Conversations For Action and Collected Essays: Instilling a Culture of Commitment in Working Relationships

First, I am impressed with how well the information in this book has stood the test of time. I might even go further and say that the material is more relevant in today's work culture than it was 30 years ago when it was written. Our modern, technology-connected, but personally-disconnected life can certainly benefit from improving how we converse with each other. Dr. Flores offers an astute analysis of how we communicate, from the basic linguistic elements through an appreciation for background concerns, flow, moods, and trust. He deconstructs our everyday exchanges with other people into their essential elements and then constructs a compellingly simple model of the back and forth "dance" that goes on to achieve shared action. The "conversation for action" loop he developed 3 decades ago remains a powerful model for improving knowledge worker productivity.In particular, I found the discussion of autonomy vs. accountability very relevant in the context of our current generation of workers. Along with shifts toward less loyalty to company and increasing worker mobility, we can sense a growing demand for increasing autonomy in how (and where) work is conducted. There are obvious benefits to this trend, including increased employee engagement and innovation, but maintaining efficient coordination may be more challenging. Adherence to the conversation for action model adds clarity and a modicum of rigour to work conversations that can make accountability explicit and visible. A growing number of case studies attest to the improvements in collaboration the model provides.The book offers valuable insights like the following:-- We all make "characterisations" of others and of ourselves. We say "he is trustworthy," "she is unreliable," "I'm bad with numbers." "These features are not real; they only exist in conversation...when we forget that characterisation is a conversation, we perpetuate our competencies and incompetencies, and those of others...grounded characterisations allow us to have productive conversations; these are conversations for moving forward together rather than staying stuck in the present."-- Our background mood affects how we perceive the world and the people around us and how we behave. A person's mood is driven by their vision of the future. "A common belief is that the future is basically an extension of what is going on today." To manage moods, therefore, it is necessary to create a different understanding about the future. Dr. Flores suggests "the most important key to generating moods of challenge, confidence, and ambition is to understand that people create the future in the commitments they make to each other and the actions they take together...we invent the future together." There is key information in this section for any group leader to consider.-- "Leadership is a phenomenon of the conversations of a team, not of an individual. A team participates in a set of ongoing conversations among people who commit to share an explicitly declared mission and to coordinate actions to fulfil the mission. The leader takes action to ensure that these conversations take place and that they are assessed by the team to be effective. The leader is the person who is granted authority by the team to take care of these conversations in an ongoing manner."-- Language is central to being social. "We build networks of people with whom we participate in conversations." These are not one-way messages like "take out the trash" or "do this task," but rather two-way conversations in which two or more individuals share their background concerns, negotiate agreements for taking action together, and continuously develop a shared assessment of how the work and their relationship is progressing. These are the kind of principles we should be mindful of as we design modern work management systems.Perhaps the gem of the whole book, however, is the last chapter "On Listening." Using examples as seemingly far apart as a used car salesman and Lech Walesa, Dr. Flores presents an entirely new approach to the practice of listening. Exhibiting keen observation skills, the author exposes the mechanics of dysfunctional conversation patterns that are immediately recognisable and then presents a new model for listening that can achieve genuine engagement between people with entirely different backgrounds. We see how the traditional training on listening skills is flawed, and we learn an observable, but radically new way of participating in conversations that any reader can utilize and benefit from.My one reservation with the book is that I was left wanting more examples of these principles in practice. The everyday examples in the book are used only for explanatory purposes. I think the book would have benefited from the inclusion of some case studies where the ideas made a difference. I know they're out there...perhaps in the second edition?

