Otto Laske Interdevelopmental Institute (IDM)

Creating Collaborative Intelligence

Otto Laske Interdevelopmental Institute (IDM)

Creating Collaborative Intelligence

Deep Thinking

IDM Practica in Dialectical Thinking

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IDM is the institution with the longest record of teaching dialectical thinking in the USA. Founded in 2000, IDM developed a now much refined curriculum for professionals of all kinds, to put to use their developmental resources for breaking the ‘logical thinking habit’, thereby moving toward a holistic and transformational way of encountering the real, social, and cultural worlds. In its newest form, IDM teaching has fully absorbed Critical Realism, with a focus on understanding and boosting human agency. Nothing boosts the latter more than having acquired a practice of dialectical thinking for structuring one’s concerns and the internal conversations needed to deal with them.

In addition to long-term case studies leading to the practice of dialectic in organizations, in 2022 IDM offers short-term, ten session Practica. These Practica are attended by up to 15 participants working together for up to 4 months, to acquire a professional grounding in the practice of dialectical thinking. Applications of this practice are found in areas such as permaculture, city planning, ecological rewilding, architectural design, art making, and others.

For more details, see The 2022 IDM Dialectics Practicum

Otto Laske Poetry Publication ‘Silesian Language Smithy’ (Schlesische Sprachschmiede) in a Bilingual Edition at Amazon

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Those who know Otto Laske as a social scientist, composer, and visual artist will be interested to see at Amazon, https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/books/detail/-/art/otto-laske-schlesische-sprachschmiede-silesian-language-smithy/hnum/10792942, that his early German poetry has appeared in a bilingual edition at Frieling Verlag, Berlin, Germany. The translation of the work into English is the author’s own; it carries the title ‘Silesian Language Smithy’. (Those who know his work more deeply realize that it is his poetry that is the foundation of much of his creative work.)

The back cover of the book states:
Otto Laske’s poems originate in a lifelong coping with experiences that led him from Silesia and Northern Germany to the United States, and from poetical to musical composition.

It is the art of composition that is evidenced by these poems which, in compact form, render the tonality and melody of his internal conversations. Over time, these internal conversations were crafted by memory into verses one will not easily forget. They speak with syntactic, gestural, and musical clarity of a life between escape and arrival. The book’s title image is taken from Laske’s digital paintings called ‘Promise’ (Versprechen) and refers to one of the poems in the book.

The three commentaries on the poetry found on the book’s back cover are as follows:

„Otto Laske opens doors not only to the literary forge where he
hammers life into verse but to the experiential crucibles where
remarkable events and responses took place. „
(Martin Ray, photographer)

„Laske’s Gedichte zeigen uns das Helle und Dunkle seiner Seele,
die Farben seiner Wortbilder, die Tonart und Melodie seiner Verse,
die durch die Kraft seines Intellekts in das gedichtete Wort
geschmiedet wurden.“
(Roland Baumgaertel, Schriftsteller)

„Laske’s poetry historically connects to Germany’s search for self-identity
after WWII; it is worth taking note of.“
(Donald Gropman, writer)

Cover_O. Laske’s Sprachschmiede,

Those interested in Otto’s visual work are invited to go to https://www.saatchiart.com/olaske. They will find 50 Collections of art work, produced since 2012.

The latest publication of his work, called ‘Condensations’, in Jaamzin Creative, Hon Kong, is found at https://www.jaamzin.com/condensations

and https://www.jaamzin.com/post/visual-artist-otto-laske-1

Steps Toward Developing a Dialectical Thinking Practice: The Structure of the IDM Dialectics Practicum

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The way we encounter the world is anchored in our ways of attending to it. They not only change the relationship we have to the world we unceasingly construct; they also fundamentally determine the world we encounter. Thinking in language when untutored in dialectical linking puts us under the control of left-hemisphere, logical, thinking, — a mode of being now rampant that constrains the quality of our life and creative work. For this reason, we are in need of re-socializing ourselves through building up in our mind new ways of listening, speaking, writing, ‘thinking’, reading, communicating, coaching, and facilitating.

To further re-socialization in adults, IDM is launching 5-months long practica of dialectical thinking.  The next Practicum starts at the end of November 2020. For details, see https://interdevelopmentals.org/?p=7563 and https://interdevelopmentals.org/?p=7641.

