Dialogue

& the Art of Thinking Together

Author: William Isaacs, 1999

Definition
Personal maturation has a lot to do with developing ones abilities in
the art of conversation
Dialogue is a flow of meaning
Logos = to gather together / relationship
Dialogue is a conversation in which people think together in relationship. Thinking
together implies that you no longer take your own position as final. You relax your grip on
certainty and listen to the possibilities that result simply from being in a relationship with
others.
Thinking alone is so taken for granted, so deeply embedded in our modern ways of living;
it may be our headstrong belief that this is the only way to go that is getting us in trouble.
Through dialogue we learn how to engage our hearts. It requires we learn to include and
take into account opinions different from our own. Dialogue requires we take
responsibility for thinking, not merely reacting.

Group Behavior
Structure of group behavior (Kantors four-player action model & roles):
Movers (sovereign) new idea
Opposers (warrior) challenge idea
Followers (lover) provide support
Bystanders (magician) provide insight on action
When someone makes a move, they are initiating an action. Another person
might agree and want to support what is being said. A third person might
step in and oppose them, challenging what they are saying or proposing.
And a forth person might describe from his perspective what he has seen
and heard, and propose a way of thinking and seeing that expands
everyones vision. Bystanders provide perspective instead of taking a stand.
Healthy ecology of thought is characterized by the presence of all four
roles. They are not static; people take on new roles as needed when they
sense a need for shift of energy.

Different Languages
Problems today are too complex to be managed by one person. Dialogue seeks to harness
the collective intelligence together we are smarter than we are on our own.
At its best, dialogue includes all 3 of these voices.
Ancient Greeks & human societys 3 value activities:
The True (pursuit of objective understanding) Science (IT)
The Beautiful (subjective experience of beauty) Art (I)
The Good (shared activity of coordinated and just action) Ethics (WE)
The 3 different languages:
Meaning (concepts)
Aesthetics (feelings)
Power (actions)
I never saw an instance of one or two disputants convincing the other by argument
Thomas Jefferson
When was the last time you were really listened to?

Division of Ethics, Science & Art

When we hold up our organization to examination, we see different teams, divisions, and
functions. But when we do so we seem to readily forget that they are still connected, still part of
a larger whole. We make divisions like these all the time, and then forget that we have done so.
The result is fragmentation.
To try to isolate one element and lay blame on it is to repeat exactly the problem that causes
disaster in the first place. It is this very way of thinking and acting that fragments or divides,
and fails to see the underlying interconnections and coherence of the situation that is at the
root of the problem.
Dividing things up is not the problem. Forgetting the connections is. All perspectives are part of
an underlying whole.
Losing respect of and so rejecting what is uncomfortable and unfamiliar, and becoming fixated
on ones own certainties pervades human consciousness. It produces a detached and defensive
atmosphere, hindering reflection and inquiry. This underlying atmosphere turns out to be a
critical determining factor in whether we can talk successfully or not.

Discussion vs. Dialogue

Ping-Pong Discussion: the ball bounces back and forth at a quick pace, and the point of the game
seems to be to win the exchange. It tends to force people into either/or thinking.
Skillful Conversation: we stick to our guns but do so in a way where we remain open to the
possibility of being wrong. We inquire into the reasons behind someones position and the
thinking and the evidence that support it.

Discussion is about making a decision; seeks closure and completion (to decide = to murder the
alternative). It is about breaking things into parts in order to understand them more clearly.
Problems with discussion arise because people use it for every form of knowledge generation.
While it produces important and valuable results, it is too limited for many problems where
people bring fundamentally different assumptions to the table, have reasonable differences of
view, and deep investments in getting what they want.
Dialogue is about exploring the nature of choice; to choose is to select among alternatives, to
reorder knowledge. It asks us to consider the context or field of which the problem arises, to
open ourselves to new options and the thinking underlying our assumptions, not simply to go for
closure.

