Why is Dialogue Essential to Leadership?

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE
Dialogue is the central aspect of co-intelligence. We can only generate higher levels of intelligence among us if we are doing some high quality talking with one another.

Tom Atlee, Co-Intelligence Institute

EDUCATION
Within communities that foster human growth and development, change seems to be a natural result of constructing meaning and knowledge together-an outgrowth of our conversations about what matters. Leaders need to pose the questions and convene the conversations that invite others to become involved...In the social systems such as schools and districts, one good conversation can shift the direction of change forever.

Linda Lambert and others

The Constructivist Leader

LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS
True learning organizations are a space for generative conversations and concerted action which creates a field of alignment that produces tremendous power to invent new realities in conversation and to bring about these new realities in action.

Fred Kofman and Peter Senge

"Communities of Commitment"

Organizational Dynamics

LEADERSHIP
Talk is key to the executive's work...the use of language to shape new possibilities, reframe our perspectives, and excite new commitments...the active process of dialogue, and the caring for relationships are the core foundation of any social system.

Suresh Srivastva and David Cooperrider

Appreciative Management and Leadership

EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT
As the business landscape continues to emerge, and new forms of organization take shape, our ability to lead will be dependent upon our ability to host and convene quality conversations.

Robert Lengel, Ph.D., Director

Center for Professional Excellent

University of Texas at San Antonio

Executive MBA Program

CONVERSATIONAL LEADERSHIP
We make meaning of our experiences through the language that we use, the stories we use, the images we favor...Fostering shared understanding means creating conversational infrastructures that carve out the time for true listening, thoughtful reflection, and mutual sense-making. Thoughtful listening and disciplined collective reflection provide the foundation for creating productive conversations and shared understanding about how the organization's results are actually created, and how they can be improved.

Juanita Brown and David Isaacs

The World Cafe: Shaping our Futures Through Conversations That Matter