Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • A 21st Century Management Tool
  • Dialogue: the art of thinking together
  • Dialogue - Communications alternative
  • A Dialogical Dissection
  • Insightful!
Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together
William Isaacs
Manufacturer: Currency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0385479999
Release Date: 1999-09-14

Amazon.com

Modern conversation is a lot like nuclear physics, argues William Isaacs. Lots of atoms zoom around, many of which just rush past each other. But others collide, creating friction. Even if our atomic conversations don't turn contentious, they often just serve to establish each participant's place in the cosmos. One guy shares a statistic he's privy to, another shares another fact, and on and on. Each person fires off a tidbit, pauses to reload while someone else talks, then fires off another. In Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together, Isaacs explains how we can do better than that.

Isaacs, who is Director of the Dialogue Project at MIT and a consultant to major corporations, including AT&T and Intel, believes that corporate, political, and personal communication can be a process of thinking together--as opposed to thinking alone, and then trying to convince others of our positions by refusing to consider other opinions, withholding information, and ultimately getting angry and defensive. This is not pie-in-the-sky, let's-all-hold-hands-and-sing stuff. He offers concrete ideas for both listening and speaking; for avoiding the forces that undermine meaningful conversation; for changing the physical setting of the dialogue to change its quality. The outcome, he says, can be quite different from the traditional winner-loser structure of arguments and debates. Businesses can make more reasoned decisions, and thus earn more money. Governments can create peaceful resolutions to seemingly intractable problems. (For example, Isaacs cites secret conversations between Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk in South Africa, which occurred over a number of years, while Mandela was still under arrest and led to a new framework for their country.) And, although this is a book primarily geared toward managers, even married couples can learn a few new ways to communicate. --Lou Schuler

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars A 21st Century Management Tool.......2007-07-08

To many hard core business types, the idea of sitting around talking with each other for the purpose of identifying common ground would probably sound a little too soft for their liking. If not handled properly, it most likely would.

However, when handled in the way described in this book by William Isaacs, the founder of the Dialogue Project at MIT, it works. As Peter Senge (author of The Fifth Discipline) says in the foreword to Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together, "in almost every (business) setting where practices of dialogue have become embedded and part of everyday routines, the ensuing changes have become irreversible . . . . Once people rediscover the art of talking together, they do not go back."

Based on a simple set of core skills or practices--listening, respecting, suspending (judgment), and voicing (speaking authentically)--true dialogue often has a profound impact on the quality of the interaction amongst those who are willing to engage in it.

This book is full of practical examples of what to do, how to do it, and what happens in high stakes business settings, like labor-management negotiations, and other less stressful situations when you do.

I have used the principles in this book successfully for many years with clients and students to create breakthroughs in business and education.

I highly recommend it.

Robert E. Levasseur, Ph.D., author of "Breakthrough Business Meetings: Shared Leadership in Action"

4 out of 5 stars Dialogue: the art of thinking together.......2006-11-11

This book is an excellent intorduction to the area of dialogue. It has very good application to the business area for consultants and managers interested in increasing effectiveness of communication.

4 out of 5 stars Dialogue - Communications alternative.......2006-08-31

Isaacs offers alternatives to edicts, confrontations, arguments, debates. He uses anecdotes and metaphors to make his points memorable, often vivid or amusing. He makes how-to-do-it understandable. His most important points are simply stated:
* Listening
* Respecting
* Suspending Opinion
* Voicing
I would add empathy to this list. When empathy is present, dialogue arises naturally. This omission is my only reason for only four stars.

An extract: "The heart of dialogue is a simple but profound capacity to listen. Listening requires we not only hear the words, but also embrace, accept, and gradually let go of our own inner clamoring. As we explore it, we discover that listening is an expansive activity. It gives us a way to perceive more directly the ways we participate in the world around us... This means listening not only to others but also to ourselves and our reactions."

Isaacs points out that while we may work hard in preparing to speak, we do not work equally hard in preparing to listen. The listening element of dialogue cannot be overemphasized.

William Isaacs is to be commended for giving us a fundation upon which to reach through the common barriers of temperament mismatch. Dialogue is the art of relaxing our hang-ups (and biases) to the point where we hear eagerly and naturally think of extensions to what others are saying. In searching for truth, we can then reply thoughtfully instead of defensively, and this encourages responses in kind. Dialogue also works between and among nations. Dialogue is needed more than ever in our times where humanity has achieved the capacity to make itself just another extinct species. William Isaacs is my guru for dialogue.

