Organizations can be understood as networks of conversations

Um artigo inspirador "Organizational change as shifting conversations" de Jeffrey D. Ford publicado por Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 12 No. 6, 1999.
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"But what if we consider organizations as socially constructed realities in which the reality we know is interpreted, constructed, enacted, and maintained through discourse. What if our knowledge and understanding of reality is not a mirror of some underlying ``true'' reality, nor a reproduction of that reality? Rather, what if our knowledge of reality is itself a construction that is created in the process of making sense of things?"
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"Not only are conversations the process through which we construct reality, but they are also the product of that construction: conversations become the reality. What we construct when we construct reality are linguistic products, i.e. conversations, that are interconnected with other linguistic products to form an intertextuality of conversations. Our realities exist in the words, phrases, and sentences that have been combined to create descriptions, reports, explanations, understandings etc., that in turn create what is described, reported, explained, understood, etc. When we describe, we create what is being described in the description."
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"Within a conversational context, organizations can be understood as networks of conversations constituting a variety of first and second-order realities. That is, organizations are networks of conversations rather than have networks of conversations. Conversations are and provide the very texture of organizations.
Planning, budgeting, hiring, firing, promoting, managing, rewarding, etc. are all conversations that are interconnected and constitutive of organizations and which are themselves constituted by different first and second-order realities.
Organizations, therefore, are not discursively monolithic, but pluralistic and polyphonic with many conversations occurring simultaneously and sequentially. These conversations establish the context in which people act and thereby set the stage for what will and will not be done."
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"In the network of conversations that constitute the realities called organizations, the focus and unit of work in producing and managing change is conversation. This means that change managers work with and through conversations to generate, sustain, and complete conversations in order to bring about a new network of conversations (i.e. first- and second-order realities) that result in the accomplishment of specific commitments."
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"specific results obtain only when and where there is a network of conversations sufficient to produce them. The difficulty is that we can not tell a priori which conversations will make the difference needed for the results to obtain. In this sense, producing change is like experimental theatre or improvisational jazz where the script (music) is being written while it is being performed. Although there is a theme to the change, the specific conversations that are needed, with whom, and when, have to be generated on a moment to moment basis. By specifying and agreeing to the first-order reality (e.g. measured result) that will exist if ``the change'' is
successful, it is possible for all participants to determine if the conversation is shifting (has shifted) consistent with the intention for which the shift is being undertaken."
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"Changing the conversations that constitute an organization necessarily changes the conversations that constitute individuals in the organization. For the network of conversations that constitute an organization to shift, people have to shift what they talk about, which in turn alters the context in which they find themselves, making new actions possible. Within this perspective, ``organizational change occurs simultaneously in our selves and in our organizations'' and organizational change does not occur without individual change. Quite simply, in the absence of people's willingness to speak and listen differently, there can be no conversational shift and no organizational change."
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“Producing change begins with the existing network of conversations and then proceeds to add, weed out, supplement, reintegrate, and organize conversations in order to construct a reality (set of conversations) that fits together with coherence and integrity, handles existing and new cases, and supports further exploration and invention. Producing organizational change, therefore, requires a type of language shift that produces an attractive and empowering reality in which the consequences of a shift fulfill the intentions for which it was undertaken”
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Leio isto e reflicto na sua aplicação ao exercício de alinhamento estratégico duma organização.
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Envolver a Gestão de Topo e a Gestão Intermédia numa conversa sobre os clientes-alvo, sobre a sua identificação, sobre as experiências que procuram e valorizam, sobre o mosaico que precisa de ser criado é fundamental para criar a força transformadora capaz de fazer a diferença.
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Têm de ser envolvidos, não por ser democrático, não por ser moda, não por ser cool, mas por ser a forma de criar a conversa que há-de gerar a transformação.