Volume 1 Issue 2 December 10, 2003 Compound Conversation By Susan Bird Remember the old birthday party "telephone game" in which one person would start a story and each person around the table would, in turn, add to it and pass it on? The end result was invariably a great deal different from the story that started the game. Each person’s additions contributed something that enriched the tale, sometimes even transformed it. I’m fascinated by the power that can emerge from that phenomenon when the topic is a substantive one. We call this expansion of both subject matter and numbers of participants Compound Conversation. Just as money, once invested, compounds exponentially, so too can meaningful conversation increase in value to participants as well as to the organization that sets the process into action. A worthwhile goal for every organization is to become such a Conversational Company, where the exchange of ideas and opinions across the company’s geography, at all levels, is valued. Even better when that conversation is compounded and the value grows. Compound conversation is particularly valuable as a way to elicit new ideas and provide local relevance to big concepts; however, it needs to be reckoned with and managed when a corporation wants its entire workforce to receive the exact same message regardless of location. In all cases, it’s important that in companies where substantive conversation is valued over idle chat, opportunities for valuable exchange are made a priority, across geographic borders, and in ways that provide opportunity to measure results. Our corporate clients tell us that those employees and customers who participate in MainEvent tend to involve others in these continuing conversations, expanding the circle in potentially exponential fashion. Increasingly larger numbers of people are included as the conversation makes its way throughout an organization. Each person tells others so that the conversation, in viral fashion, spreads through the company, adding new facets and approaches as it expands. We welcome your examples of ways in which compound conversation has affected your own organization. Let us hear from you and we’ll share your ideas with others.