LET’S TALK ABOUT STRATEGIC CONVERSATION
So far, though, few people seem to have seen its full range of possibilities, or shown how it links strategy, leadership, and change management.
Just about everything that takes place in or around any workplace is a conversation. Every organization is a product of what its people talk about. Their “key themes” determine what they’ll pay attention to, shapes their values, determines their priorities, and drives action. A “nourishing” conversation produces positive, constructive beliefs and drives winning performance and results. A “toxic” conversation has the opposite effect.
Remarkably, though, few business thinkers have focused on these simple truths. Little attention has been given to helping managers craft and conduct effective strategic conversations.
In recent years, an increasing number of academics and practising executives have started writing about the value of storytelling in organizations, the use of metaphors and analogy, and the need to frame strategy in just a few words or phrases. Yet no one has hooked all this stuff together in a way that managers can apply “on Monday morning.” So far there’s been no systematic approach to crafting and conducting an effective strategic conversation .
Three questions will quickly tell you how well you’re using strategic conversation right now – and almost certainly tell you why you’re getting your present results:
1. What do we talk about, obsessively and passionately, in our organization? (i.e., Costs, Quality, Service, Partnerships …?)
2. Who directs that conversation, and who is involved in it?
3. What is the quality of the conversation?
But there’s more to it than that. You obviously have to adress some key strategic questions. You have to lead people in a way that turns them on. And you need a performance management process that keeps them focused and under pressure, and helps you get rapid results.
Strategic conversation embraces all these issues. It will undoubtedly be the No 1 business tool of this century. If you’re not using it already, you should be. Nothing else has quite the same impact on bottom-line results. Everything else depends on it.
I have developed a way to use strategic conversation that is based on the latest research and is astonishingly simple, practical, and powerful. Articles on this website will help you apply it in your organization. But contact me for the full story.