The conditions for thriving conversations

Abstract

Our planet is in trouble as result of the conscious and unconscious collective choices of humanity that dominated the 20th century. Human conflict and environmental degradation are two of the complex interconnected global problems that challenge the way we think, interact, and live. New scientific understanding offers insight into the interconnected nature of our universe. This is the context of our inquiry. An inquiry into the meaning of being and becoming human; a quest toward sustainable and evolutionary ways of living in planet Earth. Our work on conversation methodology, as a means for searching together-and co-creating-connections and meaning, emerges from the interest in "research methods that can deal with the kinds of 'data' that emerge out of the everyday world of human conversations and activities" (Salner, 1996, p.6). We are particularly interested in purposeful conversations that go beyond social/interpersonal aspects to embrace an explicit learning and design inquiry. The competencies required for engaging in this kind of conversation overlap with the competencies required for designing more just and sustainable social systems. By this we mean to indicate evolutionary competency-the understanding and capacity to participate in conscious evolution. Conversation, in contrast with debate and other forms of antagonistic discourse, is collaborative. It demands from the conversants openness to changing views and perspectives-that is, it involves learning-and can foster coordinated action. This has been our experience in the Asilomar Conversation Community of the International Systems Institute (ISI). This Conversation Community meets annually in Pacific Grove, California, and our reflections on thriving conversations are based primarily on our involvement with a group of colleagues with whom we have been exploring, since 1993, the notion of Evolutionary Learning Community as the means for facilitating the emergence of an evolutionary Design Culture. © 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.