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About the Institute

Our mission is to contribute to the making of better social worlds by reflecting on current patterns of communication and building better ones. We know that the skills necessary for making better social worlds are unevenly distributed and often in shortest supply when needed most. We are dedicated to improving this situation by promoting abilities, skills, and ways of being that enable us to act compassionately, mindfully, and wisely into the complex worlds in which we live.

The Institute’s goal is best expressed as learning together how to develop and share a cosmopolitan sensibility regarding our communication practices. This cosmopolitan sensibility can be expressed in several ways, including the idea that we remain profoundly curious about, and open to, the many ways of being human, seeing each way as one reality among many, and appreciating that all are constructed in different ongoing patterns of communicating.

In all of these efforts, the goal is to shift our taken-for-granted view of communication (as a simple tool for exchanging ideas and information) to a more complex understanding of the creative power of communication. In practical terms, these shifts are facilitated using tools and models inspired and informed by the Theory of the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM).

The Institute itself represents a diverse community of individuals, groups and organizations who use the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) theory to inform and enhance their work. We engage with, and learn from one another, through a variety of online and in-person forums. Individual scholars and practitioners, educators and thought leaders, and institutional advocates comprise the core of the Institute’s supporters. However, the Institute’s programs and events are open to everyone.

As the institutional home and on-going keeper of CMM’s living history, the Institute partners with people, organizations and projects that represent significant, relevant, and applicable ways to institutionalize better patterns of communication.

The public benefit 501(c)3 Institute provides:

  • Opportunities for collaboration, research, and teaching, including our joint graduate student fellowship program with Columbia University and joint conferences held with like-minded organisations such as the UK Association for Family Therapy
  • Professional development programs for emerging and established CMM practitioners, including our annual CMMi Fellowship program
  • Development and implementation of demonstration projects, showing how we can make better social worlds, especially demonstrated in our long-term CosmoKidz and Cosmopolis projects
  • Worldwide networking and information sharing most notably conducted through our Learning Exchanges and occasional webinars
  • Fresh insights about CMM’s capacity to transform contemporary social issues and covered in the CMMi Press publication program
  • Advocacy for the continued improvement of personal and public communication in all walks of life, through our publications, our sponsored projects and our networking
  • Support for the continued development of CMM as a practical theory and as a way of being in the world

The Board of Stewards

The Institute is overseen by an international Board of Stewards. The members of the board voluntarily contribute their time and expertise to fulfilling the vision of the Institute. At various times, the members take on specific responsibilities for particular projects and activities that suit their passions and their time available. The current responsibilities include:

 

Barton Buechner, PhD CMMi Fellows, CMMI Secretary
Beth Fisher-Yoshida, PhD CMMi Fellows, AC4 Fellows, CMMi Editorial Collective
Marit Eikaas Haavimb, MABPSS CosmoKidz
Arthur Jensen, PhD Cosmopolis-2045, CMMi Editorial Collective
Barbara McKay, D.Psych CMMi Press Editorial Collective,    UK/AFT Liaison
Sergej van Middendorp, PhD CMMI Treasurer, Fielding Graduate University & Institute for Global Integral Competence Liaison
Kimberly Pearce, MA Cofounder, President, CosmoKidz
Robyn Penman, PhD Honorary Life Associate, Cosmopolis, CMMi Press Editor, Newsletter Editor
Susan Steen, PhD CMMi Editorial Collective
Daniel Walters CosmoKidz
Don Waisanen, PhD CosmoTeenz Teen Fellows Project, Cosmopolis-2045
Ilene Wasserman, PhD  CMMi Fellows, CMMi Editorial Collective

Latest news about the CMM Institute

End-of-year reflections: Kim Pearce

End-of-year reflections: Kim Pearce

In this year’s end-of-year reflections, Kim Pearce draws on the song of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as inspiration for a way of being in the world. In these turbulent and uneasy times, she calls on all of us to be a community of practice, transforming social worlds of ridicule and ostracism into worlds of compassion and love.

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Marit Eikaas Haavimb: Heart and soul of the CMM Institute

Marit Eikaas Haavimb: Heart and soul of the CMM Institute

With tremendous sadness, we need to let you know that Marit Eikaas Haavimb, CMM Institute board member, colleague, and friend, passed on November 8. Marit has been the heart and soul of the CMM Institute, bringing a quality of presence, openness, creativity, and love to each meeting, each event, every project, and every conversation she participated in.

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A Letter from Abbie VanMeter on new CMMi role

A letter from Abbie VanMeter on new CMMi role

Abbie VanMeter has made a wonderful contribution to many activities of the CMM Institute over the past few years. In recognition of her contribution and her potential for so much more, we have created a new role for her: Executive Director of Collaborative Innovations. In her letter to the CMM community she talks about her influences, her inspirations and her high hopes for what she can help create with us all.

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New parenting resources coming soon!

New parenting resources coming soon!

Our CosmoActivities line of resources is getting a new addition. CosmoParenting is designed to support parents by enriching their parenting toolbox. This toolbox is added to through one short podcast episode each week, providing opportunities to reflect, listen, connect, practice, and engage in conversations.

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CosmoKidz at gifted conferences across USA

CosmoKidz at gifted conferences across USA

Our recent presentation at the Tennessee Association for the Gifted conference was well received and we are now kicking off a renewed effort to promote our CosmoActivities at other Gifted conferences in the US. Our next presentation will be in Arizona in February of next year.

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Interpersonal Communication: Award nomination

Interpersonal Communication: Award nomination

Earlier this year we announced that the 8th edition of Arthur Jensen and Sarah Trenholm’s interpersonal communication textbook had been published. Now the publishers, Cognella, have nominated the 8th edition of Interpersonal Communication for the McGuffey Longevity Award which honors textbooks that have had a long shelf life.

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Meeting of the Waters: At the Relating Systems Thinking and Design conference

Meeting of the Waters: At the Relating Systems Thinking and Design conference

Abbie VanMeter and Sergej van Middendorp, together with colleagues George Fedha, Laurence Habib, Dewi Hartkamp, Flavio Mesquita da Silva, and Fred Steier, recently presented a paper and facilitated a workshop at the 13th Relating Systems Thinking and Design conference in Oslo, Norway. Their paper explores how we can design for collaborative support networking that affords the co-creation of regenerative, sustainable, and just futures in the face of the many catastrophic events we are currently facing.

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Replicability and fraud: Unintended consequence of modernity

Replicability and fraud: Unintended consequence of modernity

We often take the idea of forms of communication to indicate different ways of engaging with others. However, different forms can go beyond the interpersonal level to impact on social structures and practices. In a fascinating paper, John Parrish-Sprowl, argues that the form of modernity has had a direct and often deleterious effect on the scientific research enterprise.

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Stephen W. Littlejohn: Dedicated to making better social worlds

Stephen W. Littlejohn: Dedicated to making better social worlds

It is with much sadness we want to let you know that Stephen Littlejohn died in July. Stephen has such a special place in our hearts and our community. He was a founding Director of the CMM Institute, a co-founder of the Public Dialogue consortium, and part of the small group instrumental in organizing Barnett Pearce’s Festchrift. Stephen was a gifted scholar-practitioner who published and practised widely on topics related to communication, conflict and dialogue. In all he did, he showed his dedication to making better social worlds and we mourn his passing.

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