Scaling Conversations How Leaders Access the Full Potential of People

by MacLeod, Dave

• ISBN13: 9781119764458
• ISBN10: 1119764459
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2021-05-04
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Find out what your customers and employees are really thinking with this indispensable resource

Scaling Conversations: How Leaders Access the Full Potential of People delivers invaluable strategies for how leaders can make their communications more inclusive and access the voices of those employees who rarely feel empowered to speak up. As constituent numbers scale, leaders have traditionally struggled to make communications a conversation with the entire organization, settling instead for small focus groups, talking at people in town halls, and delivering surveys after the fact. The result is exclusive, narrow decision-making that disengages and under-utilizes talent and human capital. And now, as the remote environment grows, the challenge and imperative for engaging conversations on a wider scale is even greater.

Scaling Conversations provides the solution. Having led a remote team for over a decade and having worked with thousands of leaders across North America, Dave MacLeod teaches you how to:

• Scale your business by listening to the voices that really matter
• Access and maximize the human capital in your organization
• Make decisions that create unity and move the group forward
• Decrease employee turnover caused by poor communication

Within these pages, you'll learn how to better facilitate conversations with a wider and more representative array of clients and employees, and not just the loudest ones in the town hall meeting or Slack channel. Perfect for any leader who's responsible for understanding what employees are really feeling and thinking, Scaling Conversations also belongs on the bookshelves of anyone who wants to learn how to discover what the “silent majority,” who are often drowned out by the loudest people in the room, actually believes.

Author Biography

DAVE MACLEOD is the CEO and a co-founder of ThoughtExchange, the leading Enterprise Discussion Management platform for scaling conversations that is used by leaders of some of the world’s biggest brands and most innovative public organizations. Prior to ThoughtExchange, Dave was a successful entrepreneur who designed businesses and events focused on innovating live group communication. Outside of work, Dave is a busy dad of three and a lover of the outdoors.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

PART I What’s in a Conversation?

Chapter 1 What’s a Conversation? 3

Chapter 2 Why Do We Need to Scale Conversations? 9

Chapter 3 Components of a Conversation 21

Chapter 4 Why Are Conversations Hard to Scale in Person? 33

Chapter 5 Why Are Conversations So Hard to Scale Online? 41

Chapter 6 Typical Mistakes Leaders Make at Scale 47

PART II How to Scale Conversations Effectively

Chapter 7 Components of a Successful Scaled Conversation 65

Chapter 8 The Hierarchy of Questions 79

Chapter 9 Components of Good Questions for Scaled Conversations 107

Chapter 10 Synthesizing Scaled Conversations 119

Chapter 11 Scaling Conversations in Action: Diversity, Inclusion, Mental Health, Equity 139

Acknowledgments 163

About the Author 167

Index 169