Table 1 Contrasting diagnostic and dialogic mindsets

Reality as an objective fact

Reality as a socially constructed process

Organizations as open systems

Organizations as social networks of meaning making

Leaders can manage goal-oriented and planned change efforts because there is enough clarity about the problem-solving process

Leaders shape organizational curiosity about what others think and how meaning is made to learn from people's experience

Change as an episodic and linear process

Change as a continuous and adaptive process

Collecting and applying valid data using objective problem-solving method leads to planned change

Change processes are inherently complex and adaptive, and no one knows the correct answer in advance. Thus, the answer is to use emergent and generative change processes