Conversational skills are essential for analyzing complex phenomena.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequalities, as we know, and undermined our society. What about relationships between people? What I would call “conversational skills”?
This skill is more relevant than ever with this pandemic and its effects on the health and morale of individuals and communities. As Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, says, “Communication makes the world go round. It facilitates human relationships and allows us to learn, grow, and progress… It is the most important skill a leader can possess.”

According to investment guru Warren Buffett, “Without good communication skills, you won’t be able to convince people to follow you, even if you can see over the mountain and they can’t.” Finally, on the same subject, Microsoft founder Bill Gates said: “Communication skills and the ability to work well with different types of people are very important… Software innovation, like almost all other types of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas.”

As a full professor of marketing, I have international management experience in various industries and over 25 years of empirical research and teaching focused on an interdisciplinary, relational approach in various contexts around the world. Over the past decade, I have reoriented my empirical research and teaching to communicate to the general public the need to balance the creation of corporate goods and societal wealth. It is in this context that I am interested in conversational competence.

“The medium is the message”

The work of Canadian communication thinker Marshall McLuhan can be summed up in one sentence: “The medium is the message.”

Storytelling is becoming the medium, and therefore the most effective way to influence, teach, and inspire, to build trust among all types of learners (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic). Used in ethnography, anthropology, and sociology, storytelling is becoming a common practice in marketing.

There are three reasons for using the storytelling method, according to marketing specialist Kimberley Whitler.

1.  It develops a sense of connection between people.

2.  Oriented toward observation, experience, and the sharing of lived perspectives, it tests the application of theoretical models that take into account the social dimension and context.

3.  Actors play different roles (customer, citizen, decision-makers), bringing them closer to the field and to complex and interrelated interactions (face-to-face, remotely via social media, with artificial intelligence and robotics, etc.).

Furthermore, storytelling allows us to uncover certain truths by engaging active listening and emotions. Oral tradition is at the heart of our ability to motivate, sell, inspire, engage, and lead, writes creator Peter Guber, who has worked for numerous entertainment companies such as Sony Pictures and PolyGram.

Storytelling to Develop Conversational Skills

My business students developed conversational skills through storytelling in my classes. They shared their concerns about complex and systemic problems. They brainstormed effective solutions and innovative processes to make systems more humane. They recognized our failure to incorporate humanism into our teaching, our research, and our lives, even though we claim otherwise.

They encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone to develop conversational skills with a wider audience. I did this by using theatrical storytelling in the creation of my book, Creating Your Future Through Powerfull Conversations!

The theatrical experience, featuring practical and scholarly dialogues, demonstrates the importance and effectiveness of conversation through face-to-face dialogue, rather than simply discussing societal issues.

This storytelling exercise builds conversational skills through two main characters: the Enchanter, a preoccupied businessman, and his Master, an expert in personal transformation. A typical Reader participates in this dynamic process by reflecting on the subject throughout five acts.

The content of this play evolved based on various issues and topics raised by other researchers, journalists, and a diverse sample of students. I incorporated my research and observations, drawing on various fields (theater, politics, philosophy, history, etc.).

Six Beneficial Effects of the Conversational Method

Writing this five-act play allowed me to identify several key findings, including the importance of active listening and developing mutual trust; awareness; resistance, which identifies what’s holding us back so we can abandon our opinions, pretenses, and ready-made answers; education, which distinguishes between knowing how to be and knowing how to do things; and openness to receiving.

This is how the beneficial effects of the conversational method emerge:

1.  Taming our emotions and feelings: taking the time to let our fears and anxieties rise. It’s a strength to learn to live with our vulnerability and sensitivity.
2.  Questioning ourselves: confronting certain truths. Having the courage and discipline to analyze our choices and failures instead of being blinded by our egos and passing the problem on to the next generation.
3.  Advancing our reasoning: doing research is not enough. It is essential to understand the reasoning behind conflicting points of view and to listen attentively even if we disagree. Through this empathy, we will avoid falling into extremes.
4.  Develop mechanisms for analyzing complex phenomena: gaining perspective. Exchange with experts from different fields and think outside the box. Take your head out of the box, and your head out of your head.
5.  Find innovative solutions that respect the human entity and life: integrate aesthetics, harmony, and coexistence between humans and nature. Tame the cycles of life and death.
6.  Work on and perfect our compassion: have more patience, tolerance, and respect for each other. Avoid inflicting our inconsistencies.

The great challenge will be to apply these conversational skills in both the real and virtual worlds.