Tacit Knowledge
Just as we know how to ride a bicycle, so it is with our thinking process: we know
how to do it but we dont think about it both are examples of tacit knowledge.
Tacit knowledge is the understanding that enables us to produce behavior without
thinking about it knowledge for which we do not have words; we cannot describe
the mechanisms, only the result. Tacit knowledge cannot be turned into explicit
knowledge. It is a different thing altogether. It is defined precisely by the fact that we
have no words for it.
The problems people have with thinking have their roots at the tacit level. To change,
we must become conscious of how this process works, to develop new capabilities.
Holographic Paradigm the whole of the world is enfolded within our awareness
(David Bohm)

Thinking vs. Memory

Thinking fresh responses
Thoughts habitual reactions of memory

We often confuse our memory with thinking. To think truly is to say things
that may surprise us, to sense an emerging potential of a situations, to
perceive what is not yet visible, and to give it voice. Thinking moves more
slowly. What we usually call thinking is often merely the reporting or acting
out of patterns already in our memory (established positions, assumptions,
and beliefs).
Memory (thoughts) is essential. It would be unfortunate if we had to relearn
to drive every time we got in a car for example. But the presence of thoughts
and felts becomes a problem when we simply live out of our memories
without realizing it. Then our memory controls us. Unfamiliar situations may
require fresh response, innovation, thinking anew.
How firmly do you hold onto your views?
Do you have room for other points of view?

Coherence
Principles for dialogue
Participation
Unfolding
Awareness
Coherence
The world is an undivided whole. The challenge lies in coming to understand
the ways in which this is true. All the nobility and all the ugliness is in some
fashion included. Generally we do not see the coherence, only the fragments.
Understanding of coherence is in the eye of the artist in us, which
appreciates the whole; inquire into what is and not constantly try to produce
what we imagine should be. We may not always like what we discover, but
we learn to see how it all fits.
Ultimately, we perceive the coherence of the world as we extend forgiveness
to ourselves and to others.

Levels of Action in Dialogue

I. Capacity for New Behavior:
Being aware of the contradictions between what we say and what we do
(often we do things we do not intend). Reflect on what we have been doing
but not noticing; pay attention to details of our experience. Core behaviors:
Listening
Respecting
Suspending
Voicing
II. Predictive Intuition:
Understanding the different languages people speak (Meaning, Aesthetics,
Power)
III. Architecture of the Invisible:
Understanding the different fields or containers in which conversations
take place. Atmosphere is generated by the ways we think and feel

Building
Capacity for New Behavior
Listening, Respecting, Suspending, Voicing

Hearing & Sound

Listening is not only to others but also to ourselves and our own reactions
Language is holographic (3D). Each word contains not only the wider context of paragraph
and sentence but the deeper context of our lives. The sense of tone and music in anothers
voice gives us an enormous amount of information about that person, about their stance
toward life, about their intentions.
There is a geographical quality to listening. Hearings job is partly spatial. Sounds have to
be located in space, identified by type, intensity, and other features. When we listen, we
place our perceptions, relating to the dimensionality of our world.
- Diane Ackerman
The substance of seeing is light. Light moves at a far more rapid pace than sound: 186,000
miles per second as opposed to 1,100 feet per second. To listen you must slow down and
operate at the speed of sound rather than at the speed of light.

There are few acoustical illusions (something sounding like something that in fact it is
not) while there are many optical illusions.

Learning to Listen
Be Aware of Thought memory plays a powerful force in how you perceive those around you. To listen is

to realize that much of our reaction to others comes from memory. Learn to watch and notice how our
thoughts dictate to us much of our personal and collective experience.
Ladder of Inference stick to the facts. Differentiate between what we think and what leads us to think it.

We often form conclusions and then do not test them, treating our initial inferences as facts, subsequently
as assumptions and beliefs. And when we are invested in an opinion, we tend to seek evidence that we are
right and avoid evidence that we are wrong. Errors of this sort can have devastating consequences.
Follow the Disturbance often when we listen to others we may discover that we are listening from an

emotional memory rather than from the present moment. Listening to our own actions, we begin to see
what we have been doing to others.
Own Resistance become conscious of the ways in which we project our opinions about others onto them
Stand Still quiet the inner chatter of our minds
Listen for the Dilemmas one of the reasons people struggle to say what they think is that they are in a

dilemma. No matter what they say, they fear theyll be in trouble. In these situations, people typically fail
to hear what the other actually intends, through the mixed messages. Listening for the underlying
dilemma, you can learn a great deal about a situation and free people to own up both to what they
intended and the impact they actually had.

