We’ve completed our bibliography of the more recent CMM orientated books and publications, with a specific focus on the period from 2000 to the present. Where we’ve been able, we’ve included links to the actual article or to where you can purchase the book. We think the collection is inspiring and we hope it proves to be an invaluable reference source for you. If you’d like to add to our collection, please contact robynpenman1@gmail.com
Three post-graduate students from Columbia University, Filippa Naka, Adrian Jofre Bosch and Shengjie Ma, review the second in our Focus Book series.
Natasha A. Rascon’s and Stephen W. Littlejohn’s Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM): A Research Manual introduces the reader to an al k and analysis across the book provide the reader with brief, although useful, information and practical tools, to help in using CMM as a research method. We found the CMM tools described in the book to be very useful in our research up to this point.
Throughout the book, the explanation of CMM is organized around the different forms of communication and processes, and the models used to understand them, such as the Daisy and the Serpentine models. These models serve as options for the reader to choose for their research. For instance, the Daisy model is mostly used for a description of an interaction, while the Serpentine model could be used for a set of interactions that could be troublesome.
In the first part of the book, the authors introduce the DICA model that describes four types of CMM research. The description step is related to what exactly is occurring in an incident being examined, while interpretation aims at understanding the formation of social worlds. Critique is focused on getting to know the issues that have been experienced concerning the methods of communication. The last stage is action, which aims at executing the findings from the data found in previous steps of analysis. These four types could be used as sequential or individual steps, depending on the intentions of the researcher and the level of depth he or she wants to go into. Towards the end of the book, the reader is introduced to the SEAVA process, which is a more complex form of the DICA.
As students who have been recently introduced to qualitative research, this book helped us gain the basic knowledge needed at this point for our research. We found the clearly explained contexts in which description, interpretation, critique and action tools are applied to in the book to be very helpful. The numerous research examples that are provided to the reader, as well as the simplicity of description also helped our understanding. Additionally, we found very useful the fact that one can choose to use some aspects and tools of CMM in his or her research that will help construct a more refined meaning.
Since qualitative research can be messy, this book provided us with a nice structure and flow about how to gather information in the most meaningful way. This is a great focus book that uses a participatory approach to research, recommended for anyone who is recently introduced to CMM and wants to use it as a research method or just wants to become more familiar with CMM.
For more information on the review: fmn2108@columbia.edu
Adrian Wagner
Fellowship Project:
Collective Trauma Integration in the Light of the current US Crisis: Establishing Global Action Networks of Meaning-Making
Adrian Wagner has been consulting and facilitating workshops for international organizations such as the Red Cross, Caritas, Foreign Ministry of Germany, Goethe Institute and UNAOC and the European Commission. His interest in the MENA-region is based on his work and travel experience in Israel, Palestine, and Egypt. As a trained expert of Dr. Clare Graves emergent, cyclical, double-helix model of adult human bio-psycho-social systems development he was engaged in several initiatives such as Reinventing Brussels—a project started after the 2016 terror attack to envision a more inclusive and sustainable city. Lately, he has been working as a researcher on global governance innovation and citizen participation with the Global Cooperative Trust. Adrian Wagner is part of the Institute for Global Integral Competence and studied Public Policy at the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance in Berlin and has trained as a mediator at the Humboldt Law faculty. Currently, he is working on his dissertation, analyzing collective trauma integration in the context of the transformation towards sustainability. He likes to dance Tango Argentino, cooking and Aikido.
Lukas Herrmann
Fellowship Project: Global Social Witnessing: An awareness-based practice for cosmopolitan co-creativity through transcendence of polarized narratives
Lukas Herrmann is an action researcher and PhD student with Witten/Herdecke University, Germany. His research focuses on uncovering cultural trauma patterns and facilitating generative social fields through embodied systems sensing practices. At the Max-Planck-Institute for Social Neuroscience, Lukas investigated the contemplative training of perspective-taking and empathy. As a systemic counselor and trainer, he works with schools to shift education to a deeper, generative level.
For more information on the Fellows iwasserman@icwconsulting.com
A host of research now points toward the potential for improvisational training to improve the lives of participants in fields from business and medicine to science and social work. Among other outcomes, it seeks to improve peoples’ abilities to listen, accept and support others, be flexible and mindful, take risks, innovate, and create positive professional cultures. Inspired by but different than improv for comedy entertainment, what has been termed “applied improvisation” seeks to train “individuals or groups who seek personal development, better teamwork, and more thriving communities,” with a focus on “directly impacting personal or organizational change.” Even key figures in improv theater argued that improv for entertainment was always meant to be to founded first in “what is important about being human in a community,” improving the ability of people to connect with one another, understand patterns in their lives, and more.
