Search results

Organizing is mainly a conversational process in which people together construct an organizational reality out of a variety of different positions from a more general organizational discourse. Generative dialogue refers to the differences between those positions, to the hidden potential of the in-between, and to the effort of handling these differences meaningfully and productively. At split second bifurcation points in a dialogue, fear and expanding learning opportunities are in mutual competition. In this chapter, we propose seven levels of dialoguing, with increasing generative potential and increasing difficulty. We propose “The Language of Change” (a framework) as a sensitizing device to co-construct richer, more applicable, and more valuable approaches to complex, dynamic, and unique change processes. I will conclude with some key principles to increase the level of generative dialoguing and some examples from my own practice.

In this chapter we consider the meta-models that are applied to the design of organizations and information systems, and especially the implicit assumption about organization and information that are at the core of these models. We explore these assumptions and suggest that they share common dimensions which can be used to structure the current discourse on design and design processes.

In this volume of Advances in Appreciative Inquiry, leading scholars from the fields of art, management, design, information technology, organization development, and education come together to chart new directions in Appreciative Inquiry theory and research as well as new intervention practices and opportunities for design in organizations. While diverse in topic and discipline, each of the following original chapters treats the reader to a view of Appreciative Inquiry's revolutionary way of approaching familiar questions of information and organization design and vice versa.