5 out of 5 stars A Dialogical Dissection.......2003-06-06

Isaacsý book is at once highly readable, pleasant, challenging, thorough, and dense. The author brings together theoretical works from physics, linguistics and psychology to assess modern communication problems and how, through dialogue, those problems can be overcome. He also uses many of his own experiences and case studies to show how dialogic approaches have helped resolve serious differences between groups in the private and public sectors. This book not only offers us the opportunity to reflect on our own mindsets and practices, it also provides useful frameworks and strategies for those compelled to help groups resolve differences. As someone seeking leadership positions in education, this book will always be kept close at hand.

Isaacsý describes the four ýpathologiesý of thought as abstraction, idolatry, certainty, and violence. When we engage in abstraction we separate the parts from the whole and treat them as if they are separate when, in fact, wholeness (interconnectivity and interrelatedness) is a condition of the parts. Idolatry is a problem ýof memoryý. It is the acceptance of ýthe false gods or images that we unquestionable accept to guide us in the way we operate, and which blind us to other possibilitiesý. (p.59) Our certainties limit our capacity to think and reflect. We canýt learn when we are certain. Violence refers to our tendency to assert and defend our certainties, our views of the world, at the expense of the thoughts of others. ýThought that imposes or defends is violent. It applies forces to try to make someone different.ý (p.68) What is most interesting about Isaacsý pathologies is that they call into question those habits and ways of thinking that we generally consider to be necessary for self-actualization. Perhaps too many of us have come to be consumed by these pathologies. Perhaps, when people have to work together to resolve dilemmas, these pathologies are at once magnified and amplified creating a context in which truths are subverted and humane change is ultimately averted.

The challenge for individuals and groups is less to dispense with these pathologies than it is to recognize and control them. Here, dialogue serves a necessary social function. The problem is that, for whatever reason, dialogue (ýa conversation with a center, not sidesý, p.19) as a theory is not widely understood, and as a practice is not common to most relationships, public or private. For each pathology of thought Isaacs describes a countervailing principle of dialogue ý participation, unfolding, awareness, and coherence. Dialogue taps these principles as critical resources. They are no less necessary to self-actualization than our pathologies, but perhaps because individualism pervades the western consciousness, they are less apparent. Participation refers to the notion that we are a part of the world and the world is a part of us. Unfolding is ýthe gradual process of learning to tell the truthý. (p.63) Awareness is the ability to suspend our certainty. Coherence is the process of seeing oneself in others and others in oneself. We participate when we listen, we unfold through voicing, we become aware by suspending our certainty, and we seek coherence through respect. To each of these principles and practices, Isaacs devotes an entire chapter all written, it would seem, to invite reflection and reading aloud to close friends or colleagues.

So how do we turn all these nourishing ideas into food for change? We develop our ability to understand what is happening as it is happening (our ýpredictive intuitioný). We seek new patterns of action by speaking about what we know while inquiring into what we donýt know (balancing advocacy with inquiry). We learn to identify and discuss the contradictory forces (ýstructural trapsý), which inhibit our ability to seek and act on shared realities. We learn to develop and support cultures that produce energy, possibility, and safety. (I believe that Isaacs uses the term ýcontainerý as a synonym for culture.) Central to the development of such a container are the practices of listening, voicing, suspending, and respecting. In this environment, leaders can help groups navigate through the fields of conversation (there are four) to achieve reflective, if not generative dialogue. Isaacsý description of the four fields of dialogue represents a useful model for anyone interested in analyzing and redirecting their professional or personal conversations. He argues for the importance of dialogue in a democracy and in our organizations (we cannot adapt and change without an open system approach to communication), and he provides practical advice and strategies for cultivating dialogue in our society, and within an organization.

This is a book for anyone seeking personal growth and for any citizen or employee who believes that the quest for a more humane world can be achieved through our collective intelligence, or perhaps more significantly, for anyone who needs to see the potential of authentic communication.

4 out of 5 stars Insightful!.......2001-10-12

Sometimes the corporate environment is not tranquil. Managers hate workers, workers hate managers and nobody seems to understand or talk to anybody else. Author William Isaacs believes that's because people don't communicate very well. Companies that succeed have made effective, positive communication part of their culture. Dialogue is a two-way street and negative, ineffective dialogue can kill a company's prospects. Isaacs, a corporate consultant with a doctorate in philosophy, uses a very un-businesslike style to convey his ideas. The book is full of parables and company stories, and the whole mood feels more like a literary narrative, instead of a to-the-point business book. ...
Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Dialogue: The Art Of Thinking Together
    William Isaacs
    Manufacturer: Currency 1999
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover
    ASIN: B000MCNLI4

    Investment Intelligence from Insider Trading
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • Concise, efficient
    • Useful Information, but repetitive writing
    • Well researched, informative but too academic and long
    • A little too academic for my tastes
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    Investment Intelligence from Insider Trading
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    The term insider trading refers to the stock transactions of the officers, directors, and large shareholders of a firm. Many investors believe that corporate insiders, informed about their firms' prospects, buy and sell their own firm's stock at favorable times, reaping significant profits. Given the extra costs and risks of an active trading strategy, the key question for stock market investors is whether the publicly available insider-trading information can help them to outperform a simple passive index fund.