Although evidence on improv’s benefits for outcomes such as higher productivity, reduced stress, and improved customer service in business and management are promising, my project addresses a larger societal possibility: that applied improvisational training can provide a foundational education in democratic practices. Challenging existing patterns of thought and behavior, I show how different our world could look if improvisational teaching and training methods were part of every educational system, professional development program, and community writ large.
Barnett Pearce believed “that a certain kind of playfulness is a constitutive part of the paradigm supporting the communication perspective,” just as Jesse Sostrin notes how “the communication perspective is improvisational” and “the world of improvisation can also teach us important aspects of communication.” The connections between improvisation and CMM run deep, and a major part of my fellowship experience has involved discovering the host of links between improv and concepts such as co-construction, holding spaces, strange loops, liminality, emergence, muscle memory, mindfulness, and logical force. Part of my goal is to draw out these relationships more explicitly. During my trip to London, I met many new wonderful colleagues who inspired my thinking along these lines. I’m even headed back to London in April to work with the Institute for Family Therapy and run a two-day workshop that focuses these ideas and practices further!
I am currently finishing up a book-length research project that produces a complete analytic framework of higher purposes and practices for applied improv that can, as Barnett Pearce long called for, pull societies upward. Frankly, there are so many interesting developments by groups around the world using improvisation to bridge differences between communities, get people to see the lighter side of life with one another, and peel off the layers of negativity often formed around the body and mind in educational settings, that it feels like the book is writing itself. I’m indebted to the CMM community for inviting me to be part of your learning journeys as I adventure through mine, and look forward to many more years of conversations and meetings with all of you in the future!
Don Waisanen
Associate Professor in the Baruch College, CUNY
Marxe School of Public and International Affairs
iPaul Z Jackson, Easy: Your Lifepass to Creativity and Confidence (London, UK: The Solutions Focus, 2015), 183-184.
iiCharna Halpern, Del Close, and Kim Johnson, Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation (Colorado Springs, CO: Meriwether 1994), 25-26.
iiiW. Barnett Pearce, Making Social Worlds (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007), 65.
ivJesse Sostrin, Re-Making Communication at Work (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan), 2013, 46-47.
vPearce, Making Social Worlds.
Communication and perception are the key to fully understanding the way Indonesian entry-level managers make meaning of cultural norms which impacting on their professional advancement. And CMM theory provides the best lens to understand the patterns of communication, which lead to a better grasp on how Indonesian female entry-level managers “make better social worlds in varying contexts and levels of systems—from intimate conversations to global questions” (Creede, Fisher-Yoshida & Gallegos, 2012, p. 37).
Different cultural influences also contribute to individuals within the same social interaction creating different meanings, with conflict often resulting as a consequence. Existing models within the CMM framework were useful in understanding these communication difficulties and complexities. The LUUUUTT Model offered a way to identify multiple co-existing stories and uncovering those that were hidden while the Daisy Model help to make sense of multiple concurring conversations (Creede, Fisher-Yoshida & Gallegos, 2012).
These two CMM models have greatly helped me in breaking down data and uncovering hidden ‘stories derived from surveys and interviews conducted with various entry-level managers. As a consequence I was able to propose a three-pronged intervention strategy with the overarching goal of raising the consciousness of stakeholders. Overall, I believe that CMM models are applicable in all types of research and projects as an effective method to better understand the data collected, to discover patterns, and to recognize entry points for intervention.
Cornelia Budiman cpb2146@columbia.edu
Creede, C., Fisher-Yoshida, B. & Gallegos, P. (2012) CMM as transforming practice. IN C. Creede, B. Fisher-Yoshida & Gallegos, P. (Eds) The reflective, facilitative and interpretative practice of the Coordinated Management of Meaning. (23-42) Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
Together with a revamp of our own website—which we hope you enjoy—we also want to share with you, and encourage conversations about, the activities of other organisations exploring what it means to be human and how we can make better social worlds. Our first one is the On Being Project headed by Kristin Tippet.