Respecting
When we do not respect, we impose on others
Latin respecere = to look again / to observe
To respect someone is to look for the springs that feed the pool of their
experience. Respect also means honoring peoples boundaries. If you respect
someone, you do not intrude. At the same time, if you respect someone, you
do not withhold yourself or distance yourself from them. Treating people
with respect means seeing them for the potential they carry. Respect is
looking for what is highest and best in a person and listening to them in this
way.
Loss of respect = my assessment that what you are doing should not be
happening. The source of trouble lie in my frame : My belief causes me to
look for a way to change you, to help you to see the error of your ways. It
causes me to avoid looking at my own behavior and how I might be
contributing. People on the receiving end of this attitude experience
violence the imposition of a point of view with little or no understanding.

Practices for Respect

Stand at the Hub stand still in a place of accepting someone as they are; shift awareness to the
essence of things
Centering the practice of finding inner center of gravity, a point of physical balance, of
quietness in yourself; your physical dimensions of learning (what do you do when you learn)

Listen As If It Were All in Me look for how the same dynamics in others operate in ourselves.
The courage to accept it as not only out there but also in here enables us to engage in a very
different way; it involves no effort to fix others. The challenge is to come to a point of
acknowledgment
Make It Strange heightening what seems different or impossible to understand; spend two
hours with someone very different from you and look at them as if they were unique. Respect
the polarizations without making any effort to change them; you get to actually find many things
in common
Support the People who Challenge making deliberate space for people who have a different
point of view can bring about balance in the conversational ecology
Learn to Hold Tension hold tensions that arise and not react to them long enough to inquire
into them. A dialogue can begin to be a mirror of the different things that go on inside everyone

Suspending
Suspension is interrupting the habitual functions of memory and inviting a fresh response
When we listen to someone speak, we face a choice to defend our view and resist theirs or to suspend
our opinion. Suspension means that we neither suppress what we think nor advocate it with unilateral
conviction. To suspend is to see things with new eyes. It is difficult because we tend very quickly to
identify what we say with who we are. We feel that when someone attacks our idea, they are attacking us.
Suspension is the art of loosening our grip and gaining perspective. The absence of suspension is
certainty.
Access Your Ignorance give room, recognize and embrace things you do not know, by willing to be
influenced by the conversation. To suspend criticism is to take back into yourself the force you might put
off onto others. If you neither suppress this energy, nor express it, you are left with having to hold it in
yourself and explore its meaning and dimensions.
Reflect in Action the ability to see what is happening as it is happening; to free ourselves from habitual
ways. To be aware is to allow our attention to broaden.
We cannot simply make change happen as if we were separate from the thing we seek to change. In a
dialogic approach, rather than seeking the levers for change, or the tools to drive change, you would
seek to inquire into the way the system works, the principles that guide it, and the underlying coherence
within it. You would not seek to manage an organization but, rather, cultivate the conditions under
which it might evolve and change.

Practices for Suspension

Suspend Certainty What is leading you to hold on to this so intensely? What is the payoff to
you? What would happen if you let it go, what is the risk? If I am unable to step back from what
I think, I remain invested in it, perhaps to the point of nonnegotiability or become opinionated
about others being opinionated.

Ask Genuine Questions good questions are questions for which we do not have (immediate)
answers. An estimated 40% of all questions are statements in disguise. Another 40% are
judgments in disguise. Real questions are often notable for the silence that follows their
utterance. Also, finding a question is one thing. Allowing oneself to tolerate the tension that
arises with its articulation is another. We live in a world where it is unsafe to say I dont know
which is a climate that does not foster genuine inquiry. Listen for the quality of questions
people ask themselves and for the degree of self-reflection in the questions (degree to which
they attribute problems to outside sources of themselves).
Seek the Order Between how are polarized views connected; looking for what exists between
the extremes (either/or issues) that people take
Reframe & Externalize Thought sometimes the change comes because you put on new glasses.
Display the different voices in your head
Ask: What Am I Missing? & How Does the Problem Work? how have things come to be this way

Voicing
In speaking we create
Make space for what is seeking to be spoken to come out

The journey to finding and speaking your voice entails feeling the
confidence that what you are thinking is valid, and fits. It requires first a
willingness to be still, to trust the sense of not knowing what to do or
say, to let what is in you take shape before giving words to it. Learning to
choose consciously what we do and do not say can establish a great level
of control and stability in our lives.
Often the voice that is genuinely ours is not well developed. When our
voice is underdeveloped, we are too quiet, unable to bring out what we
think in a way that lets us create what we want. When it is overinflated,
we crowd others. Learning to speak your voice entails acknowledging
those aspects of yourself that participate in both extremes. One reason
we get caught in these extremes is that we live out of an image about
what we think we are and should be.

