The Chocolate Conversation
Lead Bittersweet Change, Transform Your Business
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
The single factor that determines success or failure in big business today is conversation. Great leaders use public and private conversation to send a clear message, cultivate a common worldview, set high standards and reachable goals, and uncover concerns that can undermine an organization. So what conversation are you, as a leader, having with your team? Experienced change consultant Rose Fass explains how too often we think we’re having the same conversation—about “dark chocolate,” for instance—only to be referring to three different things: milk, white, or bittersweet varieties. She shows us how to first establish common ground that leads to an effective discourse for addressing relevance, growth, and scaling: the three most important issues she sees in business today. In a light-hearted and humorous way, Fass shows how leaders can avoid a meltdown and instead drive transformation through the way they communicate in a language that all stakeholders can understand.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A clever metaphor does not a business strategy make, though Fassforward Consulting Group founder and CEO Fass tries her hardest. After years at Xerox and at Gartner, Fass formed Fassforward to help clients navigate change. The "chocolate" metaphor attempts to capture the common problem of a corporate goal breaking down when individuals add their points of view. Using a college "Death by Chocolate" party (and its many elaborate sweets) as an example, Fass writes, "If a simple concept like chocolate generate so many different opinions, attitudes, and points of view, how many more would occur when a complex strategy was at stake?" Here, a company's worldview, objective, or goal is the chocolate. The standards are individual points of view: Reese's vs. chocolate cake vs. Godiva, all the different varieties that may signify "chocolate" to different people. Finally, the concerns are the individual issues that arise from that conflict. This model hinges on the concept that the "ideal" means something different to everyone, and that corporate communications can therefore fall apart because of this disparity of viewpoints. The solution, Fass suggests, is that "to get people ready for change,' they need to embrace your worldview, understand your standards, and be allowed to openly express their concerns." This sounds nice, and Fass's examples of companies that handle change well (IBM) and those that don't (Xerox) are intriguing backed with charming illustrations from her consulting materials but there's not enough here to make more than a sales pitch for her company.
