Action Dialogue matters because it rests on the theoretical foundation that our world is an undivided whole in which everything is radically interconnected.

It builds on the work of David Bohm, a quantum physicist who turned to philosophy and social psychology to make sense of his scientific findings. It recognizes that if we are to solve our problems, make changes in our organizations and in society at large, we need to involve as many of players affected by our decisions as possible.

We need to Dialogue BEFORE we make decisions that move us into action.

When we Dialogue first – to look at the roots of our problems and not just consider short-term fixes – when we take the time to engage the people who will be most affected by the decisions we make – not just use the older command and control methods of the past – we start to see better results.

Our decisions will provide us more organizational coherence, we will achieved aligned and engaged action from those working together, and we can trust on the wisdom that springs from people thinking together about their shared goals. Everyone will understand what is to be done because they participated in coming up with the solutions we are looking for.

Thus: “Engaged Action Begins with Dialogue”.

Paradigms are slow to change and though the new sciences have been telling us for some time now that we must assume systemic perspectives and participatory processes, most of us still fall back on older decision-making processes using the information that trickles to the top and then forcing our decisions down the chain of command.

In the increasingly VUCA world we live in – a concept coined by the military in the late 90’s that stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous, this older decision-making style doesn’t work very well. We need everyone to share in the decisions that are made for handling this rapid-fire world we live in.

Action Dialogue turns this older way of making decisions upside down and engages those carrying out the actions right from the beginning.

Leaders learn ‘conversational mastery’ and become skilled in using divergent vs. convergent forms of communication in the meetings they hold. They learn how to shift from Dialogue, for example, that allows for divergent points of view to be expressed to Discussion, which drives down to one convergent point of view that can drive action. When these forms of communication are used skillfully, Leaders have a powerful transformational tool in their hands.

Finally, Action Dialogue matters because we are facing such serious environmental and societal problems today that we can’t wait any longer to be coming from the right understanding how the world works. The choices we make today will have profound impact on generations to come.

It is time we learn to work with the world the way it actually is: a radically interconnected whole and not the way we thought it was: a machine with independent parts. This change in attitude can make all the difference to the future world we are co-creating together.

Welcome to Action Dialogue.