Why Socrates is a terrific NED

“Why Socrates is a terrific NED” was the intriguing title of this conversation between Mine Kobal OK and GameShift’s Research Fellow John Higgins.  Mine shared that power, and how it’s perceived and experienced in organisations, was one of the things that intrigued her and resulted in philosophy becoming a central part of her work.

Mine’s “aha” moment was when she realised that, whether leaders she was working with were focusing on innovation, growth, sustainability or something else, they were fundamentally talking about the same thing.  Therefore the best way to help them was to be curious and help them ask better questions.  And since philosophers are renowned for asking good questions, this led to Socrates and asking questions “with a beginner’s mind”.  As Mine said “Philosophy is the antidote to sameness”.

At the same time asking questions helps with leaders’ – and organisations’ – fear of uncertainty: being curious about what we know and what we don’t know, thereby dispensing with the pretence that leaders are omniscient and must have the answers to everything.

Mine and John’s dialogue led to a stimulating conversation amongst Pop Up participants including some very practical questions about how to get really good dialogue into organisations, including those that operate predominantly remotely.  It was also great to hear from a practitioner such as Mine about the importance of curiosity as a superpower and creating spaces for genuine dialogue with humility.  Whether Socrates is officially welcomed into a boardroom or not, there is much work to be done within and across organisations about these fundamental elements.

You can see the recording of the Pop Up below.

Our next Pop Up is on Tuesday 10 June (0830-1000) with Peter Shepherd who will be talking about Top Team Dynamics in a Downturn.  More information is here along with a link to register. See you there!