Change your story.

I am a social constructivist - one who believes that reality is socially constructed. And so I believe that if you change conversations, you change reality.

Check out this great post by fellow Seattle blogger and pal Curt Rosengren called Reinvent your story. Reinvent your world.

One of the book ideas I had way back when was to create a user friendly version of Social Construction of Reality. It is a great book, but a bit tough to get through because it is written in an academic voice.

Comments

[CV Harquail]

Hi Lisa-

Why *not* create a user friendly version of The Social Construction of Reality"?

Any social scientist worth her salt will tell you that this book has had a profound influence on how scholars understand the world, and also that this book-- like the Cluetrain Manifesto-- was the go to place for understanding how buzz, marketing, framing, rhetoric, etc. influence the everyday world-- even though lots of folks have never even heard of the book.

If you were to put together a 2 page summary of B & L's key points (and you could probably find lots of summaries on the web, written by sociology and org studies doctoral students) you could use it endlessly as a resource for your own posts, starting with "Why Management is a Craft and Not a Science". If you ever decide to do this, let me know. I'll be the first one to read it and blog about it!

[Curt Rosengren]

Thanks for your link, Lisa. I'd love to read more of your thoughts on social construction.

The concept has been on my mind a lot lately. Specifically, what kind of reality are we creating (globally, nationally, regionally, in our homes)? What kind of reality do we *want* to create? What do we need to do to get there?

Not questions I'm asking you (though feel free to riff off of them if you feel so inspired). Just questions bouncing through my own brain.

[David Zinger]

Lisa,
I started as an active constructionist in psychology many many years ago and was transformed into a social constructionist by the book you mention and the work of Kenneth Gergen. It seems to me that the social media tools have played a big role in re-constructing me and how I do my work. It would be nice to do the overview of social construction even as a change this manifesto or a slideshare presentation.
David

[Lech]

Regarding "truth is relative"...

Whenever I read about the "subjective nature of reality" (in one's eyes, that is), I always think about the common ground. What really happens when different viewpoints meet? What's does it mean that e.g. two people share their lives (or work together), if to some extent, they live in different worlds?

Thanks for sharing. I didn't know the term "social constructivist" before. AFAIR, Neuro-linguistic programming was interested in the concept (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_NLP - The map is not the territory). I second Curt's message here - it would be great to read more on that.

[lisa haneberg]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Well maybe there is something to this idea about communicating social construction in a new way. I will think on that one....