One of my biggest learnings of the last few years is how important it can be to have different people to exchange with. There are a few people I regularly have conversations with, we connect every other week or so and take some time to share.

With every one of them, I have a different type of conversation. Most often it even seems that I can just continue the last conversation where we left it.

The conversation I had today with a friend of mine showed it again. Apart from a few emails, we hadn’t talked for a year or more. As we moved into our conversation today, I could see how we immediately went into the depth we had gotten used to.

He had been working for an organization which needed a fundamental change. Within a few years, they made it happen, reaching a stage where the change can’t be reversed anymore.

Among the key take away he shared, was how the leadership team had to face a multitude of challenges including the one to be hated. Changing the system, as they did, created a dynamic within which all kinds of reactions were happening at the same time.

While it was a complex dynamic, reflecting on the dynamic while in action offered the CEO of the organization and himself the ability to see what was happening. As they developed the confidence that the dynamic they had seen would unfold according to its pattern they were able to act upon them.

It’s that confidence and the regular conversations they had with one another which allowed them to feel confident in their leadership even in the perfect storm they were experiencing.

For me, the ability to have such conversations has transformed my work. We shared this and agreed to convene more regularly.