'Way-making as Emergent Practice' with Danica Meredith

"Truth is not born nor is it to be found inside the head of an individual person, it is born between people, collectively, searching for truth, in the process of their dialogic interaction" -- Mikhail Bakhtin
 
How do we participate in sense-making (within ourselves, our families, our organizations)?
 
We are living in a moment of profound change and people in positions of power feel they ought to know (perhaps are expected to know) where we are headed and how to get there. That is the old leadership model.  The "Great Resignation" started before the pandemic, yet Harvard notes that roughly 47 million people quit their jobs in the US in 2021, citing "low pay, no opportunities for advancement, feeling disrespected." So, we know what we don't want and will no longer tolerate. Instead of the traditional, top-down "command and control" hierarchy, we search for new ways. 
 
Some ways to make meaning include ecological models, for example the mobius loop of life/death/re-emergence, or Dave Snowden's cynefin framework in the complex domain, which suggests we look for patterns rather than insisting on a plan. Design thinking brings a human-centred approach, and the Agile manifesto stresses a mindset shift, with people over processes, discussion over heavy documentation. 
 
In this week's Drinking Dialogues, we consider paradigm shifts and ways forward, together. We will run these sessions as an experiment with the goal of "searching for truth in the process of ... dialogic interaction," as Bakhtin suggests. This session is an experiment in sense-making. Questions to ponder (which may or may not be answered):

• How might we make sense of and help others to find new pathways in times of transformative change? 
• What is emerging for us - as individuals in our workplaces, homes, families, and social contexts?
• What (who?) must shift or make way for emergence?
• How might we shape an emergent practice or emergent strategy in this moment and in our respective contexts (as parents, coaches, colleagues, citizens, leaders)?

Come consider global viewpoints and help flex our understanding of how to find our leadership moments.

Danica Virginia Meredith is the Emerging Practice Lead at Quarry consulting, a boutique Canadian consulting firm. Danica engages in listening to, sense-making with, and way-making alongside her clients as a strategist, agile coach, and advisor. She is a third-generation female entrepreneur. A lateral thinker raised by a linear-thinking management consultant mother, Danica values diversity of thought and approach in organizations. An Ameri-Canadian, she is both polite and innovative. Montreal is her adopted home, where she lives with her 2 daughters, husband, and olde English bulldog, Romeo.