The Talking Point

The Talking Point is all about how people learn within groups. People can be
much smarter than crowds if you measure "smart" as decision-making speed.
Crowds can be much wiser than individuals if you measure wisdom by depth of
understanding. It is possible to understand a great deal of information yet (or
maybe 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 group
decisions on a time scale that will keep pace with policy development needs and
social necessities, groups have to be supported so that their decision-making
process can be accelerated. Much has been said and written about this problem
over the years. It is dangerous to have the power of groups without the wisdom of groups, and it is tragic to
have the wisdom of groups without the power of groups. The Talking Point presents a meeting point for the
wisdom 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 touted
design charettes and stakeholder processes as engagement vehicles and then ignored, marginalized or corrupted
the very input that we swore to hold as sacred. This has created a myth that
large scale collaboration is not possible, and the myth has led to
considerable disillusionment among would-be participants and could-be
sponsors. Structured Dialogic Design seeks to bust the myth about our
limited capabilities to sustain boundary spanning collaboration. To bust this
myth, Structured Dialogic Design needs to usher in a new wave of
collaborative planning. Scholars have identified the Structured Dialogic
Design methodology as the cutting edge of "third phase" science - where the
reality of a situation embraces interactions between objective findings and
subjective intentions.
The Talking Point provides a window for observing how Structured Dialogic
Design has been put into practice and paints a panorama of the issues that
confront complex social system design. This book is itself a bridge between
scholarship and practice, written to be accessible yet anchored to major
themes in cognitive psychology, information systems, social systems, and
models of group learning. The book is an invitation for transformational
leaders and those who support transformational leaders to pick up a new tool
in the essential quest to put our nation and our world back on track toward
sustainable futures. The Talking Point is a fresh source of water in a world
that is thirsty for new ways of solving complex problems.