Life’s a Box of… Conversations: The Company as a Language Network

Abstract

This article suggests that leaders and managers (and people in general) benefit from viewing their organizations (and ultimately life itself) as networks of conversation. Such a constructivist model of reality—while not “true” in the conventional sense of the word—enables effective action and change. The model implies that effective leadership does not depend primarily on financial resources, authority or position in the hierarchy—the corner office—but rather of language: what comes out of our mouth and into our ears. Ultimately, modeling life and leadership as conversation means that anyone can lead. Leaders are people who generate and manage effective conversations—speaking and listening—that empower others to produce mutually desirable outcomes. The article offers a methodology for what those effective conversations consist of, and how to conduct them.