What Needs to Be In Place For An Organization to Be Dialogic

This blog post is the fourth in a series of posts on dialogue. In the first, “The Most Important Knowledge KM is Ignoring,” I explain that the way we talk in organizations too often prevents us from solving the most challenging problems we face. In the second, “An Organization That Changed Its Culture by Implementing Dialogue,” I offer a brief case study of an organization, The Virginia Department of Corrections, that has implemented dialogue at every level. In the third post, "The Promise of Dialogue" I spell out the promise that dialogue holds and list the attributes of dialogue. In this post, I define the underlying beliefs and structures/processes that need to be in place to bring about that promise.  

It is not difficult to bring a group of people together to hold a dialogue. If skillfully facilitated, such a convening will significantly benefit individuals by providing them with a way to examine and perhaps challenge their assumptions, including their beliefs about individuals or groups they have previously defined as "other." ("Others" are people whose belief systems are viewed as incomprehensible, and thus individuals within that group are likely to be labeled as ignorant or self-serving.) A modification in beliefs about "others" may not happen in one meeting. However, through a series of such meetings, participants can quiet their inner voice enough to hear others, to acknowledge the truth in what others are saying and feeling, even when they disagree, and to listen to the questions that arise in their minds in response to what others are saying (Bohm).

It is also not difficult to bring a group together in dialogue, whether a training class or an organizational unit. Dialogue can help the group uncover assumptions they make about their own unit and those who work in different parts of the organization (e.g., management, engineering, finance) and strengthen the relationships between the parts that meet together. Over time, dialogue can become the way that members of a unit or group interact with each other, that is, listening to each other, speaking their own truth, and examining their own thinking process. However, even this will have a negligible impact on the organization as a whole.

Transforming a whole organization's culture to be dialogic is difficult because an organization's culture is created through the ongoing exchange of ideas and beliefs that occurs daily among all of its members. Although managers might like to think it is they that shape the culture, it is the everyday conversations that establish the culture and, therefore, would need to evolve for an organization to be dialogic. "An organization's results are determined through webs of human commitments, born in webs of human conversation." (Flores) Changing those everyday conversations necessitates that both those in leadership positions and employees 1) hold a set of underlying beliefs congruent with dialogue and 2) that they put in place structures and practices that support dialogue.

Underlying Beliefs.

As we do not have a term in English that means both workers and management, I use the term "members" in the following list to connote both. The underlying beliefs that support a dialogic organization include:

• Members have the knowledge and wisdom to jointly address an organization's adaptive challenges (Edmondson 2012 , Heifetz 2012).
• Members have the will to act for the good of the whole.
• Everyone has a truth that has been developed through their life experience, which should be respected, even if not agreed with.
• Everyone deserves to be spoken to with respect.
• All voices are equal; none are privileged by rank, level of expertise, gender, or race.
• It is a part of the human condition to make mistakes (Lewis Thomas), and it is through openly speaking about mistakes that organizations learn from them.
• The purpose of an organization includes a moral goal related to the well-being of the members, as well as people within society at large and the environment in which all people function. (Isaacs)
• Organizational change is continuous rather than being a one-time event. Therefore an organization needs structures in place that allow it to sense the environment and to continually adapt. (Ackoff 1994, Dixon, 2019)
• Knowledge workers do not function well in hierarchical environments. (Kessels 2001, Bohm,1990)
• The knowledge /information within an organization is transparent to all members. (Case,1998)

All members may not hold such beliefs initially, but as the beliefs are lived out through an organization's dialogic processes, they are confirmed in members' minds.  Likewise, changing the beliefs of members can alter an organization's processes and structures.

Organizational structures/processes that facilitate dialogue:

The following structures/processes support the underlying beliefs that members hold in a dialogic organization. See the chart below to connect each of the structures to the corresponding belief.

• Time is set aside regularly for teams, units, and the whole of an organization to think/reflect together about how the organization is functioning. (Edmondson 2012; Schein and Schein 2018, Dixon 2019).
• The design of convened meetings supports the equality of voices, with no one's ideas privileged above others, for example, holding meetings in a circle, all meetings open to anyone interested, whole organization meetings designed to alternate between small groups and the large group where the learning is integrated.
• The design of physical space, online gatherings, and organizational norms promote chance meetings with members of other units/teams that allow them to interact with each other informally, for example, places to meet for coffee, wide hallways, and stairs, atriums, online social hours, scheduled retreats. (Pentland, 2012)
• An organization's strategy is developed through dialogic interactions where the whole organization is represented, for example, Future Search, Appreciative Inquiry Summits, Open Space Technology.
• Work processes are designed to encourage positive interdependence; that is, for individuals to succeed, the whole unit must succeed, e.g., individuals facilitating each other's efforts to complete tasks to reach the group's goals. (Johnson and Johnson 1999)
• Joint goal setting occurs at the team, unit, and organization levels.
• Processes are in place to regularly gather information/knowledge from client-facing units and those on the periphery of an organization, to jointly reflect and act on that information. (Ackoff 1994)
• Shared decision making occurs across an organization.
• Opportunities are available for continual learning both about task and about self (e.g., training, team coaching, action learning, coaching ourselves).
• Hierarchy is minimized or when necessary absent by having meetings convened by a facilitator who subsequently reports outcomes to management.(Bohm, Kessels 2001)
• Processes are in place to reflect on and learn from mistakes at the individual, team, and organizational levels. (Coaching, Action Learning, Coaching Ourselves, Working Out Loud Circles, After Action Reviews)
• Open books, including access to salaries, investments, and anticipated internal and external actions, is available to all members, and members have access to training about how the organization makes, invests, and spends its money.

Relationship of Beliefs to Structures/Processes

Underlying Beliefs	Organizational Structures/Processes
Workforce members have the knowledge and wisdom to address an organization's adaptive challenges jointly	Time set aside regularly for teams units and the whole of an organization to think/reflect together about how the organization is functioning An organization's strategy is developed through dialogic interactions where the whole organization is represented Joint goal setting occurs at the team, unit, and organization levels The design of physical space, online gatherings, and organizational norms promote chance meetings with members of other units/team that allow them to interact with each other informally Shared decision making occurs across an organization
Members have the will to act for the good of the whole	Work processes are designed to encourage positive interdependence
All voices are equal; none are privileged by rank, level of expertise, gender, or race Everyone deserves to be spoken to with respect Everyone has a truth that has been developed through their life experience that should be respected, even if not agreed with	The design of convened meetings supports the equality of voices, with no one's ideas privileged above others
It is a part of the human condition to make mistakes, and it is through openly speaking about mistakes that organizations learn from them	Processes are in place to reflect on and learn from mistakes at the individual, team, and organizational levels
The knowledge /information  within an organization is transparent to all members	Processes are in place to reflect on and learn from mistakes at the individual, team, and organizational levels Open books, including access to salaries, investments, anticipated internal and external actions, is available to all members Members have access to training about how the organization makes, invests, and  spends its money
The purpose of an organization includes a moral goal related to the well-being of members as well people within society at large and the environment in which all people function	The organization's strategy is developed through dialogic interactions where the whole is represented
Organizational change is continuous rather than being a one-time event. Therefore an organization needs structures in place that allow it to sense the environment and to adapt continually	Processes are in place to regularly gather information/knowledge from client-facing units and those on the periphery of the organization, to jointly reflect and act on that information. Opportunities for continual learning about the task and about self
Knowledge workers do not function well in hierarchical environments	Hierarchy is minimized or when necessary made absent by having meetings convened by a facilitator who subsequently reports those outcomes to management