Finding Your Voice

Overcome Self-Censorship What do you want to be known for? What do you

most long to create in the world? What is your music and who will play it if
you dont?

Jump into the Void step into an improvisational spirit in conversation. To

speak spontaneously and improvisationally requires a willingness not to

know what one is going to say; it is a powerful training for finding and
expressing your voice. Without planning things out, parts of you that you
may not be familiar with are free to speak. And what comes out is often not
at all what we expect.

Speak to and from the Center the center of each person; people tend to

speak from the common pool of meaning being created by all the people
together and not to each other as individuals. What voice is speaking now? Is
it mine? Or one I inherited or absorbed from others?

Learning to access the parts of ourselves that do not yet have a voice can also
be quite freeing. We move from reporting our memory to speaking our hearts.

Developing
Predictive Intuition
Patterns of Actions & Structures

Patterns of Action
According to Kantors model of 4 kinds of action in a group, each position has a dialogue practice as well:
To Move is to give Voice
To Follow is to Listen
To Oppose is to Respect
To Bystand is to Suspend
Typically, a conversation appears as a hodgepodge of perspectives: Two points of view cannot generally live side
by side for long. These hidden but powerful structures of interaction can neutralize dialogue. Structure enforces
dynamics, sometimes the very dynamics we want to defuse.
Any system that silences Bystanders and Opposers is by definition in trouble because vital information is not
being shared. When we are stuck we repeat a move that would be better changed.
Predictive Intuition is the capacity to perceive face-to-face structures of interaction; capacity to perceive and
name what is happening as it is happening; developing this intuition is important in order to not become overly
locked into the system itself.
Patterns of Action is finding the gaps between what people intend to do and what they actually do; most people
are unaware when they create such gaps, as they are often so certain of their views that are unwilling to change.
One way to move beyond these limited-action dynamics is to name the difficulty.
The challenge in dialogue is to go beyond the appearance and the baggage that might be attached to a particular
action, and look for the underlying intention. The central spirit behind this approach is forgiveness a stance
that looks to the motives that a person intended regardless of how their actions appear.

Structural Traps
Structure contains the forces within a setting that operate to produce certain results. Two fish
swim in a blender that has yet to be turned on. The one fish says to the other, And they expect us
to relax! The blender is an example of a structure that determines the behavior.
When it comes to social structures, structure means interactions between people in a dialogue. It is
the set of frameworks, habits, and conditions that compel people to act as they do. These
structures govern the way we think and act. We can predict the way an individual or group will
tend to behave once we know the structures that guide them the quality, content, and timeliness
of the information being conveyed. This includes the goals, incentives, costs, and feedback that
motivate or constrain behavior.
A structural trap is a condition where one part of the system requires people to act in one way,
while another part of the organization requires them to do something else that directly
contradicts. Different subsystems of any organization often have very different assumptions and
ideas about what is wrong and tend not to communicate well to one another. The net effect is that
people feel their efforts to produce change are constantly being undermined and neutralized.
This kind of trap often goes unspoken and undiscussed. Problems may be endlessly analyzed and
seemingly well understood, but no one could seem to bring all the players together to talk about
their different assumptions and dilemmas. Structural traps like these can cripple an organization
and as a result, problems persist for years.

Diagnosing Traps
Becoming aware of another persons & our own language domains & preferences:
Language of Meaning What is the significance of this event / what does this mean?

the ideas, values, theory, and philosophy behind what is happening; can explore ideas to
the exclusion of concerns about action or feeling

Language of Power What are we going to do here? the energy to get things done;

focuses on leadership and responsibility; indicate unwillingness to tolerate inaction

Language of Feeling Are we taking care of the people and their needs? meaning is too

intellectual and action is too premature

People speak from these different language domains all the time, depending on the
circumstances, the people present, and their internal makeup.
People in HR often speak languages of feeling or meaning. But majority of people they
report to speak the language of power. Scientists and researchers often speak the language
of meaning to understand underlying causes. Managers speak the language of power and
want to get something done. But a manager knowing that providing meaning is important
to the researcher under them could help to bridge differences.
Most conversations seem to use a dominant language. If that is the language of power, to
gain leverage, one can inquire, How do people feel about this? What is the meaning of
this conversation for you?

