Bill Isaacs is a lecturer in the Organizational Learning Center at MIT and
founder and head of DIAlogos. Bill and his partners and associates (of
which I am one in this new "virtual organization") provide dialogue
training and consultation to support integrated change processes in
business, education, government, and not-for-profit organizations.
As a relatively new associate, I attended DIAlogos' "Foundations for
Dialogue" seminar in California last month (this was a public seminar;
DIAlogos also provides it in private sessions to workgroups). Like Larry,
I am a consultant in organizational development and change, and I can say
that the DIAlogos program does offer a different body of theory and
practice to add to OD interventions. The seminar was about 80%
experiential and maybe 20% presentation. (I actually would have liked to
hear more theory as context for the exercises, but of course, that
reflects my own preferences...) The seminar relies a good deal on Argyris'
concepts about defensive routines and use of the Ladder of Inference to
learn to get past these routines, so people thoroughly familiar with these
concepts and practices could find the seminar redundant. I've taken
Action Design's course on Argyris' concepts and I still found the
additional experience and practice to be very helpful. It seemed like
everyone I spoke to in the group found the Ladder of Inference to be the
most useful concept and technique.
One reason that the seminar is useful simultaneously to both beginners and
experienced OD practitioners is that the exercises all have participants
work on their own most immediate and pressing concerns, so everyone has an
opportunity to do some thinking on their own (personal or professional)
issues as well as having the experience in the group dialogue. The
seminar is also a thorough immersion--with evening sessions and shared
meals, people really have a chance to connect and explore the experience.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I also look forward to
hearing about other people's experience with dialogue training and
DIAlogos programs. I'll be happy to forward comments, feedback,
suggestions, etc. to Bill and the rest of the group to reflect on for our
own learning!
-- Diane Weston DMWeston@aol.com