Practical ethics for group decisions in complex situations.

The complexity and rapid pace of social life stress our ability to make sound and timely group decisions. The cult of the all-wise absolute manager is a relic of the feudal and mechanical ages that works only in routine and not-too-complicated situations. The organizational pyramid was satisfactory for the linear pace of the mechanical age, but moves too slowly today. Efforts to get everyone involved and hear all points of view can take so much exertion and time—and produce so little result that managers hesitate to try them and workers/citizens grow weary of them. A rational solution to this bleak situation is a dialogue process that efficiently enlists broad participation and produces timely results. This paper describes methods for facilitating dialogic decisions as employed in Structured Dialogic Design. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]