared connect to you personally and to what is important to you now?”

Juanita Brown was a next speaker. Juanita is a beautiful mix of commitement to core strategy / results and enormuous heart. Through what she is learning through The World Cafe, she offered a really helpful framing on organizations as networks of conversations and then the importance of key questions, involving stakeholders, and simple process steps that shift dialogue from just talk to strategic process. Juanita is all about invitation and engagement — musts for conversational leadership. In the midst of this we offered small group conversations: “If organizations are networks of conversation what shifts for me / us in my work / community?” It was an invitation to put on the glasses and see through a new lense. And in another small group, “From that view, what possibilities and questions are most exciting to you?” We harvested these on postit notes so that they could be visible in the room.

After lunch, Phil Cass spoke. He told heartful story including his journey from being a driven command and control CEO to a leader that convenes. Meg Wheatley speaks this as the shift from “leader as hero” to “leader as host.” Phil is one of the best people I know in this work. His heart is enormous. His ability is extraordinary. His presence is simply honest and authentic. He speaks with clarity. And he sparks a sense of possibility in the group because of his story, both personal and from his perspective as CEO of a medical foundation. I love the way Phil didn’t speak from the stage. He came out onto the floor, the shift that all of us as hosts were deliberate to do during the day. It is a deliberate physical step to reframe the environment to one of learning together.

People were now seated in affinity groups: Physicans, Clinical Leaders, Sr. Leadership, HR Professionals, Internal and External OD Practitioners and more. The invitation at this point was to shift into another kind of practical. “What are the practial applications for your work?” It was an invitation for people to notice what they might be surprised by, and what they might need to let go of. Two rounds of this followed by some call-outs into the room.

After another break, we had people sit quietly. It was time to invite another kind of learning, another kind of settling into the day. With a framing assist from the poet David Whyte — “sometimes the truth depends on a walk around the lake” — we invited people to journal what they were beginning to see as important questions, key stakeholders that can help engage those questions, and first next steps of process. We gave them 10 minutes for this and then invited them to sit with a partner to share what they had noticed. I like this kind of exercise. Granted, it was short, but it still offers a way for people to notice their clarity and then be able to witness it or sharpen it with a partner. A good wave of words reported out after this as the mic travelled through the room (like creating a circle where you know the talking piece is coming) — commitment, passion, balance, excitement, engagement, authentic, collaboration. Much was spoken then. And even though they were just single words, my sense is that it was important for the group to witness some of what had arisen and been experienced in the whole of the day. That group hearing is part of the clarifying that people take out of the room.

We closed with a few reflections on the gift of being together. Providence Board Chair Jim Barton offered a few closing remarks — he is a retired senior leader from Dupont that you can’t help but appreciate for his passion and gentle ways. His living of the values of Providence Care is clearly apparent. He is compassionate, and so committed to learning and action. Appreciations to Lauri, who is already three steps ahead in next offerings (Leadership Development Program, Customized Art of Hosting) — she sees the big picture clearly — and Providence Care for offering the leadership to strengthen Providence and the regional community of people committed to wellness.

The day was beautiful. There were about 200 participants. It was another courageous step in helping transform the identity of those who work in health care. As Phil says, “a shift from treating illness to promoting wellness.” It was another courageous step to invite the community to create an identity together that is the next level of helpfulness in the community. And that shift in identity, as I’ve learned through Meg Wheatley’s teachings on self-organizing sytems, is what changes behavior into the possibilities of a community that we all yearn for.

When in New Zealand I heard a story from friends there about the power of a social network to create change. Cadbury New Zealand had changed one of the ingredients in its chocolate (which is very delicious by the way). It removed cocoa butter, I believe, and replaced it with palm oil. This was met with resistance by some. Palm oil comes from Borneo forests and other rain forests. With increased demand for palm oil, not just through Cadbury, more rain forests are being slashed, wild life species are becoming displaced and endangered, and there is further deforestation and global warming. Basic systems stuff that is simple in concept, yet complex and far reaching in impact.

In previous eras, average citizens would not be as likely to be able to do anything about this. Individuals, groups of citizens stood far less chance in influencing large and powerful corporations. It would have taken mass organizing efforts. But this is a different age, an age where social networks have much more influence. The Auckland Zoo boycotted the Cadbury products. 3,500 people and groups connected on Facebook and other social networking sites, and through freely available tools like Youtube, created a formidable voice in opposition to Cadbury’s actions.

The short of it is that within four weeks, Cadbury heard the response, recognized the level of reaction, and issued an apology and reversal of its policy. Citizens united around a cause with simple tools to connect and offer voice. It is how change happens today.

It is what I have learned with friends Debbie Frieze, Meg Wheatley and others about working with emergence and
taking change and connection to levels of scale that is hopeful for all of us. From isolated individuals to networks. From networks to deliberate communities of practice. From communities of practice to systems of influence. It comes from a four step model that my colleagues and I at Berkana Institute have been practicing now for many years. 1. Name the issue and purpose. 2. Connect people together around that issue. 3. Nurther the connecton — the relationship, the co-learning, the relationships. 4. Illuminate what you are learning, doing and practicing — tell stories. There is an excellent article by Meg and Debbie here.

A basic description of the situation with Cadbury New Zealand .

A bit more on the involvement of the Auckland Zoo and Facebook group.

And even better, embedded in this process of how change happens through social networks, is that local action impacts regional and global learning. Because of what has happened in New Zealand, there is now amplified and accellerated reach to connect other rainforest action groups.

A good book read on this that I’m in now is Here Comes Everybody, written by Clay Shirky. The subtitle speaks to what happened with Cadbury. “The Power of Organizing without Organizations.” Shirky makes simple points that help to context what happend with New Zealand and Cadbury:

– “New social tools lower the cost of group action. Most of the barriers to group action have collapsed, and without those barriers, we are free to explore new ways of gatheirng together and getting things done.”
– “We are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and to take collective action, all outside the framework of traditional institutions and organizations.”

Mind boggling yet simple. Powerful. Emergent. Happening in many places on the planet. How change happens in this era.

Lately I have been asking three simple questions. Who are you? What is it like to be you? What has your attention? I ask these three questions of groups as they interact. I ask them of myself. I sometimes ask them at the beginning of gatherings, and often in some form, at the end. In participatory leadership, the conversations that they evoke help further claim our fundamental relationship as co-learners, as co-creators. They also help train all of us into collectively noticing what we learn from being together. They help make available tacit wisdom that creates social and business value. Three questions. Rich outcomes.

Last week I was able to participate in a learning circle with an amazing group from Ottawa. They were all involved in calling and participating in an Art of Hosting from the spring of this year. Together we were exploring what next would help to create further community capacity to host conversations that matter. This checkin took us to a deep place from which choices and decisions were simply more clear.

I remember many years ago my friend Toke Moeller teaching me to “never underestimate the power of a good checkin.” Try these and share what you learn.