The On Being Project website ( https://onbeing.org/ ) offers a wealth of inspirational conversations, poems, and projects. Here are some snippets from the site showing how they present themselves. We’d encourage you go there and explore further for yourself:
“On Being takes up the big questions of meaning with scientists and theologians, artists and teachers—some you know and others you’ll love to meet. Each week a new discovery about the immensity of our lives—updated every Thursday. Hosted by Krista Tippett, On Being Studios is the producer of On Being, Becoming Wise, Creating Our Own Lives, and more to come. ”
“We take up the animating questions at the center of life: What does it mean to be human, how do we want to live, and who will we be to each other? We explore these questions in 21st-century lives and endeavors. We pursue wisdom and moral imagination as much as knowledge; we esteem nuance and poetry as much as fact. We seed the human change that makes social change possible across generational time.”
“We believe that collaborative discovery will be a key to living into the generative possibilities of this moment — not just in the halls of the academy or scientific laboratories, but in the everyday living laboratories of our communities, our friendships, and our minds. ”
“The On Being Project is an independent non-profit public life and media initiative. We pursue deep thinking and social courage, moral imagination and joy, to renew inner life, outer life, and life together.”
We also encourage you to read Krista Tippett’s book, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living to go along with regular visits to the website. Enjoy!
If there are other inspirational sources you’d like to share with us all please contact
Three outstanding graduate students will be attending this year’s Learning Exchange in October as AC4 fellows. The fellows are all currently working on applied research projects that aim to constructively resolve a conflict or address issues of violence and sustainability and are applying CMM to do so. As a group, the three projects bring attention to bridging divides, tying in to the overall theme of this year’s Learning Exchange in London, “Minding the Gap: Creating New Space for Coherence”.
Laura Peters is a doctorate student from University of Oregon and is conducting research on post-conflict transformations in Nepal. Julianne Parayo is a master’s student from Teachers College at Columbia University who is focused on choral music and political reflections in the Philippines. Tahleen Wright, a new master’s student at the University at Buffalo, looks at bridging barriers between interpreter, patient, and physician at end-of-life.
Laura Peters, Julianne Parayo , and Tahleen Wright
The AC4 Fellowship Program is housed at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and aims to advance sustainable peace through innovation and integration. This is the 4th cohort of fellowships that AC4 has awarded to select graduate students who are invited to present at the CMM Learning Exchange.
Learn more about the 2017 fellows and the AC4 – CMM LE Fellowship Program here:
http://ac4.ei.columbia.edu/fellowships-funding/cmm-learning-exchange/2017-cmm-learning-exchange-fellowship/
Aleksandra Kasymova and Co-Founder of the CMM Institute Kim Pearce at the CMM Learning Exchange.
When I received the congratulations letter from AC4 about my fellowship to participate in the CMM Learning Exchange, my academic advisor, the reference for my application, told me: “Kudos to you! Now you are a real CMMer!” At that moment I was not sure that I knew who exactly a real CMMer was but I was very curious and excited about Learning Exchange experience. Coordinated Management of Meaning, or simply CMM, was my main inspiration and mystery during the second year at California State University in Fullerton when I was working hard on my master’s degree project. Presenting my work in front of the people who I have read about and who have worked in the field for years, was a tremendous honor and a great achievement to me.
The most impressive thing for me was the diversity of the experiences that people bring to the scholarship and praxis of CMM. The topic of the embodiment brought together practitioners from very different fields – from conflict resolution and activism to alternative medicine, yoga, and music. Every presentation, every conversation that I had about CMM differed from each other. It made me realize that CMM was not just a theory and/or a set of practical tools but more like a philosophy that guided all aspects of life, a way of living or simply a “way of being.” It certainly went beyond my previous understanding of CMM and affected the way I see myself, my conversation patterns, my various relationships with people, and the world itself.
Another thing I want to commemorate is the unique format of the Learning Exchange. It was neither a conference or a workshop that I got used to as a graduate student. It was indeed a place where the spirit of mutual learning was celebrated by sharing ideas during presentations, coffee break talks, small group discussions, and individual reflections. The learning process did not happen in a linear way, from a presenter to the audience. Every participant, no matter how long he or she has been a part of the CMM community, had something to learn from other peers, even those who were very fresh and new to it. I had a chance to share my own work, ask numerous questions about CMM concepts and models, learn about great work that people do, participate in the discussions, and even talk about future collaboration and engagement in the ongoing projects. Also, I really appreciated the warmth and welcoming spirit of the whole community. I had a feeling that I have become a part of a family that cheered for every member and was eager to support all future endeavors.
