Craig Constantine
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Is understanding even necessary?
When it comes, this will be the fourth message received from Alsafi in my lifetime. Few have timed their career so fortuitously. The first came when I was a child. The second came just weeks after I joined the Intercivilizational Observatory’s San Francisco office, and I wormed my way onto the analysis team. The third… More →
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Forward
Which way are you choosing to look? And this is where the potential contribution of people who are quiet disrupters comes into its own, positively. We need their curiosity, their creativity and their convictions if we are to navigate forward well. And in the process, they will help reshape our culture, the way we do… More →
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Thinking together
What if thinking could be done with others? The theory of dialog suggests that these situations reflect a series of problems in how we think, for we have learned to think alone. And what I mean here by “thinking” involves the whole of us—our emotions, our ways of feeling in the body, our ideas, and… More →
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Like jazz
Who’s playing at your jazz club? Conversation is a musical thing, like jazz or birdsong: more ‘call and response’ than question and answer. It enables us to travel great distances, but the joy is in the journey not the destination. We are meant to sing and dance along the way, jamming with others, riffing off… More →
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Quiet Disruptors
Book Quiet Disruptors by Sue Heatherington, 2021 — Thoughtful and creative, this is a beautifully written manifesto about the new change-makers: those with the courage to speak softly about things that matter. This book will inspire, encourage and provoke you to become the change you want to see, wherever you are. Have you noticed, we’re entering a… More →
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Salience
Let go of self-judgement and follow your curiosity Genuine interest on our part is appreciated by all true conversation partners. Our sense of salience is a super-power. (Salience is the quality of being particularly noticeable or important.) We all have this super-power. I believe it arises from our sub-conscious when something we’re just encountering, rhymes… More →
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Experimentation and exploration
What has surprised you recently? That’s not a good way to live. That’s a way to live in stagnation and complacency. Great conversation is rooted in experimentation and exploration. It’s an art of discovery, and play. Great conversation is about composition: Listening to many people or ideas, and create something new. That’s common for us… More →
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Do Conversation
Book Do Conversation by Robert Poynton, 2024 — Why do some conversations flow, while others are stilted and awkward? Can we make difficult conversations easier? Conversation is about more than communication. It’s how we connect with each other and make sense of the world – it’s an essential part of being human. And something we’re naturally very… More →
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Fishing for great conversations
Great conversations require intention and effort The difference between the negativity of bait, and the high road of a good lure is our intention. It’s true that good conversation might be stumbled into. But if we desire good conversation, then we’re going to need to seek it. Good conversation can be found, and even directly… More →
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Inward versus outward
Looking outward to do your inward work We must be able to think about any idea without it breaking our ability to think. Choice is at the center of everything. It’s important that we ask ourselves why we are conversing. It’d be great if we could always do that in advance, but we can settle… More →