4 Comments
Oct 26Liked by John Durrant

Insightful. Bohmian Dialogue gives a name to something I've tried to promote in the past with varying degrees of success or failure. Not sure what the typical european office is like these days but in the US we have such a culture of hurried decision making, oneupmanship, and "performance culture" that keeps everyone constantly on edge and in a state of permanent competition. One of the most common terms in a meeting context now is "disagree and commit" - in other words, hash it out for a few minutes but for goodness sake, hurry up and commit and silence the naysayers so we can all profit.

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I spoken with a few people based in the US over the last couple of months, and although only anecdotal it does seem that the current conditions are more brutal than here in Europe. So short-sighted.

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I've fallen foul of rushing in and attempting to create actions many times before, and it often never ends well. That space you talk about is so important, particularly on a personal level. Although not directly related, your post reminds me of some elements of the Chimp Paradox put forward by Prof. Steve Peters. Whether it's external struggles or our own internalised (and possibly irrational) thoughts, putting that space in place really does give us the time to digest things properly before seeking that all-important action.

P.S. I liked the etymology of the words, I always find it fascinating to learn where words originated. As a sidetrack, I follow this guy (https://robwords.com/) who has some cracking videos on the origins of all things English (amongst others).

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Always enjoy your presence and reflections in those silent conversations John and would be more than happy to be interviewed with Johnnie at any point too. Thanks very much for acknowledgement 🙌

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