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    5 out of 5 stars Concise, efficient.......2007-04-13

    Would that more financial books were written this way. Gets straight to the point, backs up conclusions with the data (and not the other way around), and examines various combinations of factors along with insider trading. Compelling.

    4 out of 5 stars Useful Information, but repetitive writing.......2006-07-11

    This is a very good and thorough book. Seyhun addresses many different ways in which you can gain information from insider trading. He is incredibly thorough. That brings me to the major problem with the book--Seyhun is quite repetitive. The different chapters deal with different aspects of insider trading (for example, the size of the trades, who is making the trades, how many insiders are trading). Each chapter has the same structure. Much of the prose seems to be re-used across chapters as well. This is best dealt with by skimming over some of the repetitive parts while paying close attention to the graphs and tables. A second thing about the book is that Seyhun uses tests of his hypotheses that non-statisticians can understand. This improves readability but makes the book longer (and more frustrating for statisticians).

    3 out of 5 stars Well researched, informative but too academic and long.......2005-02-05

    Instead of talking about those dirty illegal insider trading, it is a long term study (from 70's to 90's) of legal, SEC filed stock transactions by company executives, accountants (insiders) to answer, from pg 317, "Can a potential stock market investor mimic insiders and make profits? If so, what is the magnitude of the profits? What kinds of risks does a mimicking strategy impose on outside investors? Given the risks, is it still worth it?"

    By and large, the author did provide answers to the above. Profit for the mimicking is still available, after report delays, transaction costs and the need to mimic over 50 multiple transaction to lower risk. For a 12 mth holding period, the strategy outperforms the market by 2% for buying but underperforms by 3.3% for selling.

    You can tell the conclusion is simple, but the author did use a lot of set up, with lengthly coverage of legal issues, before summing it up in the very last 14th chapter of this 341 content page book. As per title of this review, it is well researched, informative but too academic and long.

    p.s. One minor complaint: The author should give more details on parameter setting and provide an optimal (profit maximization) strategy on the mimicking. Perhaps he did, but he didnt show it in the book.

    3 out of 5 stars A little too academic for my tastes.......2004-07-16

    But I certainly like to invest with the insiders.

    4 out of 5 stars Insightful!.......2001-03-29

    Are you ready to learn from the somewhat mythical, sometimes notorious and often misunderstood inside traders? H. Nejat Seyhun has compressed a gargantuan amount of information - 21 year's worth of reported insider trades, more than one million transactions - into a manual that debunks and reconfigures the wild world of insider trading. Since inside traders are bound by strict laws, their prowess comes from proximity to the action. As a farmer can predict the next big storm by watching his cattle, sophisticated traders can predict the next market windfall by watching the insiders. This isn't a late-night page-turner; after all, Seyhun is a noted academic expert. Yet flashier verbal energy might have sacrificed the book's most valuable quality: precision. This book (the opposite of the Investing for Illiterates-type) takes its readers and itself seriously - If you are serious about your portfolio, we [...] recommend that you put yourself through Seyhun's course. Dedicated investors, policy makers and scholars need this on their reference shelves.
    The Commitments of Traders Bible: How To Profit from Insider Market Intelligence (Wiley Trading)
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        Investment Intelligence from Insider Trading (Cloth)
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          Pass Key to the LSAT (Barron's Pass Key to the Lsat)
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          3 out of 5 stars not a good predictor of actual score.......2005-06-07

          I used this book mainly for the sample tests--but I found that I was scoring about 10 points worse on them than I was on actual, previously used LSATs or ones in other books. I don't think they use practice questions from LSAC, instead making them up (which does lower the price, but still...)

          3 out of 5 stars Decent studying tips.......2005-06-07

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          5 out of 5 stars Great Deal.......2004-12-17

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          5 out of 5 stars Execellent study tips.......2005-06-18

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          1 out of 5 stars Don't Buy This Book.......2000-09-06

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                  5 out of 5 stars An Excellent Volume!.......2001-02-10

                  This volume by Johnson and Lapidus is an excellent guide to the Feynman integral and Feynman's operational calculus. The authors bring together a great deal of the background material needed for the study of the integral and operational calculus so as to make the volume mostly self-contained.

