Michelle Holliday - Organizations and the Mindful Practice of Authentic Dialogue

Interesting - I had not heard of the Thrivability Montreal conference, but it sounds cool. The post comes from a (new to me) blog called Solarium: Ideas, Conversations, Events, for Cambrium Consulting. Back in February, Michelle Holliday did a TEDx Talk on Thrivability and the Future of Humanity (see below).

ORGANIZATIONS AND THE MINDFUL PRACTICE OF AUTHENTIC DIALOGUE

Posted by Michelle Holliday on 06 Oct 2011

Last week’s Thrivability Montreal was a fantastic gathering, full of energy and important insights.


We had gathered to explore the question: What if our organizations were designed to support the mindful practice of authentic dialogue?


To offer some context for our conversation, I opened the evening by describing the machine metaphor that dominates business today, as well as the emerging story that portrays organizations instead as living systems. I explained how this new paradigm points the way to better business results. Not only that, I shared my conviction that the mechanistic worldview in general is the root cause of every major challenge humanity faces and that, conversely, the new, life-centered story is critical to the very survival of the human race.


Introducing the evening’s topic, I explained my strong belief that authentic dialogue is an important part of that new story. Every living system is a web of dynamic relationships. The more open and free-flowing those relationships can be, the more the living system is likely to be resilient, adaptive and creative. So, as a simple set of principles and processes specifically designed to support open, free-flowing relationship, authentic dialogue offers a powerful path to resilience, creativity and adaptability - very desirable qualities in these challenging and fast-changing times.

Read the whole post.

Here is her TEDx Talk.

TEDxConcordia - Michelle Holliday - The Pattern of Living Systems

The full transcript of her talk is available at her website/blog.