Category: Dialogue

  • Crucial ingredients for collective action

    Petra Kuenkel writes on her blog that: “Innovative approaches and new solutions often derive from people’s ability to dialogue and partner for the future. The quality of how we do this matters. People implement what they have helped to create.” She lists the following ingredients for successful collective action: Understand the system Create resonance Prepare…

  • Organizational metamorphosis

    Goethe’s Way of Science makes it possible to see the continuous form and metamorphosis of the growing plant. What I’m wondering about is whether organizations are like plants? If so, this has profound implications on how we see and think about organizations. Henri Bortoft writes in The Wholeness of Nature: Goethe’s Way of Science (page…

  • The differences between discussion and dialogue

    Dialogue is an approach to organisational interaction developed initially by the physicist David Bohm. The following briefly describes the differences between discussion and dialogue: Dialogue    Discussion  Starts with listening  Starts with speaking  Is about speaking with  Is about speaking to  Focuses on insights  Focuses on differences  Is collaborative  Is adversarial  Generates ideas  Generates conflicts  Encourages…

  • Dialogue — Meaning moving through

    Dialogue comes from the Greek “logos” (word, meaning), and “dia” (through), and can literally be translated as “meaning moving through.”

  • Ten principles of organizational democracy

    WorldBlu has put together the following ten principles of organizational democracy. These principles have been discovered after a decade of research. Purpose and Vision Transparency Dialogue + Listening Fairness + Dignity Accountability Individual + Collective Choice Integrity Decentralization Reflection + Evaluation

  • How to democratize our workplaces

    Matt Alderton has a post on how to democratize your workplace. He shares what Traci Fenton, founder and CEO of WorldBlu, says on how we, employees at all levels, can improve our working lives by making our workplace more democratic. Get Naked: Be as authentic, open and as transparent as possible Have a Conversation: Invite…

  • Book Review: Future Search

    Future Search by Marvin Weisbord & Sandra Janoff is a planning meeting setup involving the whole system. It has been in use since the early 1980s. I find the approach interesting since it flattens hierarchies, broaden the lines of communication, and encourages a dialogue born from the deep knowledge in each person in the system. The…