Create a conversation

June 2010

Before there were meetings, planning processes, or any other techniques, there was conversation—people sitting around, interested in each other, talking together,” writes Margaret Wheatley (2002). It has been through simple conversations that authoritative leadership roles traditionally held by those at central office in Rockwood School District (Eureka, Mo.) have shifted to collaborative relationships between district-level staff and school-based leaders. This change happened through mutual dialogue about effective professional learning as it applied to classroom practice and student achievement. Margaret Wheatley (2002) says, “Human conversation is the most ancient and easiest way to cultivate the conditions for change — personal change, community and organizational change, planetary change. If we can sit together and talk about what’s important to us, we begin to come alive.” Most conversations