Conversation to agree on a goal.
me
you
Agreement leads to...
me
you
you
me
Conversation to agree on action.
may lead to a new...
me
you
Agreement leads to acting in the world.
Was the action completed?
No
Then we should complete the action.
Yes
No
Did the action achieve our goal?
Have we exhausted
reasonable options
for action?
Yes
No
We should discuss how
to adjust our actions.
Yes
We should discuss how to revise our goals.
Move on to another topic.
July + August 2009
• Conversation to Collaborate: Agreeing on goals and coordinating actions to achieve them.
interactions
every U.S. mobile phone user). Or we’re frustrated
when we can’t use the available interface functions to get what we want. So, when software is
the connection between participants, we ought to
ask, “How well does the infrastructure support the
conversational connection?”
2. Conversational participants. Inherent in the
capacities for a given conversation are the indi-
vidual limits of its participants. Individuals
contribute both what they know in depth and
breadth and their style of interaction. Given a
specific group of participants, conversations may
go nowhere—they have no value; they create no
lasting change in the participants. Other conversations create their own energy and go places—they
are generative, have momentum, and lead to new