In the future I hope to stay involved in the community and contribute to the scholarship and practice of CMM. Coming from the communication studies field I was surprised to learn that CMM has not received much attention from communication scholars as a methodological tool to understand human communication. However, I think it should be one of the primary communication theories and it could be one of the directions to look at and work in the future. Personally, I am passionate about peacebuilding and bridging intercultural differences. I believe in the approach of changing minds and hearts one person at a time and CMM provides a great framework to accomplish this goal. Creating a better social world one conversation at a time is a difficult but rewarding journey that starts from our own minds and hearts. I think that CMM Learning Exchange creates a great platform for all people who want to see and work for this change in the world. I really want to see how it will develop in time and what new projects will emerge. I thank the whole CMM community for being a great inspiration and AC4 for bringing me all the way from Russia. I am so proud to be a CMM Institute associate, AC4 Fellow and a real CMMer.
Photo: Aleksandra Kasymova and Co-Executive Director Beth Fisher-Yoshida at the CMM Learning Exchange.
Reposted with permission from the Advanced Consortium on Coooperation, Conflict, and Complexity.
Author: Aleksandra Kasymova is an AC4 Fellow who participated in the 2016 CMM Learning Exchange. She recently completed her Master’s Degree in Communication Studies at California State University.
Photos provided by author.
To learn about the fellows’ projects at the 2016 CMM Learning Exchange: read here.
The 2015 Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) Learning Exchange, also known as the FUGIC Forum, took place in Munich, Germany, from September 17-20. Hosts of the Learning Exchange were the CMM Institute and the Institute for Global Integral Competence. This interview was conducted by AC4’s Meredith Smith and Venera Kusari.
Aline Mugisho: First of all, I have only just learned of CMM from a workshop I took from Beth Fisher-Yoshida at the International Association on Conflict Management (IACM) Conference I attended in the U.S. in June. I have been using the concepts ever since as it was right at the time when I was developing the theoretical chapter of my dissertation. I had been thinking that I didn’t know what I would do for my qualitative work before this.
Given the complexity of the issue I am focused on (Women’s Social Protection in Democratic Republic of Congo) and the way I am going to interview people who are already being interviewed by NGOs, I had been and continue to ask myself questions about my work. I am asking; how do I find neutrality in the way I speak with those I am working with (the women) and how will they look at me different from an NGO. Also, in speaking with them, how do I allow them to relate to me. These were very crucial questions and that I didn’t know how to go about addressing.
Because of CMM, I now have a way to include this as part of the conversation with myself and can incorporate it in my work. In coming to these workshops, the first objective I had was to be assured, that is, get to a place of comfort in which I have understanding CMM appropriately. I had ideas about how I can introduce it into my work but felt unsure whether I was going about it in the right way. Now, this opportunity has gotten me excited because I have been able to interact with experts and show what I think and want to do with my work. I have received high levels of work and feedback.
Ann Ritter: It is an organic approach to inquiry. Barnett Pearce (an architect and founder of CMM) looked at what was going on around him during his community work in Cupertino, California and come up with a framework to illustrate and explain it.
The first year I went to the Learning Exchange I was in the midst of my praxis (teaching yoga to help English as a Second Language students overcome speaking anxiety). I remember talking to Kim Pearce between workshops, and she told me to look at the Hierarchy Model (one of the CMM tools) as a means of more deeply understanding my data. I looked at the Hierarchy model, and realized that it gave me a way to explain exactly what I was seeing and what I was not. It was foundational for my project at that time.
My project grew out of observing a Vietnamese student whose accent and mannerisms became very pronounced when he was doing presentations. I realized additional patterns for other students as well; many would stop in the middle of a speech because they were nervous. I asked them what would happen and they shared an experience of realizing their nervousness and then believing if they did not stop, the next thing coming out of their mouthes would be in their first language- they would lose their English. I became fascinated by this! I remember thinking the Hierarchy Model helped it all fall into place.
By the time I got to the end of the semester with the praxis, both of the students in my study who had said that they were nervous speaking in public were sharing explanations of why this was the case: first, because English is not their first language, but then also one of them said that it’s not just the language, it’s also that he was the first person in his family to become an academic. Another said that she felt pressure to be fluent, because she was among so many other students from her home country, and she would compare her skills to theirs and become anxious. The Hierarchy Model helped bring these issues of class and culture dynamic to the surface in a way that made so much sense.
