RE: Seeing the invisible

["Vic Forte" <vic@vichara.f9.co.uk>]

> Help me understand why no-one thought to ask me, "Alan,
> what makes you
> think Dr Deming's diagram would be 'meaningless' in this situation?
> This seems at odds with my own experience.  I'd be
> interested to know
> what makes you say that."
>
> Then we could have a dialogue, rather than a simple exchange of
> assertions.

Hi Alan.

You ask for help in understanding this. I have observed this
phenomenon a lot in news groups, forums and other forms of on-line
discussion. I believe that the cause lies in the system rather than
any inherent inability or reluctance of people.

I have noticed at least five barriers within the system that inhibit
the kind of dialogue that we would all like to see:

1) The discussion is rather public, and seems to have more in common
with speech making or declamation, or possibly a debate (as with a
balloon debate or something similar) rather than the quiet sort of
personal dialogue in which people can ask each other questions
reasonably frequently.

2) The public nature of the discussion may introduce a fear element
that makes people reluctant to ask questions that might imply
ignorance or stupidity. This would tend to inhibit true exploration.

3) The time gap between question and answer is so long that the
momentum required of a true dialogue is lost. The pace of face to face
conversation is rapid and enables ideas to be exchanged quickly. This
medium may be too slow for questions to be exchanged at a rate that
would eliminate tedium and frustration.

4) Then there is the absence of body language and non verbal forms of
exchange which makes misunderstanding very easy. Therefore people may
tend to limit their statements to affirmations for the sake of economy
and clarity.

5) Finally there is the advantage that one can polish and refine one's
statements to make them perfect. This has an advantage in one way, but
makes heavy work of a long exchange and may in fact cause people to be
reluctant to engage in dialogue.

There are may other problems which arise out of the system which make
effective dialogue difficult. I think we do extremely well under the
circumstances.

The biggest process issue, however, is that we on the DEN do not
practice what we preach by using PDSA to optimise the use of the
medium for effective dialogue. I have attempted to engage in something
similar with a colleague using e-mail but found it unsustainable. He
said "it was too much like hard work". I think this is the problem -
this is entertainment - recreation. If we really want to improve the
process it is going to take work.

Best Wishes,
Vic Forte, vic@vichara.f9.co.uk
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