The Magic of Dialogue
"I would say that in my scientific and philosophical work, my main concern has been with understanding the nature of reality in general and of consciousness in particular as a coherent whole, which is never static or complete but which is an unending process of movement and unfoldment...."
-David Bohm: Wholeness and the Implicate Order
"Suppose we were able to share meanings freely without a compulsive urge to impose our view or to conform to those of others and without distortion and self-deception. Would this not constitute a real revolution in culture?
-David bohm, Changing Consciousness, 1992
"Every man is a potential adversary, even those whom we love. Only through dialogue are we saved from this enmity toward one another. Dialogue is to love what blood is to the body. When the flow of blood stops, the body dies. When dialogue stops, love dies and resentment is born. But dialogue can restore a dead relationship. Indeed this is the miracle of dialogue - it can bring a relationship into being, and it can restore again a relationship that has died. There is only one qualification to these claims for dialogue. It must be mutual and perceived from both sides, and the parties must pursue it relentlessly."
-Reuel L. Howe, The Miracle of Dialogue, 1963.
Dialogue A Proposal, By David Bohm, Donald Factor and Peter Garrett, 1991
On Creativity by David Bohm, Lee Nichol (Editor), 1998.
On Dialogue, 1996, David Bohm and Lee Nichol (Editor). The question of how to communicate better is at the heart of On Dialogue, the most comprehensive documentation to date of the late David Bohm's dialogical world view.
Wholeness and the Implicate Order by David Bohm, reissuse 1996.
Thought As a System by David Bohm, 1994.
Unfolding Meaning: A Weekend of Dialogue With David Bohm, 1996.
Dialogue : Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation
by Linda Ellinor, Glenna Gerard, 1998
The practice of Dialogue, though as old as mankind itself, is revolutionizing today's business world. Dialogue is a way of conversing and thinking together that dissolves barriers and creates organizational cultures energized by collaboration and partnership.
Peter Senge has called Dialogue an important tool for promoting team learning and fostering shared meaning and community within an organization. Now Dialogue: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation shows leaders how talking about what matters can pave the way to new heights of creativity and productivity.
Linda Ellinor and Glenna Gerard, cofounders of their consulting firm, The Dialogue Group, draw upon their combined 50 years of experience in organizations to show how Dialogue can change the way we work by widening information arteries so that employees at every level begin to think along "leadership" lines and take responsibility for how their actions affect the whole organization. Diversity becomes a high-leverage resource; conflict becomes a creative opportunity. Leading companies including Levi Strauss, Shell, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, and AT&T are unleashing the wellspring of power that flows naturally from the trust, mutual respect, and spirit of inquiry that are at Dialogue's core.
In an organizational world fragmented by competition, takeovers, downsizing, and reengineering, the inspiration and meaning that energize us and make work satisfying are often hard to come by. Linda Ellinor and Glenna Gerard offer clear strategies and guides for rekindling our spirits and renewing our ability to work creatively with the key dilemmas we face every day. They engage us in practical reflections and exercises to help bring the value of Dialogue into all our conversations.
The strategies they describe for integrating dialogic principles into any group can help leaders at every level:
-Create and sustain collaborative partnerships that foster shared responsibility and accountability
-Develop skills to build the trust needed to surface "undiscussable" issues that block creativity and learning and diminish effectiveness
-Open doors to new and creative ways of thinking and problem solving
-Get at the roots of recurring problems
-Reawaken the meaning, satisfaction, and inspiration in work
Dialogue will provoke your thinking about:
-What is involved in "being the change you wish to see" in organizations, and how can Dialogue help?
-What is the price/reward of having conversations that get to the root of things?
-How do we ask important questions so as to see the larger picture before crafting our responses?
-How can dialogue foster self-organization and systems thinking?
-Dialogue shows how to tap into the collective wisdom essential to high functioning work environments.
The Magic of Dialogue: Transforming Conflict into Cooperation by Daniel Yankelovich