I am delighted to see these essays in publication. These are a treasure of powerful distinctions for observing and producing action and results in the world. They are rooted in our fundamental capacities as human beings that are not adequately revealed in our current cultural common sense. I have found that they have their greatest impact when taken from conceptual understanding to action, practice, and eventually embodiment and mastery of new skills and conversations in leadership, management, teamwork, community, and relationship.As a student of these principles in the 1980's I found a new capacity to generate effective conversations, action, and valuable outcomes as a manager and VP of development at Motorola Computer Systems. With new conversations we produced astonishing new levels of performance in six months, improving measured quality of our software by a factor of ten, moving an entire pipeline of products to market that had been stalled for years, and delivering to a new standard of being on time and on budget.This was just one area - action and coordination- where I found this conversational approach produced breakthrough results for people, others include life design, process redesign, the design of coordination software, community, new foundations for leadership, and living a good life. I was so impressed I became a member of Dr. Flores's staff and worked in his companies for a number of years in the development of applications of this approach.I have found these principles, distinctions, and practices have been powerful in my subsequent work with people in developing and elevating the impact of leaders, teams, professional coaches, and client organizations. These principles are unavoidable in life actions, and empower those who understand them to be more capable as leaders, citizens, and people who can better take care of what they and their communities care about.These distinctions have the power of defining and enabling executable acts that shape results, not just describe them. They demystify and make accessible the skills of, for example, building and repairing trust, creating new possibilities, generating effective teamwork, coordinating value creating action, as well as avoiding or competently coping with the inevitable breakdowns in human interactions.In my view these essays are a much needed asset for a new common sense about action and living that our current global challenges are calling for. I encourage leaders and thinkers about the design of action and organizations, as well as people looking to enrich their lives and contributions, to explore the power of the perspectives opened here. When we find and develop the human capacities revealed in these essays for creating possibilities and bringing them to realization, we become stronger contributors to creating a better world. To use terms from Dr. Flores, we can become designers of the future and together I believe even become history makers.

This book presents a review of Fernando Flores thought on human action that many of us that used the old original papers were awaiting with high expectations.It fulfills them all.I have been exposed to Flores teaching and consulting original work in the eighties and nineties, and had the opportunity of observing directly the enormous value that his original approach to action produced for people. Afterward, as an independent consultant in Latin America, I learned to value it even more. As a high banking executive told me recently when I showed him this book: "Good wine becomes even better with age". This summarizes well my reaction to this newly published book. It will become a classic.With the benefit of many years of practice, I am convinced that understanding action as coodination, and coordination as commited communication, open horizons upon horizons of possibilities for observing, assessing and designing relationships, business processes, learning strategies, identities and moods.This approach allows anyone that takes it seriously to become a more effective and powerfull (in the most general understanding of these terms) active agent in the worlds in which he/she moves. I have seen this happening one time after another, so much so that precise promises can be made; as a matter fact, this is the basis of my consulting work today. Personally, with age, I have learned to value highest the fresh possibilities that this approach to ourselves acting in the world open for education.

A deep understanding of conversations and how to get stuff done.My first coach told me 25 years ago 'Dave, life is a conversation' I have been working to understand that ever since. Now I know where he got that from and have further deepened my understanding of what he meant.Great work.

フェルナンド・フローレスの2013年発刊の著書．彼はあの名著「コンピュータと認知を理解する」の共著者です．もう一人はスタンフォード大学のテリー・ウィノグラード．この名著の中で２人は1980-90年代の人工知能をコテンパンに批判し，LAP（言語行為パースペクティブ）という理論を提案します．そして，フローレスは経営コンサルタントになってLAPの宣教師となり，ウィノグラードはHCI（ヒューマンコンピューターインタラクション）の道に進んでデザイン思考の立ち上げに尽力することになります．この本はフローレスが長年従事してきたLAPに基づく経営コンサルタントの成果をまとめたもの．彼は1970年代にチリの政治家からアメリカに亡命したという異色の経歴を持つ人で，英語でものを書くことはあまり得意ではない．だから，彼の著書はネイティブの学者や作家との共著がほとんどです．しかし，この本はおそらく初めての単著です．本の内容は，LAPについて，色々な事例を交えてフローレスが語っているものです．ちなみに，LAPとは，言語理論に基づいた汎用的なビジネス行動のパターンです．この標準パターンに基づけば，現状のプロセスを分析できるし，改善案も提案できる．LAPに興味がある人には目から鱗（うろこ）の本であり，そうでない人にとってもビジネスプロセスの重要性を再認識できるものです．この本，翻訳したいな．どこか受けてくれる出版社いませんか？