CONVERSATIONS + LANGUAGE
Ray Stata, Center for Quality of Management Journal, Vol 4, No. 4, Winter 1995
A presentation to Analog Devices employees which explores how to improve the quality of leadership and the performance of teams through more effective conversation skills. The hypothesis is that managers spend most of their time as managers in conversations but they haven’t thought deeply about the nature of conversation nor the skills and practice required to be more effective. A new way to think about conversations is as a process to operationalize the improvement of coordinated action and the discovery of new possibilities. Ray reflected on his own experience in applying conversation skills to improving his effectiveness as a leader.
MIT Gordon Engineering Leadership Program – June 2016
Tom Malone, CEO of Milliken, a leading textile manufacturer, once invited Analog Devices’s senior leadership team to visit and learn how they had won the Baldrige Award for quality. In his closing remarks, Tom made an observation which has always stuck in Ray's mind.