Authentic Conversations - James Showkeir

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Résumé :

This book takes a radical new look at the potentially transformational role of workplace conversations . Through over twenty-five years of work as organizational consultants, Maren and James Showkier have discovered that conversation has the power to create, sustain or change organizational culture. But much of the time the kind of organizational culture these conversations sustain is one that stymies growth and erodes commitment. The problem is that traditional workplace conversations reflect an organizational culture based on a kind of parent-child model, with leaders treating employees as children who needed caretaking and protecting rather than as capable adults who needed to participate in creating a successful organization and own their accountability for finding solutions. As a result, the kinds of conversations leaders have with employees, and employees have with each other, just perpetuate this dysfunctional dynamic.

With this book, the Showkiers help people understand how parent-child conversations and cultures are undermining our organizations' chances for success in the marketplace. They explore the myths and traditions that have created and maintained parent-child cultures and provide information and tools to help transform the harmful parent-child dynamic into authentic, adult-to-adult conversations. They examine the importance of intentions, language and confronting difficult issues while maintaining goodwill.

The Showkiers begin with a credible, marketplace-oriented business case for changing conversations. In today's competitive world, it's not enough to advocate for change just because it's the right thing to do. Change has to show up in improved business results, and they show how moving away from a parent-child organizational dynamic can yield impressive bottom-line results.

Once they make the business case they expose three distinct parent-child relationship dynamics that are supported and perpetuated by traditional types of conversations, and examine the outcomes they generate, their effect on people and culture and the price the organization pays for their continuance. They take a look at how language is used for effect and manipulation and how focusing on our intentions and choosing different language allows us to have conversations that center on disclosure and engagement. They offer ways to identify harmful conversations and provide outlines for replacing them with honest, productive conversations.

The issues this book addresses apply to any organization. How do you move from a parent/child culture to an adult/adult culture? How can people recognize the damage that is wreaked by manipulative conversation techniques and learn ways to engage others in authentic conversations aimed at collaboration and partnership? How do we eliminate the traditional leadership conversations aimed at manipulation, caretaking and control and create collaborative, engaging conversations that value people's experience? How can we create an organizational culture that maximizes the potential of the entire organization? These and other questions answered in this book are relevant to organizations today and in the foreseeable future....

Biographie:
James and Maren Showkeir are principals of henning-showkeir & associates, inc., whose clients include 3M, Ford Motor Company, Kaiser Permanente, British Airways, Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, Levi Strauss, the Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership, and the Nature Conservancy.
James and Maren Showkeir are principals of henning-showkeir & associates, inc., whose clients include 3M, Ford Motor Company, Kaiser Permanente, British Airways, Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, Levi Strauss, the Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership, and the Nature Conservancy....

Sommaire:

INTRO: How Conversations Connect to Culture
What is culture and how is it created
Conversations are the primary driver
Without changing the conversation, change initiatives are doomed

CHAPTER 1: Business Case for Changing Conversations
Changing market demands
Traditional managing strategies create parent-child cultures and inflexibility
Distributing Organizational Power as a new managing strategy

CHAPTER 2: Recognizing Dysfunctional Work Conversations
The myth of holding others accountable
Parent-child relationships at work
Caretaking/Betrayal/Business Impact
Disappointment/Cynicism/Business Impact

CHAPTER 3: Holding Others Accountable
Why how we talk about issues of accountability and responsibility is important
Compliance versus commitment
Letting ourselves off the hook

CHAPTER 4: Caretaking and Betrayal
Making promises that can't be kept
Expecting security that can't be provided
Confronting issues of inherent dishonesty and need to control

CHAPTER 5: Cynicism/Disappointment
Why cynicism is so powerful
Life as disappointment as a debilitating view for business
Selling and bargaining emotional security
We are all cynics, victims and bystanders

CHAPTER 6: Beginning to Change the Conversations
Difficulty in changing in the face of 100 years of history
Safety issues
Losing the parent-child habit
Becoming the voice of the business

CHAPTER 7: Language for Disclosure and Engagement
Language for manipulation/effect
Intention vs. technique
Telling the truth with goodwill, etc.

CHAPTER 8: Confronting the Cynic
Realizing the cynic lives in everyone
Recognizing its effect in our lives and on business results
Confronting cynicism with a new conversation

CHAPTER 9: Abandoning Caretaking
Telling the truth and letting go of the illusion of control
New conversations for business literacy
Making choices for the good of the business

CHAPTER 10: Growing up: Choosing Accountability for the Success of the Whole
I am in charge of my own motivation
I am responsible for business results / good of the whole
Inherent difficulties in giving up parent/child roles

CHAPTER 11: Recognizing and Dealing with Resistance
Defining resistance
Identifying and dealing with my own resistance
Identifying resistance in conversations
Four conversations for dealing with resistance in others

CONCLUSION: No You Go First!
Who starts the Conversation Revolution
Why?
How to begin

CONVERSATION GUIDELINES: Suggestions for Getting Started
How to manage ordinary conversations extraordinarily...