The models developed by Barnett are very powerful teaching tools that I have benefitted from personally and seen my students benefit from them as well.
Kelly Tenzen: I think that the connection with people from across the globe has been wonderful. I would not have had access to this had I not been awarded this opportunity. From that, the connections that, I think, will continue are invaluable, both professionally in doing the work of CMM and also personally in being able to connect to people with different experience, which I think is part of cosmopolitan community anyway. What I am taking away is the importance of dialogue, and first treating people as human beings versus what you bring to the table. Start with being human and then start a conversation.
I had background of CMM before coming here as I used it in my dissertation. Now, through meeting everyone and doing the workshops, I have a renewed sense of how powerful it can be. I always say, CMM is a lifestyle. I think we all have been living it here, which then is something hard to translate into the practical outcomes. I think the key principles I will take away is hard right now but I think they will come with reflection after the conference. It’s a process, and it will happen over time.
April Bang: The Learning Exchange was meaningful for me on many different levels. I found the diversity among the participants, in terms of the experiences they bring and the variety of approaches they use in practice and scholarship, one of the most striking things. Also, the way this Learning Exchange or forum was organized fostered a different kind of learning experience than a typical conference. In addition to the variety of presentations and workshops I attended, I had the chance to sit down and build relationships over lunch and between workshops with new and experienced practitioners of CMM and in the communications field more generally. It offered the experience of community in that way. As a student and practitioner of leadership development, I have been noticing and reflecting on the value of being in a diverse interdisciplinary group setting with other leadership development practitioners involved.
Additionally, I have discovered a lot of things about communications itself, seeing it not only as a skill but also as a discipline and a way to understand and explain human behavior. I have a growing interest in how communications can be used as a community-building tool. This parallels my studies in social psychology and education, specifically around the exploration of conditions and ways of engagement that foster human connection and empathy. It seems like a common goal is shared among the diverse ways in which this is studied and pursued, and yet, I am also exploring the question of distinction — what distinguishes CMM from other theories and approaches that advocate for the same restorative outcomes?
One thing I am leaving with is a deep appreciation for feeling a part of this community. Restorative is a word I would use to describe my experience. Kim Pearce [of CMM Institute] mentioned in her presentation and in conversations how she wanted CMM to be a “way of being.” I felt the community we encountered in Munich reflected this desire in the way in which people expressed their support and appreciation for one another’s work, approach, and way of engagement no matter how different these may have been from their own.
Another rewarding outcome was the formation and development of a “co-mentoring” relationship with another fellow. We were assigned to be “co-mentors” during a pre-conference World Café workshop and decided to remain as co-mentors throughout the conference and thereafter (we still keep in touch regularly to exchange ideas and provide support in our respective and shared experiences).
I imagine next year’s learning exchange will be entirely different depending on who hosts it, where it takes place, and who the participants are. I have been in conversation with one of my faculty advisors, the reference for my AC4 application, about this experience as I think the learning and outcomes of this experience will continue to develop and contribute to my studies and work at Teachers College and beyond.
Aline: I have been able to network with people who could give me honest, direct comments on my work, and I have gotten some comments that are very instructive. So, I am very satisfied from these achievements and how far I have come with this.
Aline: I have been talking with the other fellows here, and I think we all agree in that we are creating something and we are not sure what it is. I am very much thinking that out of my use with this tool, something new will emerge. Like a qualitative methodology, CMM has potential to allow us to grow with it as we use it. For my work, I am hoping that after I collect my data and look at the systems that are created within my work, I can propose something new in terms of my use of CMM, whether it is a missing link, a shortage or a gap that was found within the work I do, and this will be a window for introducing something new. I think of it as a process or as a way of life; it has its own developmental process and it is very much growing. It is coming from all of us who employ it or who use it or who leave it.
Ann: It is my learning community, and it is a very welcoming community.. It is extremely open. The way that people who have embraced CMM behave is the way that I behave, so I connect. I found my people! They are connected globally. The openness to share is genuine and I feel that I have colleagues all over the world.
April: I have not officially used CMM in my practice yet, but look forward to continuing my “learning exchange” now here in the United States. My co-mentor and I have been discussing ways in which this could be useful for managing classroom dynamics and looking to co-design a faculty development workshop or course. I would also like to see how CMM, both as a tool and as a “way of being,” could be integrated into my study of group dynamics and systems change and applied in my teaching of leadership moving forward.
For further resources on CMM, click here.