I can think of two reasons right off. First, if I looked at all the financial and human waste that is caused because team members aren’t asking for what they needed the resulting costs would be startling. How often have we taken on tasks without asking for further clarification about what we’re being asked to […]
Mary Oliver’s 40-year Conversation
I was looking through my journal as I was doing some year end cleaning and found this note about Mary Oliver’s lecture at Seattle Arts and Lectures. What touched Rissa and me the most was her remembrances of her partner Molly Malone Cook, who died several years ago. As Oliver recalled, “We were talkers — […]
Imagine an Institute for Conversation!
I spotted this language school while my wife and I were vacationing in Mexico City several years ago. My imagination immediately started racing with possibilities — “What would an Institute for Conversation look like? What would it teach? Here’s what Tom Atlee, founder, of the non-profit Co-Intelligence Institute, had to say about conversations and what might […]
Conversational Viruses and Vitamins from “You Are What You Say”
The first book that I want to work with is You Are What You Say by Dr. Matthew Budd. This book details how Dr. Budd used simple speaking and physical exercises to treat people with stress-related illnesses through his Ways to Wellness Program at Harvard University. Through teaching his patients simple things like how to make a […]
Why focus on Quality Conversations?
I recently came across Hal Macomber’s Ten New Rules for Project Managers and was struck by how many of the new rules depend on the quality of the conversations that are happening within project teams. It’s the one thing that I’ve seen that determines the quality of the products I’ve worked on for companies like Aldus […]
All the Outcomes We Experience…
“All the outcomes we experience, both individually and socially, come from our conversations: the conversations we have, the ones we don’t have, the conversations we do well, and the ones we do poorly.” – Bob Dunham