In an interview with Fast Company at St Antony's College, Oxford, Zeldin got the new conversation rolling. The jobs that currently exist don't correspond to the kind of human beings we've become. Our interests and our needs have become more diverse, and yet our education systems make us specialists. Take the hotel sector, which is stuck in a century-old model. Yes, hotels are places to sleep, but they are also places where foreigners meet.
Conversation creates a new kind of network within organizations.
Current networks are used for competitive advantage, but conversation is focused on encouraging people to realize their potential. I'm not interested in measurables. You cannot measure the minute nuance that makes the difference between being happy and unhappy at work. For example, I talked at length with a senior executive at one of the UK's biggest retailers. Only after three hours did he reveal that he had always wanted to be an actor.