Posted by Yogesh Malhotra on February 06, 1998 at 08:52:20:

In Reply to: Re: On Science: Scientific and/or Human Perspectives posted by Tom Sudman on February 05, 1998 at 20:00:52:

Tom,

Your remarks remind me of reference to Bohm in Peter Senge's Fifth Discipline which I am inclined to share in the process of making 'tacit' more 'explicit.' It seems relevant to the fundamental mission of this discussion forum as enabler of 'dialog,' my earlier reference to the notion of 'knowledge flow' and the balance between convergence-divergence. It [perhaps] also relates to my reference to 'a new kind of intelligence' beyond the individual humans and machine networks connecting them that I made in the Knowledge Ecology fair keynote presentation discussion.

This may also relate to your earlier question about 'best practices': if there is any best practice one can think of, 'dialog' may be the key to most, if not, all outcomes on this forum.

From Peter Senge's Fifth Discipline (p. 240-41):

The word "dialogue" comes from the Greek word dialogos. Dia means through. Logos means the word, or more broadly, the meaning. Bohm suggests that the original meaning of dialogue was the "meaning passing or moving through... a free flow of meaning between people, in the sense of a stream that flows between two banks." In dialogue, Bohm contends, a group processes a larger "pool of common meaning," which cannot be accessed individually. "The whole organizes the parts," rather than trying to pull the parts into a whole.

The purpose of a dialogue is to go beyond any one individual's understanding. "We are not trying to win in a dialogue. We all win if we are doing it right." In dialogue, individuals gain insights that simply could not be achieved individually. "A new kind of mind begins to come into being which is based on the development of a common meaning... People are no longer primarily in opposition, nor can they said to be interacting, rather they are participating in this pool of common meaning, which is capable of constant development and change."

In dialogue, a group explores complex difficult issues from many points of view. Individuals suspend their assumptions but they communicate their assumptions freely. The result is free exploration that brings to the surface the full depth of people's experience and thought, and yet can move beyond their individual views.

- Yogesh

p.s. About your comment regarding the profoundness of the simple, I would like to acknowledge that some of the simplest sayings may have profound outcomes in terms of actionable knowledge. Here is one such simple saying that I remember from my [early 1980s] days as an engineer on the factory shopfloor: "You Can if You Think You Can." This inscription was on a large picture of eagles soaring in the sky that hung high near the ceiling. Most would never have observed it or read it, however these words are embedded since that time in my thought process.

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