GUEST POST: Conversation Really Can Change the World

I'm Libby Ashton, a University of Michigan student/Wf360 summer intern and, more importantly, your guest blogger for today!

I've always found quality conversation to be among life's most stimulating and nourishing resources.When I first read about Wf360 and the work they do, I was inspired by Susan's ability to turn something so essential to human fulfillment (and something that comes so naturally to her) into a career. What a brilliant concept--bring together the best minds in business to generate a pool of the best content for bettering their businesses. But after attending my first Inner Circle a couple of weeks ago, I saw that effective communication and well-maneuvered conversation creates more than just brain candy.

Placing 12 executives--or writers or philosophers or designers--in a room together does not guarantee the exchange of anything, let alone anything interesting. Ideas reside internally and their power is often hard, if not impossible, to communicate. Language is a tool that requires mastering for its fullest use. Eye contact, hand gestures, and intonation can enhance a word's ability to express an idea but still, something is usually lost in the shuffle between speaker and listener. That shuffle gets louder and more complicated when the room is full of precocious speaker/listeners. With facilitation and enough time, however, the collaborative insights of all 12 participants begins to materialize out of the dialogue.

As a student, I had a surreal experience being able to watch this happen among a handful of the people who are essentially running the business world that my friends in the business school have spent four years studying. If 1) the insights on innovation, market appeal, and branding of these executives are the guiding force behind their decision-making and 2) collaboration among their peers deepens these insights, then effective communication is the key to industry-wide progress. If the Inner Circle format were replicated among thought leaders in every sector of society, the possibilities of progress as a people would be endless.