New Agora: New Geometry of Languaging And New Technology of Democracy:

The article although interesting was also very peculiar to me. I actually had to read it twice to make much sense of it. A few concepts were introduced early and seemed very similar to the implications made in both the Delphi and NGT. The similarities stem from the premise that individual thought is heavily influenced in group settings. The author suggest that to overcome the propensity toward “spreadthink”, that group dialogue in certain situations requires the need to overcome constraints related to how human beings think and act.

Another very interesting concept that was introduced in the article was related to the extension of the sphere and the influence it has of decreasing the probability that a majority of participants will have a common motive to influence he rights of others; or if a common motive does exist, it will be more difficult for the participants to discover their own strength, and to act in unison.

Dr. John N. Warfield, used the term "spreadthink" to describe the outcome of group dialogue infected with those constraints. Dr. Warfield explained: “ The demonstrated fact that when a group of individuals are working on a complex issue in a facilitated group activity, the views of the individual members of the group on the relative importance of problems and/or proposed action options will be literally spread all over the map.”

Initially, it seemed that this was the same as what is commonly referred to as groupthink, it was later in the article discovered that groupthink is actually very different and referred to: “The deterioration of mental efficiency, quality of reality testing, and quality of moral judgment that results from in-group pressures. Subject to Groupthink, a group may seem to accept a specific decision; however, if individual group members are confronted with that point of view separately from the group, few members would accept that view as their own." This new geometry of languanging is key in discovering and explaining the implications of the Spreadthink.

How does the SDP support planning for innovation and change? The SDP process is simply a way to systematically through structured dialogue assist participants in collaboratively articulating their ideas. The schematic is significant in bringing clarity to the complex topic.

References:

Schreibman, V., Christakis, A. (n.d.). New Agora. Retrieved from http://www.harnessingcollectivewisdom.com/pdf/newagora.pdf

Christakis, A. (n.d.) The SDP Process. Retrieved from http://www.harnessingcollectivewisdom.com/sdp_process.html