System Paradigms
The 3 different languages / lenses guide people to different preferred ways of organizing, governing, decision
making, and setting boundaries within any system:
Closed System
Purpose: stability through tradition and lineage
Characteristics: hierarchy, formal authority, control over
Leadership: manages for the good of the whole
Limit: blindness (to emergent change)
Open System
Purpose: learning through participation
Characteristics: democracy, pluralism, collaboration
Leadership: balance the good of the whole with the good of the individual
Limit: tolerance (of people who are intolerant and confused of boundaries)
Random Systems
Purpose: exploration through improvisation
Characteristics: creativity not constrained by formal structures
Leadership: rapid innovation
Limit: anarchy
As we learn to see these structures of our interactions, we can increase the likelihood and quality of dialogue by
recognizing the way someone is operating and appreciate their worldview. We can make a map of the system we see
with the issues and dilemmas people face to show how behavior produces the results.

Architecture of the Invisible

Conversational Spaces & Fields

Psychological & Emotional Space

Conversation Fields the nature of the physical arrangement of things, including noise level, smells, and sense
of space; the atmosphere, energy, and memories; a field is the quality of shared meaning and energy

Conversation Container a space for psychological safety; setting in which the intensities of human activity
can safely emerge and hold the space for emotional intensity. If theres no container to hold the pressure,
people will tend to try to avoid issues, blame one another, resist what is happening. Examples:
Intimate relationships settings in which certain things can be said and done that cannot happen

anywhere else
Teams they hold inner contradictions and inconsistencies, and are limited in what they can hold.
When our container is full, we get filled up unable to hear or absorb more
Physical containers Congress Hall is a physical container that holds well the acoustics of dialogue.
The physical structure of a room also determines conversational power. The circle is an ancient symbol
and container for dialogue. It is an economical form to enable everyone to see and hear. The circle is
also a focusing device things intensify in the circle.
Internal & collective containers there are physical acoustics arising from the structures of our skulls
and inner ear, and there are internal dimensions to our capacity to hear. What kinds of sounds can be
heard within you? The shape of our internal container guides our ability to hear what is being said.
The shape of a collective container equally determines what can be said and heard.
Often in a group, someone will say things that upset or disturb others. Do individuals feel free to raise the
issue and inquire? Dialogue requires a willingness to raise these things for the purpose of testing them. To
consciously manage boundaries, deepen the sense of safety make choices about whether there is to be an
open, closed, or random and unregulated system.

Fields of Conversation I & II

Field I: POLITENESS (monologues)
When people first meet, bring with them a set of taken-for-granted assumptions and inherited norms about
how to interact and what is supposed to happen
Lacks reflection, mainly follow rules and civility
Feeling that cannot trust anyone, but to say such a thing would be heretical
Some people move, others follow, but no one opposes or bystands
Think about self and how self-interests or image can be protected from damage
Field II: BREAKDOWN (controlled / skillful conversation or the crisis of emptiness)
Move from initially conversing to a point where people start to say what they think
Subsurface fragmentation comes up; social whole is no longer dominant
People tend to collide into one another; whose meaning will have more power
Move-oppose sequence; followers and bystanders tend to be silent
This can be either a time of creative change or of recycling old memories and viewpoints
Challenge is to change meanings; the quest in this phase is for a set of new rules or new ways of operating
Dominant emotion in this field tends to be anger not only can people not make dialogue happen, they also
cant get anyone to agree with them
People protect themselves from their inner intensity by creating outer intensity
Many groups never get beyond this point and tend to cling to their perspectives, failing to move collectively
into reflection; get stuck in recycling between politeness, rule following and breakdowns
Moving out of this field requires self-reflection to suspend certainty

Fields of Conversation III & IV

Field III. INQUIRY (reflective dialogue or the crisis of suspension)
Shift to first person data I am not my point of view This is how things look from where I stand and
what leads me to think this way
Curiosity towards others, willingness to explore assumptions
Examine the rules that have governed people, how they have operated and the nature of structures guiding
their behavior
Raise things from many perspectives but do not feel compelled to have to agree; ideas flow
Conversations evolve into discovery people realize how little understanding there is among them
Let go of their isolated identity by grasping the extent of the loss that arises when we live in an isolated way
and see the possibilities of developing other kinds of collective identities
Field IV: FLOW (generative dialogue or the crisis of fragmentation)
Rarest of all spaces its an awareness of the whole
Genuinely new possibilities come into being
People generate new rules of interaction
One person will think of something and another will say it
Traditionally held positions are sufficiently loosened
Atmosphere large enough to accommodate radically different point of view
Quality of intelligence, depth, and flow that gives readiness to take on the world
Maturity and sobering
Release of structures and move into uncharted territory
They experience their own limits and discover that what they say impacts everyone

