Exploring Conversational Leadership With John Hovell

Feb 24

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The convergence of knowledge management and organizational development with conversational leadership and ‘communityship’

As a leader in the convergence of Knowledge Management (KM) and Organization Development (OD), John Hovell is the Managing Director and co-founder of STRATactical. He is a practitioner, speaker, and author of OD/KM strategies and their application to current challenges. More specifically, John is the author of Creating Conversational Leadership: Combining and Expanding Knowledge Management, Organization Development, and Diversity & Inclusion.

Key Quote

"Let's create a new concept, communityship, which is where we were trying to take leadership for decades. Henry (Mintzberg) does a beautiful job of dodging. There is no definition of it. He sort of says, you sense it when you walk into the group, if you're open to it. Am I welcome here? Do I belong here? Can I step in and be my full self? Do I have to hide? Is it okay for me to hide? What does it feel like when I'm hiding? What is my hiding leadership style? Right? Like all of it is welcome. It's a, it's basically a different concept. being with a group and progressing with a group, and the closest English word for now seems to be communityship, which I imagine fits really well with this podcast.”
-John Hovell

A Definition of Leadership
”Dr. Patricia Shaw has this quote, it's actually her definition of leadership ‘convening conversations that otherwise wouldn't have happened’.

The Extraordinary Possibility of Every Moment
“There are some conversations trying to go on in the world right now. I dunno that I feel directly involved, but there are certainly lots and lots and lots of little conversations going on. So how can I as one little drop in the ocean have any kind of impact in those big discourse-level conversations? That's what I mean by moments of conversational leadership. I think on a podcast like this, I think when I get off this call and go to the next meeting, every one of those little moments, … the book I just finished reading Way of the Peaceful Warrior - one of the takeaways from that entire book is there is no such thing as an ordinary moment. , every moment is extraordinary, and I think conversational leadership heads in that direction, how can we see the extraordinary possibility of every moment relationally?

The Practice of Conversational Leadership
“If I oversimplified it without even having to look up those things, I would say look in your own mirror, pay attention to your own biases, your own assumptions. Just notice your own body sensations. When you've got a little tingling, a little discomfort, a little tension. Where is it and where in your body? What does that represent? Do you feel it in your throat, in your neck? Is that something like, I can't speak my truth? Do you notice it in your stomach? And it's more like, I need to hold back my truth. I don't even have, I'm not even ready to speak it. Is it in your head like a headache? Is it, I don't understand my own thoughts. right? Like there's a lot of data, information, and knowledge in your own body sensations that I think are so often overlooked. So yeah, look in your own mirror, pay attention to your own, which I'm trying to do and still nascent myself in it. And then range. Whatever you can do to expand your range.

Notice what other moves people make in conversations and try 'em out. Try a different language. Here's another way I would also say it. Notice when you're on autopilot, Notice when you're regurgitating words you've always used before, and see if you can get to your own limits of language where you're putting together words you've never put together before. All of that to me, leads towards like engaging in conversation..”

KEY resource from this episode: