[Ailist] Re: Connecting with Others

[Madelyn Blair]

Helene,

Conversation - real conversation. I gave a talk at the Smithsonian  
last year on the subject. As I read through your note, I thought of  
one of the authors I quoted in my presentation.

“It is not restful, it is not possible to talk wholeheartedly to more  
than one person at a time. You can’t really talk with a person unless  
you surrender to them, for the moment (all other talk is futile). You  
can’t surrender to more than one person a moment.” Anne Morrow  
Lindbergh, Bring Me a Unicorn (1971)

My understanding of what conversation is has never been the same  
since reading this.

If you or anyone is interested in the rest of the presentation, you  
can find it on my website at Papers & Presentations under the  
Immediate Resources tab at the top of the page. It's not long, and it  
has much to say about conversation through the ages.

Madelyn

Madelyn Blair, Ph.D.
Pelerei, Inc.
Turning Vision into Reality
www.pelerei.com
301-371-7100
301-371-7957 (fax)
301-471-8721 (mobile)
Skype ID: madelynblair


On Mar 17, 2008, at 8:23 AM, Helene C. Sugarman wrote:

> Hear! Hear! Harry,
>
> Finally, someone has connected with the concepts of being really  
> open, our
> own perception, our own ability to 'see' to 'hear' to 'understand'  
> 'to know'
> all connected and perhaps clouded by our own assumptions and by  
> doing so has
> thus become and demonstrated being more appreciative!
>
> And, this connects so beautifully with the new book by Lewis,  
> Passmore and
> Stefan, "Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management" (sorry, I can't
> italicize this properly due to something technical in replies in  
> Outlook)
> where they use all forms of conversational work to change people  
> and their
> organizations through both AI and other conversational methods such  
> as Open
> Space and World Cafe.  They mention, 'most importantly, we bring  
> with us an
> approach that supports the creation of new meaning and depth of
> understanding...the power of conversation cannot be underestimated."
>
> And, I suggest that we cannot really 'be' ai until we look deeply  
> at our own
> assumptions and become very aware of our perceptions and develop a  
> way to
> 'see' through both of these to really understand 'what  
> is' (whatever that
> may be!)
>
> Peace, folks,
>
> Helene
>
> Helene C. Sugarman, Assoc. Professor UMUC, SUS, BMGT;
> Principal, Dynamic Communication
> 14465 Long Green Drive
> Silver Spring MD 20906
> 301-460-6100 (Office)
> 301-455-5972 (Cell)
> hcsugarman2 at comcast.net
> www.dynamic-communications.com
> Partner,  Appreciative Inquiry Consulting L.L.C.
> www.aiconsulting.org
> Information on our AI Learning Community:
> <http://www.aic-dclearningcommunity.com/
>
>
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