                  The book contains several different approaches to the Feynman integral and discusses in some detail relationships between these approaches. The exposition is very clear and detailed and the proofs of results in the text are detailed and extremely well written. Also, the text contains many items that have only appeared in the research literature. Some of these results are quite new.

                  Also contained in this text is a thorough discussion of Feynman's operational calculus, again from more than one point of view. Many of the results contained here have only appeared previously in the research literature and again some are quite recent. This part of the book is also very well and clearly written.

                  There are also many remarks and examples dealing with the applicability of the formalism to physical situations.

                  This is a great read for anyone wanting to further there knowledge about these subjects.
                  Generalized Dyson Series, Generalized Feynman's Diagrams, the Feynman Integral, and Feynman's Operational Calculus (Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society)
                  Average customer rating: Not rated
                    Generalized Dyson Series, Generalized Feynman's Diagrams, the Feynman Integral, and Feynman's Operational Calculus (Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society)
                    Gerald W. Johnson
                    Manufacturer: Amer Mathematical Society
                    ProductGroup: Book
                    Binding: Paperback

                    Functional AnalysisFunctional Analysis | Pure Mathematics | Mathematics | Science | Subjects | Books
                    GeneralGeneral | Mathematics | Science | Subjects | Books
                    MathematicsMathematics | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books | Applied | Chaos & Systems | Geometry & Topology | Mathematical Analysis | Mathematical Physics | Number Systems | Pure Mathematics | Transformations | Trigonometry
                    ASIN: 0821824139
                    Feynman Integral and Feynman's Operational Calculus, by Johnson
                    Average customer rating: Not rated
                      Feynman Integral and Feynman's Operational Calculus, by Johnson
                      Gerald W./ Lapidus, Michel L. Johnson
                      Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
                      ProductGroup: Book
                      Binding: Paperback
                      ASIN: B000OLAPR8
                      The Feynman Integral and Feynmanandapos;s Operational Calculus
                      Average customer rating: Not rated
                        The Feynman Integral and Feynmanandapos;s Operational Calculus
                        Michel L. Lapidus Gerald W. Johnson
                        Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
                        ProductGroup: Book
                        Binding: Paperback
                        ASIN: B000OLAH5I

                        A Degree of Mastery: A Journey through Book Arts Apprenticeship
                        Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
                        • Pleasant, but very light
                        • accessible, delicate, honest
                        • Illuminations
                        • Literal or spiritual - take your pick
                        • A wonderful autobiography!
                        A Degree of Mastery: A Journey through Book Arts Apprenticeship
                        Annie Tremmel Wilcox
                        Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
                        ProductGroup: Book
                        Binding: Paperback

                        GeneralGeneral | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
                        BooksBooks | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
                        GeneralGeneral | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
                        ClassicsClassics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
                        Similar Items:
                        1. Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age
                        2. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books
                        3. The Care and Feeding of Books Old and New: A Simple Repair Manual for Book Lovers The Care and Feeding of Books Old and New: A Simple Repair Manual for Book Lovers

                        ASIN: 0140291938
                        Release Date: 2000-07-03

                        Book Description

                        In this extraordinary memoir, certain to captivate anyone who's ever appreciated the feel of a good book, Annie Tremmel Wilcox deftly explores the artistry, traditions, and precise techniques of book making and restoration. Using excerpts from her diaries, newspaper articles, exhibit notices, and correspondence, Wilcox passionately recounts her experiences learning the art of making and preserving books as the first female apprentice to the renowned book binder and conservator William Anthony. At once rendering a gorgeous, moving scrapbook of her tutelage under this consummate craftsman, and expertly demystifing the fascinating technical processes of this centuries-old art form, A Degree of Mastery is a singular achievement certain to enchant book lovers and crafts- people alike.

                        "Wilcox describes the restoration processes . . . with such detail that one is left with the impression that he or she is actually learning the craft rather than merely reading about another's experience."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

                        "True bibliophiles will find it hard to suppress a frisson of excitement as Wilcox recounts the techniques she and her colleagues used to bring crumbling manuscripts . . . back to life."--Publishers Weekly

                        Customer Reviews:

                        3 out of 5 stars Pleasant, but very light.......2005-02-26

                        This was a strange read, because the author continually expresses her surprise for certain techniques and methods of the book conservators craft as she discovers them during her early learning and apprenticeship. I find this odd, as I've done a bit of self-taught bookbinding, and have encountered most of this knowledge through reading, and that the author purports to be a reader and decent student.

