Includes bibliographical references and index.

Dialogic Organization Development is a compelling alternative to the classical action research approach to planned change. Organizations are seen as fluid, socially constructed realities that are continuously created through conversations and images - change happens when those conversations and images change. Leaders and consultants can help foster, support, or accelerate the emergence of transformational possibilities by encouraging disruptions to taken-for-granted ways of thinking and acting and the use of generative images to stimulate new organizational conversations and narratives.

Dialogic OD is a different mindset, but it's also the previously unrecognized underpinning of a diverse array of change methods, such as Appreciative Inquiry, the Art of Convening, Open Space Technology, and many more.

Foreword: dialogic organization development : past, present, and future / Edgar H. Schein -- Part I. Introduction and Overview / Gervase R. Bushe and Robert J. Marshak: 1. Introduction to the dialogic organization development mindset / Gervase R. Bushe and Robert J. Marshak; 2. Introduction to the practice of dialogic OD / Gervase R. Bushe and Robert J. Marshak -- Part II. Theoretical Bases of Dialogic Organization Development: 3. Social constructionist challenge to representational knowledge : implications for understanding organization change / Frank J. Barrett; 4. Discourse and dialogic organization development / Robert J. Marshak, David S. Grant, and Maurizio Floris; 5. Generative image : sourcing novelty / Gervase R. Bushe and Jacob Storch; 6. Complexity, self-organization, and emergence / Peggy Holman; 7. Understanding organizations as complex responsive processes of relating / Ralph Stacey; 8. Consulting as collaborative co-inquiry / J. Kevin Barge -- Part III. Practices of Dialogic Organization Development: 9. Enabling change: the skills of dialogic OD / Jacob Storch; 10. Entering, readiness, and contracting for dialogic organization development / Tova Averbuch; 11. Transformative learning during dialogic OD / Yabome Gilpin-Jackson; 12. Framing inquiry : the art of engaging great questions / Nancy Southern; 13. Hosting and holding containers / Chris Corrigan; 14. From them to us : working with multiple constituents in dialogic OD / Ray Gordezky; 15. Amplifying change : a three-phase approach to model, nurture, and embed ideas for change / Michael J. Roehrig, Joachim Schwendenwein, and Gervase R. Bushe; 16. Coaching from a dialogic OD paradigm / Chen Swart; 17. Dialogic process consultation : working live / Joan Goppelt and Keith W. Ray; Commentary on dialogic process consultation / Patricia Shaw -- Part IV. Conclusion: The Path Ahead / Gervase R. Bushe and Robert J. Marshak.