From Gustavo Razzetti's new book. How to tackle conversational debt and facilitate conversations that move teams forward, not backward. Take a peek behind the scenes a
Thank you for sharing this! I really look forward to your book! This is such an important topic. From my Swedish perspective, we are also really bad at the art of conversation to start with.
Thank you Gustavo, great insights as usual, put on a clear and friendly way. I can see and experienced all the three types of situation and debts. Unfortunately they are so present and common in organizations. I like very much the comment of Lindsay some lines above. I can see the disfunction but also the emotional needs hiding in ABC. And sometimes I have to confess I couldn't push on conversations when I couldn't figure out how not to cope with the emotional loss. I can't wait to see the tools you propose, in the book, and how you address them! Your approaches are always wonderfully human-centered! 🌟
I love the “conversional debt”! It resonates with issues that many teams encounter. The signs of debts are also useful! Thanks for putting all together.
Thanks for sharing! It resonates so much with my own experience when supporting companies while navigating their workplace transformation journey, starting with alignment debt but so crucial to make any project successful! Still in the process of reading your previous book on Culture Design and looking forward to reading the next one!
Thank you for naming this! This made me stop and think about some of the dynamics in my team and to appreciate the members of my team who make sure we don't go into debt. They question, they challenge, and they offer insight. Their behavior is never confrontational and they have unknowingly become managers of Belonging Debt. How does the rest of the team feel about our "debt managers"? There may be an occasional eye-roll (here she goes again!) but after the debt manager makes his or her point, the majority of the team leans in and our best collaboration takes place.
Thanks for sharing this thought-provoking piece. Your signs and symptoms for each type brought to mind a few experiences with teams and with relationships too—with both smiles and disappointments! (I also appreciate the ABC acronym to help remember the 3 types of Conversational Debt. 😎)
Psychological safety takes maintenance—in a team and in relationships with peers or across organizational levels. The leaders and teams that get it right are rare, but cherished. It’s sort of like “unconditional love”—it doesn’t just happen and stay forever. It takes work to get past mistakes and misunderstandings, to earn trust after it’s been lost. In these teams and relationships, forgiveness and accountability go hand-in-hand.
As I read this, I visually replayed scenarios of each one of these debts within my organization. I believe that the nonprofit space has a higher level of debt than for profit because the bottom line it not easily seen. Nonprofits spaces love Belonging!!!
Such an insightful framework to look at this kind of dysfunction in teams! I appreciated how you lined it up with the ABC's since that was so helpful to analyze where those defects came from. (It made me want to see everything in those terms as well, so that gives more fuel for the Culture Canvas.) Although seeing that all 3 things are happening in the organization I'm working in would normally have been defeating, the way you framed it you give us the chance to remedy the situation. You'll pulled back the curtains on this...there's hope for us all!
I love this frame of conversational debt. It immediately makes clear the cumulative cost and burden of avoidance. In fact, this may be contributing to the normalized feelings of overwhelm in the workplace (and life). We avoid the conversation because the energy and emotional output feels not worth it… only for it to pile up and we eventually have pay the piper - and invest even more energy/emotional labor. Look forward to your work on this!
I hear all the time- we need to be clear on the why and the what, and the how is too much detail - for the lower ranks to work out. The problem is the lower ranks can't make the connections that a higher level oversight has. So the how results in re work cos dots are mot joined up sooner.
I took a closer look and I think I was wrong in some of my analysis. In my frustration, I may have overreacted. We have some very similar things though but I want to name it here to apologize publicly for raising this in this way when maybe we really could have landed in the same place totally by accident. Let's discuss on a call when you get back from vacation.
Thank you for sharing this! I really look forward to your book! This is such an important topic. From my Swedish perspective, we are also really bad at the art of conversation to start with.
Thank you, Sofia. Indeed, it happens across cultures.
Thank you Gustavo, great insights as usual, put on a clear and friendly way. I can see and experienced all the three types of situation and debts. Unfortunately they are so present and common in organizations. I like very much the comment of Lindsay some lines above. I can see the disfunction but also the emotional needs hiding in ABC. And sometimes I have to confess I couldn't push on conversations when I couldn't figure out how not to cope with the emotional loss. I can't wait to see the tools you propose, in the book, and how you address them! Your approaches are always wonderfully human-centered! 🌟
I love the “conversional debt”! It resonates with issues that many teams encounter. The signs of debts are also useful! Thanks for putting all together.
Thanks for sharing! It resonates so much with my own experience when supporting companies while navigating their workplace transformation journey, starting with alignment debt but so crucial to make any project successful! Still in the process of reading your previous book on Culture Design and looking forward to reading the next one!
Thank you for naming this! This made me stop and think about some of the dynamics in my team and to appreciate the members of my team who make sure we don't go into debt. They question, they challenge, and they offer insight. Their behavior is never confrontational and they have unknowingly become managers of Belonging Debt. How does the rest of the team feel about our "debt managers"? There may be an occasional eye-roll (here she goes again!) but after the debt manager makes his or her point, the majority of the team leans in and our best collaboration takes place.
Thanks for sharing this thought-provoking piece. Your signs and symptoms for each type brought to mind a few experiences with teams and with relationships too—with both smiles and disappointments! (I also appreciate the ABC acronym to help remember the 3 types of Conversational Debt. 😎)
Psychological safety takes maintenance—in a team and in relationships with peers or across organizational levels. The leaders and teams that get it right are rare, but cherished. It’s sort of like “unconditional love”—it doesn’t just happen and stay forever. It takes work to get past mistakes and misunderstandings, to earn trust after it’s been lost. In these teams and relationships, forgiveness and accountability go hand-in-hand.
Unfortunately, these are fairly common problems when open communication and transparency aren’t front and center in an organization.
As I read this, I visually replayed scenarios of each one of these debts within my organization. I believe that the nonprofit space has a higher level of debt than for profit because the bottom line it not easily seen. Nonprofits spaces love Belonging!!!
Such an insightful framework to look at this kind of dysfunction in teams! I appreciated how you lined it up with the ABC's since that was so helpful to analyze where those defects came from. (It made me want to see everything in those terms as well, so that gives more fuel for the Culture Canvas.) Although seeing that all 3 things are happening in the organization I'm working in would normally have been defeating, the way you framed it you give us the chance to remedy the situation. You'll pulled back the curtains on this...there's hope for us all!
We're all about building hope and providing the tools to turn hope into real action. Thank you, Gauri.
I love this frame of conversational debt. It immediately makes clear the cumulative cost and burden of avoidance. In fact, this may be contributing to the normalized feelings of overwhelm in the workplace (and life). We avoid the conversation because the energy and emotional output feels not worth it… only for it to pile up and we eventually have pay the piper - and invest even more energy/emotional labor. Look forward to your work on this!
Thank you, Lindsay. Good points. And the book, though the lens is work, can be applied to our entire life, not just professional conversations.
I hear all the time- we need to be clear on the why and the what, and the how is too much detail - for the lower ranks to work out. The problem is the lower ranks can't make the connections that a higher level oversight has. So the how results in re work cos dots are mot joined up sooner.
Great point. Thanks for sharing!
I took a closer look and I think I was wrong in some of my analysis. In my frustration, I may have overreacted. We have some very similar things though but I want to name it here to apologize publicly for raising this in this way when maybe we really could have landed in the same place totally by accident. Let's discuss on a call when you get back from vacation.