Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together
by William Isaacs

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Book Reviews of Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together

Book Review: A Dialogical Dissection
Summary: 5 Stars

Isaacs describes the four pathologies of thought as abstraction, idolatry, certainty, and violence. When we engage in abstraction we separate the parts from the whole and treat them as if they are separate when, in fact, wholeness (interconnectivity and interrelatedness) is a condition of the parts. Idolatry is a problem of memory. It is the acceptance of the false gods or images that we unquestionable accept to guide us in the way we operate, and which blind us to other possibilities. (p.59) Our certainties limit our capacity to think and reflect. We cant learn when we are certain. Violence refers to our tendency to assert and defend our certainties, our views of the world, at the expense of the thoughts of others. Thought that imposes or defends is violent. It applies forces to try to make someone different. (p.68) What is most interesting about Isaacs pathologies is that they call into question those habits and ways of thinking that we generally consider to be necessary for self-actualization. Perhaps too many of us have come to be consumed by these pathologies. Perhaps, when people have to work together to resolve dilemmas, these pathologies are at once magnified and amplified creating a context in which truths are subverted and humane change is ultimately averted.

The challenge for individuals and groups is less to dispense with these pathologies than it is to recognize and control them. Here, dialogue serves a necessary social function. The problem is that, for whatever reason, dialogue (a conversation with a center, not sides, p.19) as a theory is not widely understood, and as a practice is not common to most relationships, public or private. For each pathology of thought Isaacs describes a countervailing principle of dialogue  participation, unfolding, awareness, and coherence. Dialogue taps these principles as critical resources. They are no less necessary to self-actualization than our pathologies, but perhaps because individualism pervades the western consciousness, they are less apparent. Participation refers to the notion that we are a part of the world and the world is a part of us. Unfolding is the gradual process of learning to tell the truth. (p.63) Awareness is the ability to suspend our certainty. Coherence is the process of seeing oneself in others and others in oneself. We participate when we listen, we unfold through voicing, we become aware by suspending our certainty, and we seek coherence through respect. To each of these principles and practices, Isaacs devotes an entire chapter all written, it would seem, to invite reflection and reading aloud to close friends or colleagues.

So how do we turn all these nourishing ideas into food for change? We develop our ability to understand what is happening as it is happening (our predictive intuition). We seek new patterns of action by speaking about what we know while inquiring into what we dont know (balancing advocacy with inquiry). We learn to identify and discuss the contradictory forces (structural traps), which inhibit our ability to seek and act on shared realities. We learn to develop and support cultures that produce energy, possibility, and safety. (I believe that Isaacs uses the term container as a synonym for culture.) Central to the development of such a container are the practices of listening, voicing, suspending, and respecting. In this environment, leaders can help groups navigate through the fields of conversation (there are four) to achieve reflective, if not generative dialogue. Isaacs description of the four fields of dialogue represents a useful model for anyone interested in analyzing and redirecting their professional or personal conversations. He argues for the importance of dialogue in a democracy and in our organizations (we cannot adapt and change without an open system approach to communication), and he provides practical advice and strategies for cultivating dialogue in our society, and within an organization.

This is a book for anyone seeking personal growth and for any citizen or employee who believes that the quest for a more humane world can be achieved through our collective intelligence, or perhaps more significantly, for anyone who needs to see the potential of authentic communication.

Summary of Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together

Isaacs, who is Director of the Dialogue Project at MIT and a consultant to major corporations, including AT&T and Intel, believes that corporate, political, and personal communication can be a process of thinking together--as opposed to thinking alone, and then trying to convince others of our positions by refusing to consider other opinions, withholding information, and ultimately getting angry and defensive. This is not pie-in-the-sky, let's-all-hold-hands-and-sing stuff. He offers concrete ideas for both listening and speaking; for avoiding the forces that undermine meaningful conversation; for changing the physical setting of the dialogue to change its quality. The outcome, he says, can be quite different from the traditional winner-loser structure of arguments and debates. Businesses can make more reasoned decisions, and thus earn more money. Governments can create peaceful resolutions to seemingly intractable problems. (For example, Isaacs cites secret conversations between Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk in South Africa, which occurred over a number of years, while Mandela was still under arrest and led to a new framework for their country.) And, although this is a book primarily geared toward managers, even married couples can learn a few new ways to communicate. --Lou Schuler

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