Thinking about the conversation

The four hour flight to Moscow went quickly yesterday as I was traveling Rosetta Stone Software with David Gurteen. It’s being a long time since we were able to spend any time together so there was a lot of catching up to do. I may not forgive him for telling me I had to wear a suit and tie (the second outing this year and as I discovered today unnecessary) but the conversation was good. One of the subjects, which continued with Raj Datta (the third speaker) over dinner, was the debate v discourse question in the context of a spate of high temperature exchanges on two Knowledge Management (KM) list serves in which we are both participants.Thinking about the conversation while listing to How to do KM presentations in Russian (generally vendors with slides from their US parent companies which I seen before and did not believe were valid approaches then, and do not believe will Rosetta Stone Language work now) I was reminded of a quote from Karl Weick (I cannot for the moment validate the phrase or the source, but I think it is from The Social Psychology of Organizing) and a second quote for which a precise origin is probably undiscoverable although many claim it. The two are are:…. learning to argue as if you are right and to listen as if you are wrong (Weick)Strong opinions, weakly held (Anon)Note the importance of assertion in both cases, not a process of consensus, but a willingness to challenge and to be challenged in turn. I think that general reaction of discomfort that comes to assertive behaviour in list serves is at the heart of my concern about investing time in them, compared with extending my conversations in the blogosphere. As a part of deciding where to invest time I am pushing the barriers of tolerance in several list serves as evidenced here. In the above referenced vigorous debates I have been an active participant, and at times this has not been popular (although as ever there is back channel support from people who do not want to engage. However the issues that are coming to the forefront of my thinking are:my Rosetta Stone Hindi liking of robust debate and challenge, both of which are the norm in the blogosphere as opposed to some form of bland supportive consensus.