The Dialogic Mindset Leading Emergent Change in a Complex World

If you are interested in dialogic OD and how leadership needs to adapt to better cope with our increasingly complex world, this paper from Gervase Bushe and Robert Marshak should be of interest: The Dialogic Mindset: Leading Emergent Change in a Complex World.

In the paper, they make seven assumptions about a dialogic mindset for leaders.  This mindset has much in common with Conversational Leadership.

1. Reality and relationships are socially constructed.
2. Organizations are social networks of meaning-making.
3. Transformational leadership shapes how meaning is made and especially the narratives which guide people’s experience.
4. Organizations are continuously changing, in both intended and unintended ways, with multiple changes occurring at various speeds.
5. Groups and organizations are inherently self-organizing, but disruption is required for transformational adaptation and change.
6. Adaptive challenges are too complex for anyone to analyze all the variables and know the correct answer in advance, so the answer is to use emergent change processes.
7. Leading emergent change requires mobilizing stakeholders to self-initiate action, then monitoring and embedding the most promising initiatives.

What people believe to be true, right, and important emerge through socialization and day-today conversations.

Credit: The Dialogic Mindset by Gervase Bushe & Robert Marshak

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