Leading in Conversational Fields

Leadership for Field I: Approaching Everyone Uniquely
Clarify Your Intentions how you see the situation how you communicate it is critical
Entry Is Everything the way you approach the situation and choose to interact
Join Each Person Differently system paradigms; listening carefully and speaking uniquely
Create the Container evoke the ideal (whats the groups potential), support dreaming out loud, deepen the
listening, make it safe for opposers, dare people to suspend
Leadership for Field II: Teaching
Map the Structures identify the forces of engagement that are at work
Facilitate Cross-Model Conversations surface different languages
Educate often people do not have a clear understanding of the alternatives open to them creating new capacities
for action, developing peoples predictive intuition, and informing them about the invisible architecture
Leadership for Field III: Being an Example
Embody Reflective Inquiry reflect publicly on your reactions, inviting others to do the same
Listen for Emerging Themes overall interests and ideas
Model Leading from Behind you do what is required not as an expert but as an equal member
Predict and Deal with Retrenchment exploring formation of idolization to keep from rigidity of thought
Leadership for Field IV: Serving Others
Embody Service servant leadership, provide for the needs of others
Reflect on the Whole Process encourage people to think broadly and deeply
Allow Leadership Role to Move whoever is able to articulate what is happening has a position of leadership
See the Whole as Primary what is waiting to be said or done

Field Re-Entry
There is a constant movement between the different fields.
However powerful and flowing a conversation becomes, you do not live in

this experience permanently; you must leave it. The return is a return to a
world you departed, but from a different place. Your relationship to it
changes. You return from fields III & IV to the world of politeness or
civility knowing that very different kinds of conversations are possible.
You can begin to understand when people are speaking across frames and
clashing, and suspend these clashes as opposed to seeking to fix them.
You return with a kind of responsibility to bring these new insights into
the life of the community.

People must realize that some knowledge arises because of the shared

experience of a collective. This is a significant shift for many people who

expect an expert to tell them what to do. The creation of new knowledge
that emerges in community is a community activity and must be done by
everyone, who is also responsible for it.

Ecology of Thought
The Good language of power and action

This language is often spoken from the narrow perspective of the system
immediately at hand. Separated from the Beautiful and the True, the Good
becomes tyrannical and oppressive. Not only to ask, What to do? but also, Will
what you plan to do be any good in a wider sense?
The Beautiful language of feeling and artistic expression

How many managers and leaders today consider whether the policy they are
about to pursue is in fact beautiful? Do they love the policies and ideas they
pursue? Beauty or aesthetic of any subject is an essential component of its
successful deployment and sustainability.
The True language of meaning and science

What is true in any given situation can include rigorous exploration of the
interior dimensions of experience as much as it can the objective, exterior
dimension. Learning to ask new and deeper questions of our inner worlds to
reflect internally is important work. It forces leaders to think about their
choices, many of which are often made unconsciously, out of habit, or out of
fear. Choices sawn with these energies inevitably collapse.

Widening Perspective
Social Networks & Organizational Change

the New Economy

Societal development:
Creating communities of wealth attention on resources, post WWII generation
Creating communities of meaning attention on personal growth, 21st century

Thurows 5 historical forces producing profound change in society:

End of communism
Technological transition developing brainpower industries based on intellectual capital
Dramatic aging of population
Truly global economy
Multipolar political world in which there is no single dominant player
This set of unique historical forces has provided enough prosperity to think about change, enough uncertainty to fuel it,
and loss of credibility of major institutions, and a global economy that seems increasingly to value higher skills. In times
of fundamental change, human beings are forced to reconsider basic values, and people make new lifestyle choices.
All of this has led to personal transformation and growth efforts, which impact corporate leadership and organization
structures, focusing on collective change and shifts toward networks. Transferable individual skills and key relationships
become sources of competitive advantage.

