Conversational Intelligence®
A seemingly simple act such as talking with a colleague a small momentary exchange of words in a hallway - has the ability to alter someone’s life permanently. Phrases like “You can’t do that!” and “If only you knew how!” may take only seconds to utter, but they can be life changing. There is little connection between the time it takes to say the words and the impact they may have on a person, a relationship, or within an organization.
Conversations have the ability to trigger emotional reactions. Words carry baggage; they are rarely neutral. Words carry a history of years of use. Each time another experience overlays another meaning, and it all gets collected somewhere in our brain - 'the vault' - it’s there, ready to be activated during a conversation.
Conversations carry meaning that becomes more embedded in the listener than the speaker. We communicate with each other through conversations; we connect to others through conversations. Once the umbilical cord is cut, conversations are the connectivity that keeps us together. However, words are not external, objective reality. They are projections of our own inner reality.
Language is instinctual. It is also utilitarian. All animals use language to communicate, and most of all to signal each other about how to explore, navigate, and survive the environments in which they live.
Conversational Intelligence® is the intelligence hardwired into every human being to enable us to navigate successfully with others. Through language and conversations, we learn to build trust, to bond, to grow, and build partnerships with each other to create and transform our societies. There is no more powerful skill hardwired into every human being than the wisdom of conversations.
The CreatingWE® Institute researches and studies leadership culture, and brand success and failure. Through our work with clients, we have learned how to capture, deconstruct, and teach the conversational patterns of successful leaders. Throughout this website and through our client engagements, you will have the opportunity to explore and understand the power of conversations to change your world.
Judith's lifelong goal was to help leaders to build a whole new sensitivity for the words they use and the conversations they have with others. You will realize that words will either cause us to bond and trust more fully and think of others as friends and colleagues, or they will cause us to break rapport and think of others as enemies. Your mind will open up as you see the connection between language and health, and you will learn how to create healthy organizations through the conversational 'rituals' that you establish.
Working with our CreatingWE Team, you will have a storehouse of very prescriptive things to do, or not do, to sustain organizational health and success. You will be able to see the impact of change, and you will learn how to design conversational rituals that enable people to embrace and navigate change in healthy ways, and prevent those rituals that become toxic over time.
Everything happens through conversations. Understanding how we project meaning into our conversations enable us to connect with others and, in so doing, let go of much of the self-talk that diverts us from 'creating WE'.
