Change Through Conversation
The concept that genuine conversation, rather than top-down mandates, can lead to emergent ideas and organizational change, as illustrated by a BP executive's experience.
THE IDEA
CHANGE THROUGH CONVERSATION
“BP often feels like a performance-driven machine, and I was trained by that machine,” said Vivienne Cox, then an executive VP. “When I first took responsibility for a business unit almost fifteen years ago, I was eager to try some new ideas. My colleagues John and Gene (who had responsibility for, respectively, a closely related business and both businesses together) and I had a simple idea—we wanted to foster greater cooperation across organizational boundaries, and to share information and knowledge so we could make better decisions.
“We weren’t sure how to get this new organizational model to work, but eventually we decided that the best way was just to get people talking to one another. If each person could better understand what others did, we would begin to get a sense of the possibilities, and the right structure and design would flow from that. We set up a series of workshops, most of which focused on various problems we had and options for dealing with them. What gradually emerged from these conversations was an idea for a different way of organizing the business. I was absolutely astonished that the ideas that came out of those workshops were not the ideas that I’d started with. Indeed, my own ideas were the wrong ones. Just the act of getting people together and talking with one another created a whole set of possibilities that led to a better business.”
The new ideas the groups generated were fairly complex and difficult to implement, but they proved to be the genesis of a structure for a much larger organization, which Cox led at the time of the account. “The themes from those conversations have proven to be fundamental and enduring, and have led to considerable competitive advantage for BP. That work was also the most fun I had ever had in business. John and Gene and I provoked courage in one another to do things we wouldn’t have done by ourselves. We learned things about how cultures can change that you never find out in the huge programmed culture changes driven from the top.
“In my subsequent jobs here I had different types of bosses, including strong command-and-control types, which led me to reflect on the contrast between the experiences. I knew what it felt like to work for a person who managed through performance targets and denied any possibility of real life occurring in conversation. When I moved into new jobs where I had more freedom, I continued to experiment with how to get people together to talk with one another.”
When to use it
When facing a complex problem that requires input from multiple departments or stakeholders.
When trying to break down silos and improve cross-functional cooperation.
When leading a change initiative that requires buy-in and collective problem-solving.
When the solution is uncertain and you need to explore possibilities through dialogue.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
BP Organizational Redesign
Vivienne Cox and her colleagues wanted more cooperation across BP’s organizational boundaries. They arranged workshops around problems and possible responses. Cox says the discussions produced ideas better than her initial proposals, helped shape a larger organization, and gave BP a competitive advantage.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
How can you create an environment in your organization that encourages genuine conversation and emergent ideas?
What barriers (such as command-and-control management styles) prevent open conversation in your workplace, and how might you overcome them?
Recall a time when a conversation led to an unexpected insight or solution. What conditions made that possible? How can you replicate those conditions?
Often confused with
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- The Fifth Discipline The Art Practice of the Learning Organization (Peter M. Senge)