The Talking Point

The Talking Point is all about how people learn within groups. People can bemuch smarter than crowds if you measure smart as decision-making speed.Crowds can be much wiser than individuals if you measure wisdom by depth ofunderstanding. It is possible to understand a great deal of information yet (ormaybe because of this) you can also be slow to make decisions. If rushed,crowds will make poor decisions in spite of their wisdom. So... to get good groupdecisions on a time scale that will keep pace with policy development needs andsocial necessities, groups have to be supported so that their decision-makingprocess can be accelerated. Much has been said and written about this problemover the years. It is dangerous to have the power of groups without the wisdom of groups, and it is tragic tohave the wisdom of groups without the power of groups. The Talking Point presents a meeting point for thewisdom and power of groups through the use of Structured Dialogic Design.With hopeful intentions, as a culture we have poisoned the well just when we need it most. We have touteddesign charettes and stakeholder processes as engagement vehicles and then ignored, marginalized or corruptedthe very input that we swore to hold as sacred. This has created a myth thatlarge scale collaboration is not possible, and the myth has led toconsiderable disillusionment among would-be participants and could-besponsors. Structured Dialogic Design seeks to bust the myth about ourlimited capabilities to sustain boundary spanning collaboration. To bust thismyth, Structured Dialogic Design needs to usher in a new wave ofcollaborative planning. Scholars have identified the Structured DialogicDesign methodology as the cutting edge of third phase science - where thereality of a situation embraces interactions between objective findings andsubjective intentions.The Talking Point provides a window for observing how Structured DialogicDesign has been put into practice and paints a panorama of the issues thatconfront complex social system design. This book is itself a bridge betweenscholarship and practice, written to be accessible yet anchored to majorthemes in cognitive psychology, information systems, social systems, andmodels of group learning. The book is an invitation for transformationalleaders and those who support transformational leaders to pick up a new toolin the essential quest to put our nation and our world back on track towardsustainable futures. The Talking Point is a fresh source of water in a worldthat is thirsty for new ways of solving complex problems.