the United States), and Eb and Steffen (in Germany)—thank you for teaching me so much on our shared journey to unleash value in ourselves and others.
To my incredibly talented writing partners—Carter Phipps, Ellen Daly, and Joel Pitney—thank you for investing yourselves in translating the powerful ideas in this book into conversational language that is a pleasure to read.
To those of you who have contributed to the long and winding evolution of our company, Growth River—Marsha, Ted, Tom, Tim, Cristo, Sylvia, Steve, and Dan—thank you for the time together.
To those of you who contributed to my personal and professional learning journey—Ben, Mike, David, Bob, Sam, Howard, Klaus, Thom, Robin, and Jazmine—thank you for your support and coaching.
To Growth River associates—Andrea, Aya, Emma, Fran, Jeannine, Jenn, Louise, Nina, and Samta—thank you for helping us build a great team.
To animal friends—Adele, Blue, Brandy, Cinnamon, Gaspar, Katie, Lisa, Lyla, Muffin, Trinity, and Uxmal.
To my daughters, parents, siblings, and extended family—Emma, Isabelle, and Sophie; Dabby, Dudley; Andy, Jenny, and Tim; Abe, Amy, Avery, Barbara, Bo, Benjamin, Cassie, Chaz, Chris, Genevieve, Hannah, Harry, Herb, Hildegard, Holly, Janet, Joby, John, Karl, Katrina, Lily, Lorraine, Lynn, Maisie, Mattie, Mary, Matty, Meg, Mimi, Phoebe, Reilly, Sam, Wade, and Zack—thank you for your steady love. I hope this book fuels your dreams and possibilities.
A Note to the Reader: How to Use This Book
The objective of this book is to plant seeds for a shared language, one that enables team members to work together in a deeply human way to evolve and grow companies. For these seeds to take root requires working through the three parts in this book in sequence. If your objective is to apply the Seven Crucial Conversations to plan a major transformational initiative, such as a breakthrough strategy, cultural transformation, or organizational redesign, use this book to create a context for key stakeholders to understand your plan.
This book has been many years in the making, and I'm delighted that it is finally in the hands of readers like you. It has been designed to share what I call the Growth River Operating System—a tightly integrated set of concepts, frameworks, and processes to guide teams and organizations on a transformational journey of growth. I use the term operating system because it is the best term that I've encountered to describe the systemic nature of this methodology—the way it provides a platform for ongoing growth and transformation in multiple dimensions of the organization. However, unlike a new OS on your computer, it's not just a package you can install with a click and a reboot. It is much more dynamic and requires ongoing engagement and participation. What I hope to provide you with in the pages that follow is a framework to understand the journey, and a shared language to describe the work you do, the potentials you see, and the challenges you face. I will highlight the key milestones on the journey to higher performance and offer processes for getting teams and businesses aligned. At the heart of this approach are the Seven Crucial Conversations referenced in the book's subtitle.
That being said, you might expect to turn the page and start with conversation 1. But that's not how this book is structured. Indeed, you might be surprised to find that the Seven Crucial Conversations don't appear until Part III. This is because those conversations are designed to take place within a particular framework. Parts I and II provide critical context for the conversations, inviting everyone—whether you are an enterprise leader, or a team member at any level of the organization—to take in the big picture, to step back and understand the broader journey of enterprise evolution.
I'll start with some fundamental questions that anyone serious about organizational change must grapple with. Part I: Framing the Conversation, asks: What is an organization? What is a business? And what does it mean for organizations and businesses to grow and transform? Considering these questions will provide critical shared language, models, and frameworks for the journey ahead.
Part II: The Evolution of an Enterprise, takes readers inside that journey from the perspective of the organization as a whole—starting with the formation of a business and moving through the four stages of enterprise evolution by which it can grow and transform into a large, complex, agile enterprise. In this journey, we zero in on the particular stage where many of today's companies get stuck, and analyze the confluence of factors that come together to create a transformational tipping point that I suspect will be familiar to many readers. I'll introduce new ways of thinking about roles, capabilities, business models, strategies, and teams that can help to anchor you in a higher stage of organizational evolution.
In Part III: The Seven Crucial Conversations, we will turn our attention to the building blocks of the organization—teams. The Seven Crucial Conversations are a transformational template for creating and sustaining a high-performing team—covering leadership, culture, roles, strategies, implementation, and more.
You may be tempted to jump right to Part III, but I'd encourage you to work through the book in sequence. No matter where you sit in your organization's system of roles, you'll benefit from taking in the big picture and considering the journey as a whole as well as engaging more deeply in your particular team and accelerating its journey to high performance. So let's begin! First, I'll invite you to consider an experience that may be all too familiar. I call it the Swirl …
Introduction:The Swirl
“We're failing and we don't know why.”
“We seem to be succeeding, but we have no idea how.”
“Our industry is changing so fast, we don't know how to keep up.”
“We're doing the same things we've always done, but it's not working for us anymore.”
“We're moving quickly, but we're not sure if we're going in the right direction.”
“There are so many competing priorities, we can't seem to make decisions fast enough.”
“Everyone is working hard but we're tripping over each other.”
“We're stuck. We don't seem to be going anywhere.”
Do these sentiments sound familiar? Most people in business are on intimate terms with some—or all—of these frustrating experiences. While they might sound like different, even contradictory, states, in fact they feel quite similar. And nothing captures that common feeling quite so well as one metaphor I hear again and again: the Swirl.
Imagine being lost in a churning river, thrown around by the rushing water. You might feel like you're being tumbled down dangerous rapids; you might feel like you're being spun around in a dizzying whirlpool; you might feel like you're entangled in rocks and roots and are hardly moving at all. There's a vague, uncomfortable feeling that a lot is happening around you, but it's hard to know if any of it is actually useful. The swirl is ongoing, but is anything getting clearer? Amidst all the sound and fury, is the team, the organization, or the business moving forward? And how would you know? A tremendous amount of energy is being expended, but to exactly what end?
Whatever the particulars, too many people I meet seem to live with a gnawing feeling that their team and indeed, their organizations as a whole, could and should run more smoothly, more purposefully, and more effectively. They long for a sense of direction and flow—like a broad, deep river flowing steadily toward the ocean, gaining momentum and power. They sense the potential, and many even have a vision of what's possible—a vision that inspires and motivates them. But they are unable to actualize it amidst the daily swirl. They have
