Conversational Intelligence®
Getting to the next level of organizational success is dependent upon the quality of the culture, which is dependent upon the quality of the relationships which is dependent upon the quality of the conversations – Everything happens through conversations!
Stanford University research tells us that 9 out of 10 conversations miss the mark!
Inc. Magazine listed Conversational Intelligence as one of the top five business trends to favorably impact a competitive advantage in 2016.
In .07 seconds, we determine if we can trust another person or not…it happens in a nano-second! Our worlds create worlds very quickly with others.
Creating a world through using conversational intelligence enables us to tap innovation, creativity, engagement, strategic thinking, alignment, commitment and accountability. Conversely, the lack of conversational intelligence creates a world of fear, distrust, yes people, group think, compliance at best, judgements of others that leads to a breakdown in teamwork and huge cultural issues that drag down productivity and results.
A seemingly simple act such as talking with a colleague—a small momentary exchange of words in a hallway—has the ability to alter someone’s life permanently. Phrases like “ You can’t do that!” and “If only you knew how!” may take only seconds to utter, but they can be life changing. There is little connection between the time it takes to say the words and the impact they may have on a person, a relationship, or within an organization.
Conversations have the ability to trigger emotional reactions. Words carry baggage. They are rarely neutral. Words carry a history of years of use. Each time another experience overlays another meaning and it all gets collected somewhere in our brain—the vault—it’s there, ready to be activated during a conversation.
Conversations carry meaning that becomes more embedded in the listener than the speaker. We communicate with each other through conversations; we connect to others through conversations. Once the umbilical cord is cut, conversations are the connectivity that keeps us together. However, words are not external, objective reality. They are projections of our own inner reality.
Language is instinctual. It is also utilitarian. All animals use language to communicate, and most of all to signal each other about how to explore, navigate, and survive the environments in which they live.
Conversational Intelligence is the intelligence hardwired into every human being to enable us to navigate successfully with others. Through language and conversations we learn to build trust, to bond, to grow, and build partnerships with each other to create and transform our societies. There is no more powerful skill hardwired into every human being than the wisdom of conversations.
Through our work with clients, we have learned how to capture, deconstruct and teach the conversational patterns of successful leaders.
Throughout our engagements you will have the opportunity to explore and understand the power of conversations to change your world.
My life long goal is to help you as leaders, or a future leader, to build a whole new sensitivity for the words you use and the conversations you have with others.
You will realize that words will either cause us to bond and trust more fully and think of others as friends and colleagues, or they will cause us to break rapport and think of others as enemies. Your mind will open up as you see the connection between language and health, and you will learn how to create healthy organizations through the conversational “rituals” that you establish.
Working with us, you will have a storehouse of very prescriptive things to do, or not do, to sustain organizational health and success. You will be able to see the impact of change, and you will learn how to design conversational rituals that enable people to embrace and navigate change in healthy ways, and prevent those rituals that become toxic over time.
Everything happens through conversations.
Words create worlds…What kind of world are you creating?