Designing conversations that matter

I sometimes think conversations that matter just emerge, as an unexpected intimacy. And I sometimes think that all conversations matter, even if we don't notice that they do.

In an organisational context, Chris Corrigan makes a compelling case for the need to design conversations that matter, and offers some ways to encourage them. I suspect there are more aspects that are important, but his list is a great place to start.

Recent sightings

From my wanderings, some things worth a glance:

• Round-robin method for brainstorming using index cards [via Communication Nation]
• What jumping in the air might do for you, or reveal about your colleagues...
  
• Consultant Dick Grote argues the case for forced rankings in performance management
  

On conversation...

From Lisa Haneberg via Johnnie Moore, a lovely quote about conversations that matter:

Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. Dinah Craik, A Life for a Life, 1859

Multitasking and conflict

Dale Emery suggests multitasking is a poor way of avoiding conflict, which makes sense to me. I wonder also if multitasking isn't sometimes about a need to feel important and busy - a means of establishing self-worth for oneself or for others, or to ward off boredom or purposelessness? I've worked in a few environments where I have sensed that 'busy-ness' in itself was valued or rewarded, at least by implication.