Shifting Identity from Within the Conversational Flow of Organisational Complexity

Abstract

This article draws on an organisational strengthening process I carried out as part of my PhD research, which was intended to develop capacity?building methodology to help organisations grapple with their complex social change realities. Focused on conversations generated in two methodological moments in a particular workshop, I share how co?researcher Juan Carlos Giles and I used systemic methodological experimentation to generate critical organisational conversations in order to support an organisation's desire to strengthen its identity. I use Stacey, Griffin and Shaw's ‘complex responsive processes’ and Checkland's ‘soft systems thinking’ to explore relationships between the methodology and the conversations that emerged, and Reason's ‘choice and quality’ framework to explore implications for action research.