Learning dialogically: the art of chaos‐informed transformation

Abstract

A decision to don the chaos lens, adopt dialogue as its primary mode of communication, and to recognize the power of the organizational mind has fundamentally and irreversibly changed the way a Dutch capital‐equipment manufacturer operates in its rapidly complexifying global marketplace. Beginning in September 1999, the focus of an ever widening circle of its membership has been on transforming itself from the inside out, that is by changing profoundly the organizational mind – the “orgmind”. Two factors make this change process particularly noteworthy: first of all, it was designed on the fly. In other words, virtually every action, activity, meeting, workshop and so on was made up as they moved along their path to the future. Second, profound change was undertaken before it was time to do so. That is, the company was “sitting pretty” enjoying a major share of the market, solid profitability as well as strong morale and employee loyalty.

Citation

van Eijnatten, F.M., van Galen, M.C. and Fitzgerald, L.A. (2003), "Learning dialogically: the art of chaos‐informed transformation", The Learning Organization, Vol. 10 No. 6, pp. 361-367. https://doi.org/10.1108/09696470310497203