10 Principles for Practicing Conversational Leadership

October 6, 2009

In late August a team of us (Toke Moeller, Helen Emerson, Glen Lauder, Mary Alice-Arthur, Peter Cowley, Jacqueline Benndorf) completed hosting an Art of Hosting training in New Zealand. There were 92 participants. For three days we had been through much learning together about hosting and harvesting conversations as a strategic approach. Conversational leadership as a strategic approach.

On the fourth day, two participants, Peta Joyce and Viv Maidaborn, hosted us in collecting content insights and gems from the full days together. I loved the commitment they brought to noticing what we could know together that was different from what we knew individually.

The headlines as principles for practicing conversational leadership are listed below. They are tips and insights for all of us as practitioners. They were born from the essential commitment of noticing what is emerging, a core competency in all conversational leadership.

Principles for Practicing Conversational Leadership

1. Give and Take What Matters
2. From Trust, Action
3. Notice Interconnection
4. Don't Be Too Hard On Ourselves
5. Share Responsibility
6. Create
Our Own Best Living Space
7. Be Bold and Playful
8. Do One Thing Differently That Makes A Ripple
9. Clarify Intent, Hold Opposites
10. Celebrate the More of Me that is Available Because of Us

I've also written an article and posted it here that includes:
- short paragraphs of description for each of the principles
- a next level harvest on more principles that emerged from the community of participants
- links to additional resources including the design overview of the event, Wordle Illustrations of the principles, and related blog links


1 comment:

Peta Joyce said...

Thanks Tenneson, takes my learning about harvesting to a whole new level. harvesting is so much more about tasting the fruits of our thinking together than an 'inventory' of what happened.
Blessings from the southern hemisphere summer,
Peta