Often it’s the little things at first that trigger the contradiction. It happens every day. You say, want or do something and you don’t get an approval, but a no. So far no problem – most of the time! Why is it that (specific!) generalised contradiction arises from small things? In everything one communicates, one …
Es muss Verlierer geben. Andernfalls können Konflikte nicht enden, Entscheidungen nicht getroffen werden, Alternativen nicht “beerdigt” werden und soziale Systeme sich nicht fokussieren. Mit Verlieren soll hier gemeint sein, dass jemand seine Meinung aufgibt oder zumindest nicht mehr als relevant ansieht. Das kann zu Gänze geschehen, dann nennt man es Zustimmung. Es kann in Teilen …
The guiding process ‘mode of description’ distinguishes between the two poles of simple and multiple. The question relevant to the dynamics of conflict is: “Is the phenomenon described in a simple way, reduced to one aspect, or are multiple interpretations allowed? So the issue here is how it is described: “You never wash your hands …
The problem that conflicts – among others – try to resolve is that it is basically open who is right. If the clever one with the best solution gives in, then that is not clever. If the stupid one with the wrong solution gets his way, that’s stupid. Everybody knows that. In social systems that depend …
Organisational consultancy can (and must) utilise the organisational memory with great focus, in order to facilitate changes. How does this work? It becomes the ‘advocate’ for the forgotten! This actually means: bringing the forgotten back into validity, naming the possibilities which have been excluded in the current state of the organisation and letting them emerge, …
One very essential way, which is seen as particularly suitable for improving the status quo, is criticism. This contains an implication, which must be scrutinised. This is because it does not follow that the ability to criticise something will also improve the conditions with its criticism. In order to criticise one requires the observation that …
Without memory, nothing works, certainly not for systems, which distinguish themselves from an environment and want to maintain this difference! Why? Memory has the essential function of forgetting. So that it does not become too conspicuous that the majority will be forgotten, it also ensures that it remembers some things. Forgetting is important so that …
The system-theoretical approach to causality has created much confusion and rejection. Understandably, it is not so easy to understand that causality is supposed to be a phenomenon dependent upon the observer. Here, the scientific orientation of our culture comes into play, the basic assumption being that the world (and not only nature) is organised according …
We understand understanding (according to N. Luhmann) as the aspect of communication, which follows the conveyed information. Understanding links to that which has been said, no matter how: rejecting, agreeing, changing subject, being critical, being pleased, differentiating and so on. Only if the conveyed information falls into a void, does no understanding take place and, …