Features of Networked Economy:

Globalization
Favoring of intangibles like information, ideas, and relationships
Intense interlinking
The new economy is about communication, deep and wide. Communication is the foundation of society, of our culture,
of our humanity, of our own individual identity, of all economic systems. This is why networks are such a big deal.
Kevin Kelly, executive editor of Wired magazine

Social Networks Capability

We are entering an age where we cannot know what is coming. The explosion of global capitalism and digital
communication is changing the face of our economic and social structures at a pace that is dizzying and
virtually impossible to absorb. These are not individual problems. The issues human beings now face go
beyond solutions that any of us can conjure up. This means learning to think with others and not merely on
our own.
We need the capability of forming a network with dialogue inside to enable us to make progress in solving
the problems that arise in the new economy. These problems require people to see how new kinds of insight
and collaboration can emerge despite the deep differences in their views and identity. Failure to reach a
common meaning can have a devastating impact on an organization. One of the worst outcomes is inaction
not responding accordingly and timely to important decisions.
Ironically, in practice, open communication often means speaking candidly in the sense of blaming others
instead of examining ones own part in creating the situation one dislikes. Chris Argyris attributes behavior
like this to inconsistencies between what people actually do and what they believe they are doing, as well as
to a socially generated value set that rewards covering up difficulties in the name of smooth face-to-face
relationships. A dialogue is a conversation among peers. In this sense, everyone is responsible equally.
The new economy we face in the twenty-first century consists of a very different set of forces from any
known before. Shifting bases of power and an enormous emphasis on knowledge make the way human
beings talk and think together of paramount importance. Human beings create and share knowledge through
conversation.
The most important work in the new economy is creating conversations.
Alan Webber, editor of Fast Company magazine

Organizational Change
Fundamental change depends on people taking responsibility what Chris Argyris
calls internal commitment for the issues they face.
Reasons for ineffective corporate changes:
Structural contradictions in which one set of causal forces pulses one way and
another pushes in a different direction (Chris Argyris). What David Kantor also calls
a structural trap
Idolizing terms like empowerment or learning organizations empowerment
becomes a thing to achieve, not a path to follow and creating a learning
organization becomes a standard to impose, not a process to germinate
Ways of building new capabilities in individuals and teams:
Suspending seeing the system and reflecting on the structures and forces that
produce incoherence
Respecting respecting the ecology of relationships in and around the organization
Listening staying present to what is happening
Voicing finding, enhancing and strengthening the organizations central story
Companies that support differentiation, devolving power and freedom to lower levels
of the organization, inevitably face the challenge of managing the need for integration.
Dialogic process is used to increase awareness of the whole, enabling a climate of
connection.

Leading Change
One of the largest barriers to learning of any kind is the fear of failure, of making errors, of
losing face. The support required from leaders on change processes cannot be
overemphasized. Support must come in the form of leaders embodying the very changes
that are being asked of others.
Map and Transform the Structural Traps a critical dimension of change efforts is

mapping the structural traps, unwitting contradictions and dilemmas and creating a
container strong enough to surface and explore these traps

Engaging the Embedded Ecology to Actively Reflect & Inquire engage the underlying

ecology of thought rather than simply impose a new logic for change from the outside;
create ways for people to reflect on what is happening to them and why; the action-based
focus in most organizations prevents people from realizing that their reactive behavior
may only be compounding the problems they face

Design Infrastructure to Operationalize New Behaviors infrastructures that support and

sustain the four practices for dialogue; Examples: learning laboratories, cross-divisional
teams designing processes for facilitating collaboration across the network, open forums
for conversations

World-class achievements come from groups of people that somehow achieved

extraordinary levels of alignment and collaboration.
(Warren Bennis & Patricia Biederman, authors of Organizing Genius)

Taking Wholeness Seriously

We can come to see some of our own blindness and habits of thought in actions. A
damaged ecology of thought typically turns living processes into objectified
things, discouraging reflection on contradictions and incoherence. People justify
such an approach by saying that we do not have the time or we need action not
talk, thereby deflecting efforts to suspend the certainties and assumptions that
sustain these problems.
The willingness to give ones ideas freely, without the sense of having to draw
close boundaries to protect or preserve them, generates a common mind and
common pool of meaning out of which much can be done. Equally, when people
are carefully guarding their ideas and words, to see what the other person will say,
to discover how to play the situation, things break down. It requires our minds
and hearts to be open to one another.
Dialogue enables a free flow of meaning. No one person owns this flow. Power is
no longer the province of a person in a role, but at the level of alignment. When
the going gets tough, we fall back on argument and debate, defending our
positions and the outcome of the exchange. Our language reflects the machine
age in the business culture. We force issues, drive change, roll out efforts.
Making a transition can be challenging because we may not immediately know
what we would like to about how to navigate tough situations. Practicing dialogue
well takes experience and capability; it requires personal maturation.