Can a powerful question change the world? Why do some questions motivate people to deeply reflect and act?
The creation and sharing of a catalyzing question is a generative act, it creates a point of view. Such a true question provokes a deep response and outlook. Great questions are the inspiration of research, journalism, strategy, and our imagining of alternative futures.
September’s DwD session inquired into the “question of questions.” We practice different methods and arts of the question, and explore the impact of powerful questions in dialogue.
We can see this principle in action around us. Companies, innovations, and social movements can start with a leader’s question that inspires others to get involved. People living in a question invite us to answer that question with action.
Such is the pull of the powerful question.
The session presented three challenges to participants:
1. The Question Game – Conduct three conversations entirely in questions.
2. Inquiry into: What is the process and practice of asking questions?
Based on asking the following three questions:
- What is the function of a question?
- What is the effect of a question on the person being asked?
- What kinds of questions have “potential” or the potency to open experience?
The comprehensive dialogue sketch was composed throughout the evening by Patricia Kambitsch, Playthink.
3. How might your questions shape an intentional future?
Writing and sharing powerful questions, which appeared on the board as:
Participation was engaged by a group of 30, at least half of whom were new to DwD. We appreciate the energized attendance!
ABOUT THE HOST. Peter Jones is a senior fellow of the Strategic Innovation Lab and teaches in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation graduate program at OCADU. He is managing partner of Dialogic Design International, a network firm that guides strategic dialogue to help clients navigate complex decisions and plans, and re-envision effective futures for planning and organizational design. Peter founded Redesign, Inc. an innovation research company based in Toronto. Redesign conducts ethnographic and design research to guide innovations consistent with advancing systemic change in organizations, social systems and markets.
The Meta-Design of Dialogues as Inquiring Systems
About 30 participants attended the first DwD of 2012 (Jan 11). This educational session explored the relationship of systems inquiry to dialogue. Small groups facilitated their own learning to identify knowledge profiles and to design dialogic inquiries that would best address a selected area of concern.
There’s a multitude of ways to conduct dialogues. Which approach will be most appropriate for attaining desired outcomes among different groups? This DwD engaged systems thinking for some foundations, with an overview of C. West Churchman’s design of inquiring systems. With these foundations, participants (dialogue designers) sharpened their appreciation of alternative modes and techniques. More open dialogic approaches might (or might not) be preferred over more bounded and structured approaches, under different conditions. Theory was translated into reflective practice through group exercises. The session started by generating a range of concerns and ideas for inquiry. These were selected by groups for further
About the Convener
David Ing is president (2011-2012) of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, an organization with members with interests crossing disciplinary boundaries (e.g. social systems, technological systems, biological systems, ecological systems). In that role, he is designing the program for the ISSS annual meeting (in San Jose, CA in July 2012), and working with the Systems Science Working Group of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). Over the past year, he developed new courses in systems thinking for the Master’s in Creative Sustainability at Aalto University in Finland. He is a visiting fellow with University of Hull (UK), an itinerant scholar with the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and previously a cofounder of the Canadian Centre for Marketing Information Technologies (C2MIT) at the University of Toronto. David has had a continuous 27-year career with IBM, with home base in Toronto. He can be found on the Internet at http://coevolving.com