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Feature Article: Time
Travel-Creating the Future with Conversation
"Leaders make a difference by creating possibilities and
breakthroughs. They do this through the way they speak and listen. The conversations they start change the world around
them, in small and big ways." Kim Krisco
Conversation
is the language of leadership. Think about it. How do you gain commitment to a new idea, business venture, or strategy? You have
conversations
that persuade, engage and enlist others to the cause. Successful leaders in the today's constantly changing business environment know that organizations don't change -- people do. And simply giving marching orders will not work. Today's leaders must be adept communicators who can paint a picture of the future - a picture that drives transformation, guides action, and assures the viability of the enterprise.
"The most accomplished leaders are using their most precious asset to
the fullest: their ability to use conversation to enlist support and get the people around them involved in creating a
fundamentally new future." In his book, Leadership and the Art of Conversation, Kim
Krisco offers a set of principles and tools to help you tap into this hidden asset. From Krisco's perspective,
leadership mastery is accomplished by discovering and developing distinctions for language. One of the most powerful
distinctions is related to time. When you are able to discern whether conversations are in the past, present or future,
you will be better equipped to do what is expected of you as a leader-to make new and different things happen.
Since all conversations are based in time, you experience time travel
every time you speak. Whether conversations are rooted in past, present or future has an enormous impact on what happens. You
can save time and consciously shift the conversation into more useful modes if you are aware of the time-basis of the
conversation. These distinctions, for example, can help a manager understand what is happening on her team and how to shift
people's focus from analysis to action. Instead of talking about what already happened, you can make something happen. Instead
of discussing what's holding you or your team back, you can propel your business forward. This distinction alone will help you
keep your team in action.
Typically, 80% of remarks are in the past domain.
Conversation in the Past domain can allow for acknowledgement of accomplishments and provide a foundation for action. For instance, a discussion of lessons learned from earlier actions can provide valuable guidance for next steps. While it is not "bad" if the discussion is primarily focused on the past, the past is not the place to be if you want to make things happen. Managing conversations means shifting them from the past into the present or the future domain. Use this chart to identify speech acts and the domain in which they occur.
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Future-Focused
Speech Acts
The Domain of Possibility
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Present-Focused
Speech Acts
The Domain of Action
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Past-Focused
Speech Acts
The Domain of Description
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Declarations
Promises
Inquiries
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Requests
Feedback
Planning
Mapping the process
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Opinions
Evaluations
Assessments
Analyses
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It's important for people to understand persuasion for what it is-not
convincing and selling but learning and negotiating. Jay Conger
Leadership Lessons - The Art of Persuasion
Smart leaders know that managing by decree does not work
with baby boomers, Generation Xs and many of the rest of us who will not tolerate the unquestioned authority of the old
command-and-control environment. Work gets done by people who don't just ask What should I do? But Why should I do it?
Answering these why questions requires persuasion-a conversational art worth developing.
Jay Conger, professor at USC Marshall School of Business,
puts forth the argument that the underutilized art of persuasion is a
necessary aspect of the language of leadership. Stop thinking of
persuasion as a sales pitch and, recognized that persuasion is a
learning and negotiating process - a dialogue. "Effective persuasion becomes a negotiating and learning process through
which a persuader leads colleagues to a problem's shared
solution," states Conger. "It involves careful preparation, the proper
framing of arguments, the presentation of vivid supporting evidence, and the effort to find the correct emotional match with
your audience." Conger summarizes the most common mistakes executives make in their efforts to persuade.
Four Ways Not to Persuade
- Don't attempt an up-front hard sell. Providing a strong
position at the start of a persuasion effort gives potential opponents something to fight against. Present your
position with finesse.
- Don't see compromise as surrender. People want to see
the persuader is flexible enough to respond to their concerns. Compromises can often lead to better, more
sustainable shared solutions.
- Don't think the secret to persuasion lies in presenting great arguments.