Since nobody can learn news ways of being from books but only through supervised practice, IDM Practica are structured in terms of a sequence of activities carried out by members of small cohorts of 4-6 participants mentored by Otto Laske, originator of the Dialectical Thought Form Framework. Have a look at the structure of the Practicum at the first link below and learn about the correspondence of Practicum Activities and Learning Targets at the second link.

Structure Proposal for Dialectics Practicum

Correspondence of Learning Activities & Targets

For viewing the Jaamzin Special Edition of Otto Laske’s dialectics-based visual artwork, go to https://issuu.com/jaamzin/docs/otto_laske. You can place an order for a copy of the print edition by transferring $35 at smediazin@gmail.com via Paypal (which includes shipping to you from an Amsterdam printer).

For additional information on the structure and flow of the Practicum, go to:

From “Organizational Development” to Self-Development: An Insiders’ View of the IDM Dialectical Thinking Practicum

An Intense Five-Month Practicum in Dialectical Thinking

 

A Guide to Listening in Meetings Based on DTF

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In this 2nd “inspiration session” regarding the book “Practices of Dynamic Collaboration”, Jan De Visch and Otto Laske focus on what DTF, the Dialectical Thought Form Framework, can teach a person or group about enlarging and deepening their ‘internal workplace’ through thought-form based listening. Thought forms are shown to be more than simply conversation starters or analytical tools for understanding conversations. Their optimal use lies in real=time listening in a group or team environment.

Thought forms are dynamic tools of dialogical thinking, in contrast to monological lists of patterns and text examples for grasping dialectic. The catch is: their use simultaneously teaches becoming aware of, and presupposes having become aware of, one’s own dialectical movements-in-thought. In short: You have to like adventures.

The set of slides below focus on team meetings (chapter 3 of the book) from the point of view of listening in real time; it teaches first steps in this direction made though text analysis of social-emotional and cognitive interviews.

Inspiration Session 2 – August 19 2020 rev. OL

 

Increasing the collaborative intelligence of teams by using deep dialogue practices

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Team collaboration has become a pivot of organizational success.

If people had an intuitive awareness of the structure of their thinking, team work would be a lot more effective since a greater mutual understanding and decision making would prevail. Such an awareness being absent, what meta-cognitive strategies can we use to heighten such an awareness?

As the book ‘Practices of Dynamic Collaboration’ shows, a very effective strategy consists of  intentionally listening and speaking based on dialectical ‘thought forms’.

Discover how the collaborative intelligence paradigm derived from Laske’s Dialectical Thought Form Framework works when applied in five crucial organizational practices seen as dialogue practices. Sign up for partaking of introductory sessions on team dialogue practices at:

Dynamic Collaboration Inspiration Sessions

Also view literature links at https://interdevelopmentals.org/?page_id=1974, Section A, and pertinent teaching materials in Section B.

For IDM Services, go to https://interdevelopmentals.org/?page_id=4321

Laske Social Science Archive, Section V: Writings (2015-2019) on DTF, the Dialectical Thought Form Framework

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The Laske Social Science Archive gathers Otto Laske’s writings on organizations written between 1999 and 2019, many of which have retained their value vis a vis new fashions of management thinking. Its sections are numbered chronologically. The Archive makes available both texts and slides, the latter for pedagogical purposes. The articles gathered are bundled according to topic. They can be downloaded free of charge.

Archive V gathers articles written  DTF-based dialectical thinking as the developmental peak of adult cognitive development, seen from the ontological perspective of Roy Bhaskar’s work on ‘Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom’ (1993). The emphasis in these writings falls on the intrinsic relatedness of ‘dialectical’ and ‘dialogical’ thinking and the hypothesis that speaking in real time makes ontological truth claims regarding how the real world works (rather than being a mere behavioral activity). These articles pave the way from monological and logical to dialogical and dialectical thinking, for purposes far beyond organizational management. Cognitive assessment through case studies is seen as the royal road to mastery of critical facilitation in teams and social forums more generally.

2015 Creating Integral Collaborations

2016a An Integral Epistemology

2016c Dialectic Interpreted in the Logic of Commerce

2016e Laske on Bhaskar

2017a Action Logic as a Logic of Absence

2017b Introduction to DTF

2019 [Slides] Cognitive Coaching London (a comprehensive summary)