Abstract
Conversing, the second core skill of venture craft, helps grow and harvest social capital during startup incubation. Founders balance the yin of advocacy and selling with the yang of listening and dialogue.
Active listening , not talking, offers the straightest route to emotional connection with existing and potential stakeholders. It helps build rapport with co-founders, staff, investors and advisors by signaling a wish to have a meaningful conversation.
Building on listening , conversations acknowledge differences and divergences. The goal is not necessarily to find common ground, a squishy marsh of compromises and concessions that dilute excellence. In addition to helping the venture craftsman overcome a fear of losing control, the civility, respectful silences and (hopefully) win-win outcome of a well-improvised conversation can make the joint undertaking more pleasurable for everyone involved.
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Kornel, A. (2018). Mastering the Art of Conversing. In: Spinning into Control. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51356-4_3
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