Arguments, per se, are only one part of the equation. Other factors that make arguments
compelling are the persuader's credibility, her ability to create a mutually beneficial frame for a position, connect to
the right emotional level with an audience, and communicate through vivid language.
- Don't assume persuasion is a one-shot effort. Persuasion
involves listening, testing a position, reframing it in a way that reflects input from the group, re-testing, reframing
incorporating compromises and trying again.
from Winning 'Em Over: A New Model for Managing in the Age of Persuasion by Jay Conger
TIPS, TOOLS AND PRACTICES: Leaders Focus on the Future.
Each issue of Conversations on Leadership and Life features recipes for conversation, helpful tools and
practices to help you create a sense of direction for yourself, your team, your organization and to take action
to get where you want to go.
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Practice:
Track conversations to observe where your discussions are rooted.
- In your next meeting use the time-domain model to observe where you and
your team are spending the majority of your time conversationally.
- Draw three circles, one for each domain, then put a check or hash mark in
the circle for each statement that belongs in the past, present, or future domain. The distribution
of marks will tell you where you and your team are spending the majority of your time conversationally.
- When the conversation is stuck in the past, try moving into action with
future-focused speech acts such as:
What if we tried this? or I think it is possible to. or This team is capable of.
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If language is not in accordance with the truth of things,
then affairs cannot be carried on to success. Confucius
Newsflash: Five Myths about Changing Behavior
Myth 1 Crisis is a powerful impetus for change.
Reality
90% of patients who've had coronary bypasses don't sustain changes in the unhealthy lifestyles
that worsen their severe heart disease and gravely threaten their lives.
Myth 2 Change is motivated by fear.
Reality
It's too easy for people to go into denial of the bad things that might happen to them. Compelling,
positive visions of the future are a much stronger inspiration for change.
Myth 3 The facts will set us free.
Reality
Our thinking is guided by narratives, not facts. When a fact doesn't fit our conceptual "frames" -the
metaphors we use to make sense of the world-we reject it. Also, change is inspired best by emotional
appeals rather than factual statements.
Myth 4 Small, gradual changes are always easier to make and sustain.
Reality
Radical, sweeping changes are often easier because they quickly yield benefits.
Myth 5 We can't change because our brains become "hardwired" early in life.
Reality
Our brains have extraordinary "plasticity," meaning that we can continue learning complex new
things throughout our lives-assuming we remain truly active and engaged.
From Making Change, Fast Company May2005
In His Own Words
I knew the task force I was leading was going nowhere, yet I couldn't figure out what to do about it. We were
working on a diversity plan for the division. Our consultants had completed data-gathering and our group
was trying to agree on a set of priority actions to recommend to top management. But at our monthly
meetings, we got bogged down as people seemed to prefer rehashing the meaning of the data about our
work environment instead of coming up with new ideas. One day in desperation I said rather emphatically,
"Can't you imagine what this place would be like if we could make some changes? Why is that so difficult to
do? We have an opportunity to really make a difference here." With this rather passionate statement, the
mood shifted. Someone said, "Let's spend some time today imagining what we'd like to see and forget
about how to get there." Off we went! The energy and mood of the group shifted into an enthusiastic,
creative mode. Once we imagined the future together, we were able to come up with actions to get us there.
Within a couple of months, we presented our suggestions to management. Now they are talking about a
"new reality" for our division. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I've learned a lot about how my
conversation can influence the actions of others. Mike
© 2005 Bette George & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
Feel free to forward this newsletter to others. Permission to reprint or reproduce in a newsletter, publication,
or by an electronic means is granted, provided that it includes this notice: "Copyright 2005 by Bette George &
Associates, Inc. From Conversations on Leadership and Life
, an e-newsletter by Bette George, website: www.bettegeorge.com email: bette@bettegeorge.com."
Conversations on Leadership and Life is a bi-monthly e-newsletter written by Bette George of Bette George
& Associates. In each issue, Bette offers best practice tips and resources, innovative ideas and inspiration
to help you begin to create the change you want to see in yourself, your workplace, your community.
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