Organizing Conversations: Preparing Groups to Take on Adaptive Challenges

Published May 27th 2024, available in both print and e-book formats.

Find it on:

• amazon.com (US)
• amazon.co.uk (UK)

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Praise for Organizing Conversations:

“Mike has a unique voice in how he talks about people, organizations, leadership and outcomes. Organizing Conversations takes this a step further, providing conversations and practices that enable accountability and ownership of the direction of strategy and outcomes.”

“Not just a book but a tool to prepare managers, leaders, and change agents with the capability and understanding of how to engage work teams fully. It provides a fresh view of Dialogic Organization Development, bringing in the strength of meaningful conversations to fuel change and innovation in organizational practices.”

“My reading experience can be summarized as making lots of highlights while connecting the dots to improve strategy, organization design, OD, and facilitation work. I will definitely recommend Organizing Conversations to the people I work with.”

This fourth book by Agendashift founder Mike Burrows is a commission for the Bushe-Marshak Institute's BMI Series in Dialogic Organisation Development. Its themes:

• Dialogic patterns – models, routines, and strings of exercises that organize a range of powerful conversational tools and give structure and direction to exploratory dialog
• Participatory tools for organizing the outputs of such inquiry, dealing respectfully with its quantity, diversity, and ambiguity
• Patterns for generative conversations – conversations designed to yield solutions that people are motivated to act on
• Patterns for integrating and sustaining the above, seeing that as an issue of organization as much process

Contents

Introduction

Part One: Inquiry

1. Context
2. Setting the Stage: Shared Ideals, Obstacles, and Outcomes
3. Repertoire – Foundations for Setting the Stage

Part Two: Managing the Inquiry Process and Organizing its Outputs

4. Configuration, Calibration, and Framing
5. Clarifying and Organizing Outcomes Before Searching for Solutions

Part Three: Generative Processes

6. Ideation and Experimentation
7. Keeping the Conversation Alive

Author and Agendashift founder Mike Burrows is recognised for his pioneering work in Lean, Agile, and Kanban, his ground-breaking first book Kanban from the Inside (Blue Hole Press, 2014), and for championing participatory and outcome-oriented approaches to change, transformation, and strategy. Before embarking on his consulting career, he was global development manager and Executive Director at a top tier investment bank, and CTO for an energy risk management startup.

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Related

• The books:
  • Organizing Conversations: Preparing Groups to Take on Adaptive Challenges (May 2024)
  • Agendashift: Outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation (2nd edition 2021)
    • Recommended reading (Agendashift 2nd edition)
  • Right to Left: The digital leader’s guide to Lean and Agile (2019, audiobook 2020)
    • Recommended reading (Right to Left)
    • My kind of…
  • Kanban from the Inside (2014)
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