The Reflective, Facilitative, and Interpretive Practice of the Coordinated Management of Meaning

Making Lives and Making Meaning

Contributions by Karen Bentley, Linda Blong, Lydia Forsythe, Jeff Hutcheson, Jeff Leinaweaver, Paige Marrs, Darrin S. Murray, Adair Linn Nagata, Kim Pearce, W Barnett Pearce, Jane Peterson, Irene Stein, Ilene Wasserman Edited by Beth Fisher-Yoshida, Catherine Creede, Placida Gallegos

Publication date:

12 April 2012

Length of book:

318 pages

Publisher

Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

ISBN-13: 9781611475135

The Reflective, Facilitative and Interpretive Practices of the Coordinated Management of Meaning: Making Lives, Making Meaning, showcases practical applications of the theory of Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM). In the facilitation section, CMM creates dynamics within groups leading toward improved ways of working together; in the interpretation section CMM offers alternative frames to interpret interactions with one another; and in the reflection section CMM is a means to reflect on experiences and interactions to deeper levels of understanding and learning. CMM is grounded in social constructionism, takes a communication perspective and provides concepts and tools for making better social worlds.

Preface: Evolution and Transformation: A Brief History of CMM and a Meditation on What Using it Does to Us, W. Barnett Pearce
Chapter 1: CMM as Transforming Practice: An Introduction by Catherine Creede, Beth Fisher-Yoshida and Placida V. Gallegos
Transition 1: CMM as Facilitation, Beth Fisher-Yoshida
Chapter 2: Facilitating Episode Work, Linda Blong
Chapter 3: Levels of Context in Professional Coach-Client Communication, Irene Stein
Chapter 4: Taming the Lizard: Transforming Conversations Gone Bad at Work, Paige Marrs
Chapter 5: CMM and Healthcare Qualitative Simulation Research: Developing the Team’s Voice, Lydia Forsythe
Transition 2: CMM as Interpretation, Catherine Creede
Chapter 6: Achieving a Transcendent Episode: A CMM Analysis of a Theological Task Force in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., Jeff Hutcheson
Chapter 7: Expanding Meaning of My Volunteer Work in Uganda Using Circular Questioning as a Self-reflective Journaling Practice, Catherine Creede
Chapter 8: From the Ground Up: How a Grassroots Group’s Management of Meaning is Feeding People, Fostering Sustainable Agriculture, and Cultivating community, Karen Bentley
Chapter 9: Interactional Logics: Moving CMM Forward by Looking Back, Darrin S. Murray
Chapter 10: On Becoming a Global Human: CMM, International Adoption, and the Global Burden of Self, Jeff Leinaweaver
Transitions 3: CMM as Reflection, Placida Gallegos
Chapter 11: CMM: A Reflective Tool for Engaging Diversity and Adversity, Ilene Wasserman
Chapter 12: Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) as Reflective Practice, Beth Fisher-Yoshida
Chapter 13: CMM and the Case of the Missing Body, Jane Peterson
Chapter 14: Bodymindfulness in Coordinating the Management of Meaning Across Cultures, Adair Nagata
Chapter 15: Living Into Very Bad News: The Use of CMM as Spiritual Practice, Kim Pearce
Chapter 16: Editors’ Closing Thoughts, Catherine Creede, Beth Fisher-Yoshida and Placida V. Gallegos
About the Contributors
Index

This volume offers a rich resource for understanding the complexity of communication processes and how we might ‘act wisely in(to) critical moments.’ For the first time, the theory and practice of the Coordinated Management of Meaning is compiled within one volume, moving us toward generative understandings of how we can facilitate the creation of better social worlds . ‘Communication is consequential’ and the contributors to this volume have made that abundantly clear.