Talk vs Action
Author: Gil Friend Issue: 2024-01-03
Talk “vs” Action
Just words? Or words that create worlds?
by Gil Friend
*Originally published at: *Talk “vs” Action: Just words? Or words that create worlds?
Bill Baue and Ben Roberts recently posted a “conversational exploration” of two recently published books: “Collective Power” by Ted Rau, and Ben read “Activating the Common Good” by Peter Block. (You can find the post here.) It’s worth watching.
Ben reports that “I’ve heard people say ‘we need more action and less talk’ or ‘there’s talk and then there’s action,’ and disparaging ‘conversation,’” and shares my concern that people commonly don’t understand “the power of conversation.”
I particularly enjoyed Ben’s reading of a section from Block’s book called “Conversational Domains for Activating Trust and Accountability.” It’s an excellent introduction and invitation into “language action,” which rigorously dismisses the “just talk” objection by distinguishing talk that is descriptive (“we met yesterday”) from those that are “performative” or generative—that actually create something in the world (“I will meet you at Joe’s Cafe at 2pm PST today to sign the contract we have negotiated.”).
The promise is an action, not a description of an action.
Ben reports that he was introduced “speech act” theory and “language action” by Werner Erhard, who built on his work with Dr Fernando Flores, who built on the work of John Searle and JL Austin. Searle identified a finite list of key performative verbs:
- **Declarations **(statements that establish a new reality: “you’re hired/fired/married”)
- Requests (including invitations)
- Promises (aka commitments)
- Assessments (interpretations; eg “it’s hot in here”)
- Assertions (testable claims; eg “it’s 72.5ºF in here”)
Flores (with whom I’ve had the privilege of studying deeply with for some years) further developed and enriched this work in books like Conversations for Action, Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design with Terry Winograd, and Disclosing New Worlds: Entrepreneurship, Democratic Action, and the Cultivation of Solidarity with Charles Spinosa and Hubert Dreyfus. And in enterprises like Business Design Associates and Pluralistic Networks with Chauncey Bell (author of Mobilize: Dancing In The World) and others.
These perspectives have been a powerful element of our own work at Natural Logic, elevating our clients’ aspirations, coordination effectiveness, and results; a generative thread in our monthly Living Between Worlds conversations; and a core component of my coaching and mentoring work with leaders and emerging leaders in the sustainability / regeneration / climate / impact / ESG / etc. realms.
And I find they can provide a powerful “solvent” for unsticking conversations among people who deeply disagree—sometimes so deeply that they can’t even speak with each other. (Hmm, any such situations come to mind?)
There’s more, of course: the matter of “mood” (and its reciprocal entanglement with assessments), and the foundational nature of care. But those are topics for another time.
I’m happy to explore this territory further with anyone else interested.
Because, as I’ve written elsewhere,
“New worlds don’t just happen. We speak them into being.”
Related:
- Gil Friend (author)
- 2024 (year)
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