New summary available for Conversational Capacity

Feb. 19, 2015 - PRLog -- Some teams are good at handling routine problems, but fall apart when faced with difficult situations, while other teams can succeed when dealing with the stickiest problems. The differentiating factor is the amount of conversational capacity each team has. The phrase refers to the ability of a team to have an open, balanced, and nondefensive discussion about a difficult topic or in a challenging situation. The tougher the problem is, the greater the team’s need for conversational capacity. In Conversational Capacity, Craig Weber outlines what is required for conversational capacity and what a person needs to do to develop it.

Developing conversational capacity requires team members to adopt new ways of thinking:

*Team members must learn to control their "fight or flight" instincts. When discussing difficult issues, some people are prone to flight--minimizing their contributions to discussions out of fear of being proven wrong or being ridiculed. Others tend toward fight--becoming so aggressive in pushing their views that they ignore what others have to say in an effort to win arguments.

*Team members need to balance candor with curiosity. Instead of minimizing or trying to win, they should clearly state their positions and the thinking behind them, but they must also test their views and explore why others might hold different positions.

*Team members need to examine their assumptions. Everyone operates with filters they do not even realize they have -- filters that are based on their cultural, educational, and experiential backgrounds. These filters can result in biased perceptions of reality.

*Team members can learn from conflicting perspectives. Typically, when people do not get the results they want, they adjust their actions and try again. Adaptive learning requires people to look at the assumptions behind their actions before adjusting them.

*Teams can work on developing conversational capacity with every meeting they attend and decision they make. By practicing the skills with routine work, they build capacity so they are ready to handle difficult situations when they arise.

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