ABSTRACT
This chapter describes conversation, which is a key input and an enabler of what happens in business and in most of our lives. It forms the collective intelligence in an organization. A basic truth espoused by Susan Scott is that conversation is the workhorse of an organization: "Business is fundamentally an extended conversation, with colleagues, customers, partners, and the unknown future emerging around us". The criticality of our conversations with others starts to become clearer when we consider the amount of time we spend in face-to-face conversations, or ones involving email, text messages, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other online networking services. Possibilities are essential for managing into the future, as they provide a safe place in conversations for people to shape what can be or what might happen. The challenge for leaders is to be aware of their language and deliberate in its usage in a way that is open to possibilities.
