I’ve been doing consulting work the past few weeks for ChartHouse Learning – the FISH! Philosophy company. Last night, while reading one of their books, FISH! Sticks, I came across a poem titled The Journey by David Whyte. I’ve been aware of his work with organizations since he published The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America in 1996.
I noticed on the Poetry and Work section of his website that one of his presentations is called “Life at the Frontier: Leadership Through Courageous Conversation.” A quick search on that phrase led me here where his upcoming presentation in British Columbia is described:
Every human life and every organization has a central conversation for which it was made. Staying close to that conversation, especially amid the rising demands of work, leadership or relationship takes a form of personal discipline and one might even say, personal mastery. The ability to return to the central conversation and then follow it, no matter the outward difficulties, seems to be an essential ingredient in human happiness and fulfillment, and tellingly, in the success of our work or business.
In the stress and complexity of the postmodern business world, David’s approach is to significantly reframe leadership through understanding it not just as doing but as a series of courageous conversations – with others, with the future, between different parts of the organization, with coworkers and customers and always as a foundation with our sense of self.
The outer conversations create a way of inviting others into the work and living buoyantly with stress and complexity without being drowned by it. From a very personal point of view, the courageous conversations have to do with our own nature, the inner shaping of our sense of meaning and our possibilities for present and future happiness. This also includes the way we hold the conversation with those close to us.
A quote on the ChartHouse website proclaims
“The world’s favorite hobby for employees is boss-watching.”
After reading that, as well as the role that conversation plays in the “find IT, live IT, coach IT” process espoused in LeaderFISH!, it makes me wonder to what extent Whyte would believe that leadership blogging can effectively capture and leverage some of those courageous conversations that the boss has.
Even more radically, would he believe that a leader can foster some of these courageous conversations with and among employees via the private, web-based “weapons of mass collaboration” tools that organizations are increasingly using?