I recently found myself thinking about the transformative power of conversations and one of the first conclusions I arrived at is that conversation, especially face to face, is a lost art.

Conversation is more than just talking, or a way to catch up. The true value of a conversation is in its ability to drive change and foster collaboration, not just in our day to day lives but on an organisational level.

We are often told that knowledge is gained primarily through books or good teachers and mentors. The right books and teachers can certainly offer enlightenment, knowledge can also be gained through training programs and manuals, but I think that true knowledge happens through conversations, especially in an organisational context.

I personally began to understand the power of conversations in the last few years. Conversations are a powerful tool companies can deploy and leverage to solve customer problems. A cross-cultural, cross-functional conversation with employees across departments and functions can aid in problem solving, not just common customer issues or a particular shop floor problem, but any business concerns within the establishment.

And the power of conversations doesn’t end there. If we are able to create the right ambience, and forum, in which people from different functions, departments and roles can come together to share their perspectives without any barriers, an organisation will eventually create community from these conversations.

After all, what is community, if not a set of people who come together with passion for a purpose? Communities stick together, solves problems together, they are joyful and they infuse other sections of the organisation with excitement and inspire them to create more communities.

Building community isn’t only to solve issues at a business level; it could also be at an individual or functional level, where employees can ease the pressure by simply talking about skill related or personal problems.

From my experience, I have found that the team needs to come to a state of zero judgment, where we listen to one another along with voicing our perspectives and views without fear. As this continues, there is a certain synthesis of knowledge that occurs and this is translated into new product ideas, building capability, benefitting employees and even helping people in their overall well-being. And then conversations will ultimately drive the total well-being of organisations.

There is an emotional connect that drives the power of physical conversations. Face to face conversations within organisation will benefit companies and their power in a meaningful way. It builds great ideas, helps in bonding, and propagates the synthesis of knowledge.

Besides, I am sure we all miss having unfiltered conversations to connect with one another on a personal level.
Let me know what you think about my musings below…