Creating A Conversational Culture

We want to create a culture that pulls every mind into the game.
— Jack Welch

Building your Collective Conversational Capacity

If your goal is to build the collective conversational capacity of your school or district, there is an obvious place to start: by creating a shared set of behavioral norms – a clear framework for how you agree to work with each other when something important is on the line.

Just as it’s important to have everyone on the same page about what they’re working together to achieve – your important decisions, and the specific goals and activities for putting them into action – it’s also essential to get everyone on the same page about how to work together to achieve it.

You then need to do two things:

  • First, put these norms into daily action so that every conversation, meeting, decision, problem, or conflict becomes a practice.
  • Second, regularly reinforce the learning with a focused set of activities.

    • Culture building is hard work. It requires communication, communication, and, then, more communication.
    — Joan Magretta

    Learning Objectives

    A team with shared values, goals, language, concepts, and behaviors – where everyone is on the same page in terms of how they think and act – is a team with a powerful culture. To that end, in this workshop you’ll explore a variety of creative strategies for building the collective conversational capacity of your team and district in a way that supports your educational goals, including

    • Activities for continuous practice, reflection, and learning as you build your conversational capacity skills.
    • How to take advantage of learning partners when faced with challenging conversations.
    • How to use “Sweet Spot” facilitation to keep meeting behaviors aligned with purpose.
    • The use of visual prompts that help the skills stick.
    • Multiple activities that reinforce key concepts and skills.
    • Creating a Conversational Code of Conduct™ that ensures your entire team speaks the same language.

    You and your team will create a team plan for taking what you’ve learned and applying it to your unique circumstances. The goal is to build a healthy conversational culture that is good for people, good for the district, and good for the community.

    Prerequisite: Conversational Capacity for Educational Professionals

    Length: Customized to fit your training schedule

    Randy Weber

    Randy Weber

    Randy Weber has worked with Conversational Capacity concepts and skills for over two decades. With a BA in History from UC Berkeley and a MA in Education from USC, Randy’s primary research and practice has focused on teaching elementary school children the basics of Conversational Capacity. Based on this work, Randy and Craig are co-authoring a new book, tentatively titled Conversational Capacity in the Classroom, to help educators apply the discipline to their demanding work environment.