RELATIONAL LEADING: PRACTICES FOR DIALOGICALLY BASED COLLABORATION By Lone Hersted & Kenneth J. Gergen. Chagrin Falls, OH: Taos Institute Publications (2013). Kindle edition, 197 pages.

The Taos Institute and the authors have made a valuable contribution to the leadership community by providing not only a theoretical base for relational leadership but also a description of a practical application of the concept. The model is explored primarily in the corporate management context where “new and highly complex problems require linking many different kinds of knowledge; cooperation across cultural borders is increasingly necessary; work teams are needed to supply continuous innovation. Successful collaboration originates in dialogic process” (loc 128). It is in this context that the authors suggest that effective leadership is today a matter of conversation rather than command.