Language as a Tool for Personal and Organizational Change

Conversation is the crucible for social invention. For as long as we have lived in human community, great conversations have been the birthing place of new ideas, new ways of being and new ways of doing. Conversation is the primary vehicle through which we as individuals conceive our world and embrace relationships with others. Conversation is our human way of discovering the new meanings that shape our common future. Conversation is the medium through which breakthrough thinking and collective action emerge in the service of our best hope. - David Brown, William Isaacs, Nancy Margulies

Since our early ancestors gathered in circles around the warmth of a fire, conversation has been a primary process for making sense of our world, discovering what we value, sharing knowledge, and imagining our future. Both then and now, “we learn, adapt, and bring forth our worlds through the networks of conversations in which we participate” according to Humberto Maturana. This implies that language is a world-constituting form of action. Alan Webber refers to conversation as the “lifeblood of the knowledge economy” because it is through conversation that “knowledge workers create the relationships that define the organization.” Consequently, conversation and discourse are tools we use to create and change the world we live in - our personal as well as organizational.

Looking at how we use our language has been a fascination of mine for a long time. I have explored and applied it in my facilitation and coaching practices. Then, several years ago, I discovered Social Constructionism, which is the academic, or perhaps more "formal" definition of what I have been exploring and practicing. It was also a part of my thesis on Communities of Practice and Lifelong Learning (and this excerpt is here). My research in this area continues in two areas:

• Appreciative Inquiry, which is really two things - (a) a practical philosophy of being in the world at a day-to-day level, inviting us to choose consciously to inquire in what is generative and life-enriching, both in our lives and of those around us; and (b) A very practical form of organizational change, using past moments and experiences of “something at its best” as a foundation for future evolution. The premise is that people and organizations grow in the direction of what they repeatedly ask questions about and focus their attention on. The overall theme of the inquiry is to amplify and enhance the “life-giving forces” that are already present.
• Storytelling as a facilitation and organizational change tool. I use it in my work and in my life, including studying performing arts and refining my one-man storytelling theatre show - which premiered in Vancouver on October 28, 2005.