Strategy through Dialogue and Doing

Abstract

This paper explores the intricate relationship between dialogue and doing through data from senior executives in a selection of large UK organizations. It is argued that through dialogue (in the sense of talking and listening) and doing (in the sense of learning and enacting), these senior managers practice the 3Rs of managing-reading (situations), wrighting and relating. In this way, shared meanings (both as process and as outcome) are shaped which may or may not be called strategic decision-making. It is proposed that whatever name is given, it is simply a communicative device to shape future meanings (dialogue) and to generate further appropriate action (doing). However, like the game of 'Mornington Crescent', the search for the rules continues.