CMM
IN OUR LIVES, SYSTEMS, SOCIAL WORLDS
ONLINE EVENT
HOSTED BY THE COORDINATED MANAGEMENT OF MEANING INSTITUTE
SEPTEMBER 28
Coordinated Management of Meaning
Coordinated Management of Meaning
Don’t let this mouthful of big words stop you. Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) is exactly what it sounds like; it posits that communication itself is a coordinated management of meaning, and that what is “going on” when we interact is a complex process of joint action that “makes” our social worlds. This social constructionist take on communicating is a stark (and important) deviation from the widely accepted transmission model of communication, which simply describes sending a message to a receiver (which may be accurate for radio waves, but it’s not quite the same for human beings).
The RSD15-Communication Perspectives day provides an opportunity to get a sense of the vast and diverse applications of the Coordinated Management of Meaning theory, and its practical sister, the Communication Perspective. Together, we will practice applying CMM as a lens across a variety of fields, disciplines, and experiences. The programme is a series of speedy 30-minute sessions, each with a 15-minute presentation and another 15 minutes for questions and discussion.
Communication as a co-creative process
Coordinated Management of Meaning is a communication theory and practical approach associated particularly with the work of W. Barnett Pearce and Vernon Cronen. It examines how people coordinate actions and make meanings through communication, and how these processes contribute to the construction of social worlds.
The co-creative process is present in everything we do at CMMi. We are, after all, relational beings, and you can still be communicating, even without saying any words.
Importantly, CMM provides a response to our often taken-for-granted ways of communicating, imploring us to use the CMMish take on communication as a lens, looking at what is being made in all we do and say.
communications pluralism
In keeping with the RSD15 theme of pluralism, the CMM series spotlights CMM’s diverse applications across fields and highlights its intersection with systems thinking.
30 minute sessions
This day will consist of half-hour segments, each including a 15-minute presentation and another 15 minutes for questions and discussion.
tune in
Select the topics that are most interesting to you—perhaps some that align closely with your own areas of expertise, and some that are quite different—to get a taste of how CMM is being used (and could be used) in our lives, systems, and social worlds.
hosted by Abbie van Meter
Abbie is the Executive Director of Collaborative Innovations at the CMM Institute and a podcaster for the series Stories Lived. Stories Told., which features conversations with many people working in systems thinking and design. This is the second year that she has coordinated a CMM series with RSD.
COORDINATED MANAGMENT OF MEANING
The CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution
We are an international community of scholar-practitioners dedicated to the ongoing research, embodiment, and evolution of an approach to understanding our social worlds through a communication perspective called Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM).
Taking a communication perspective shows us how we make our world in communicating. We invite you to join our community of practice and participate in our ongoing activities exploring and expanding our understanding of better communication processes. The tools, language, and concepts associated with CMM show us how we can make it so much better.
