Interesting Viewpoint about 'Background Conversations'
Notes on professional reading
According to Ford, Ford and Randalluch (2001), much of what people know about their world comes from conversations with others, rather than from direct experience..
Three generic types of socially constructed background conversations that engender distinct types of resistant to change.
The complacent background - "We will succeed in the future, the way we have in the past". "Just leave things as they are." People continue to practice once-successful strategies.
The resigned background - "This probably won't work either", "I can't make any difference". Constructed from historical failure. Normally failure is blamed on someone else.
The cynical background - "Who are they kidding? There is no way this will work". "I don't know why they bother". Likely to include references to being let down by more powerful others.
Important to bring these conversations into the open, rather than let them stay in the background, so that they can be examined.
Reinvention: Undoing what is and creating something new. Involves reframing and inquiring into the context. Once the context is revealed, a new context can be designed.
Conversations for closure - when prior changes have not been closed or completed, people feel dissatisfied. All subsequent conversations about change will remain in this 'conversational space'. Conversations for closure involve people engage in dialogue where they examine their assumptions. Explicitly stating what is incomplete about the past and explore ways to resolve differences and misunderstandings.
Ford, J., Ford, L., Randall, T., (2001). Resistance and the background conversations of change.
Eckhart Tolle on the same subject:
"The opportunity that is concealed within each crisis does not manifest until all the facts of any given situation are acknowledged and fully accepted. As long as you deny them, as long as you try to escape from them or wish that things were different, the window of opportunity does not open up, and you remain trapped inside that situation, which will remain the same or deteriorate further" (The power of Now: A guide to spiritual enlightenment p157)
According to Ford, Ford and Randalluch (2001), much of what people know about their world comes from conversations with others, rather than from direct experience..
Three generic types of socially constructed background conversations that engender distinct types of resistant to change.
The complacent background - "We will succeed in the future, the way we have in the past". "Just leave things as they are." People continue to practice once-successful strategies.
The resigned background - "This probably won't work either", "I can't make any difference". Constructed from historical failure. Normally failure is blamed on someone else.
The cynical background - "Who are they kidding? There is no way this will work". "I don't know why they bother". Likely to include references to being let down by more powerful others.
Important to bring these conversations into the open, rather than let them stay in the background, so that they can be examined.
Reinvention: Undoing what is and creating something new. Involves reframing and inquiring into the context. Once the context is revealed, a new context can be designed.
Conversations for closure - when prior changes have not been closed or completed, people feel dissatisfied. All subsequent conversations about change will remain in this 'conversational space'. Conversations for closure involve people engage in dialogue where they examine their assumptions. Explicitly stating what is incomplete about the past and explore ways to resolve differences and misunderstandings.
Ford, J., Ford, L., Randall, T., (2001). Resistance and the background conversations of change.
Journal of Organizational Change Management; 2002; 15, 2; ProQuest Central. p.105
Eckhart Tolle on the same subject:
"The opportunity that is concealed within each crisis does not manifest until all the facts of any given situation are acknowledged and fully accepted. As long as you deny them, as long as you try to escape from them or wish that things were different, the window of opportunity does not open up, and you remain trapped inside that situation, which will remain the same or deteriorate further" (The power of Now: A guide to spiritual enlightenment p157)
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