                        An element I found annoying was the typesetting of the book. In general, I'm tolerant of these things, but, as this is a book on book arts and the author worked as a typesetter for some time, one would think that more attention would be paid to this. Specifically, there is only a word space (1/5 em) between sentences, not the age-old standard of 1/3 em (or even the 2 spaces that is acceptable giving 2/5 em). Also, the excerpts are set in too small a font, which contrasts poorly with the main text face. This detracts from the pleasure of reading a book, and should have been more carefully considered. I suspect the publisher is to blame, not the author.

                        The book also seems to lack a broadness to the characters; their personalities, life, and interests are confined to the conservation department. Although the book is clearly a loving tribute to a master book conservator, one doesn't really learn about the man (nor much about the author).

                        5 out of 5 stars accessible, delicate, honest.......2003-12-24

                        Wilcox artfully narrates her experience as an apprentice for Bill Anthony, a famous book binder and conservator. She artfully interspeses observations about books she is restoring with phases of her life as an apprentice and other texts. She evokes the spirit of craftmanship, of taking many years, much time, and much patience to develop mastery of her craft. Great for book art students, art students, or those considering an apprenticeship of any kind. Of particular interest to those who've made books before, because they will understand vividly the technical descriptions of her project (thought these are accessible to the lay person as well).

                        5 out of 5 stars Illuminations.......2002-07-30

                        Someone who knew that I was in the Interdisciplinary Book and Paper MFA program at Columbia College Chicago gave this memoir to me. It's a really nice read---especially since the bookbinding world is a small one, and everyone in it knows everyone else, as people travel around the country giving workshops. Always interesting to read about people who you've had as teachers. I found it very well written, an evocative and accurate depiction of an obscure art/craft/lifestyle choice, an illuminated window into a small, specialized world.

                        5 out of 5 stars Literal or spiritual - take your pick.......2001-09-10

                        A practical person can read this book as an extended essay on how to approach an apprenticeship, and how to bind conservation texts. A spiritual person can add layers to the stories and extrapolate life lessons. Either way, the main character/author is extremely sympathetic character. Her teacher had amazing gifts, both as a conservator and as a teacher.

                        The book is deceptively short. Looks like a quick read, but was so meaty and detailed, I found myself reading it for several weeks in order to digest all the material carefully.

                        If your taste runs to the obscure, the "sleeper," I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.

                        5 out of 5 stars A wonderful autobiography!.......2001-03-21

                        A Degree of Mastery tells the story of one woman's journey through the education and apprenticeship necessary to become a book preservationist. Annie Wilcox, a bright woman with an impressive past in the field of English and writing, begins to take an evening class in bookbinding at the University of Iowa taught by a world-reknowned preservationist, William Anthony. Little does she know that not more than two years later she will become the first female apprentice ever to study under the direct supervision and teaching of Bill Anthony, an honored position granted only to six others before her. Through her apprenticeship, Wilcox learns the art of preservation and the dire need for conservation in every library, but especially those libraries that house an archives, manuscript or rare books collection. Through Wilcox's autobiography, the reader learns the basic process and means by which book preservation becomes possible as well as the importance and value of conservation in today's libraries. It is a wonderful piece of literature well-worth your time.
                        A Degree of Mastery : A Journey through Book Arts Apprenticeship.
                        Average customer rating: Not rated
                          A Degree of Mastery : A Journey through Book Arts Apprenticeship.
                          Annie Tremmel. Wilcox
                          Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
                          ProductGroup: Book
                          Binding: Paperback
                          ASIN: B000OJ3KDQ

                          Books:

                          1. Drug Testing At Work: A Guide for Employers and Employees
                          2. Economics of Regulation and Antitrust - 3rd Edition
                          3. Employee Benefits in Canada
                          4. Employee Satisfaction in Supported Employment Services: Administration Kit
                          5. Employment and Wages Annual Averages, 2002 (Employment and Wages Annual Survey, 2002)
                          6. Environmental Economics: An Elementary Introduction
                          7. Escape from Violence: Conflict and the Refugee Crisis in the Developing World
                          8. Evaluating Social Programs at the State and Local Level: The Jtpa Evaluation Design Project
                          9. Exploring the Unsaid: Creativity, Risks and Dilemmas in Working Cross-Culturally (Systemic Thinking and Practice)
                          10. Fim Do Emprego, Inicio Do Trabalho

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