Kathy Isaacson

DISSERTATION TITLE:

Human Difference and Creation of Better Social Worlds: An Autoethnography

Human differences can be seen as the source of creativity and synergistic progress or they can suggest strife, miscommunication, and even violence. Facilitators of social change aim for construction of a better world, where human communication intentionally aims for interaction that honors difference and builds a common path forward. Human Difference and Creation of Better Social Worlds is a proposal for thinking and action in the social construction of preferred futures for individuals, relationships, organizations, industries, and countries. Kathy Isaacson, a social change expert from the U.S., reflects back on 40 years of writing, research and practice in the facilitation of communication processes. Her findings offer two reflections: 1) the World of Difference orientation—a format for understanding and wondering how interacting humans orient toward their differences; 2) Design Thinking as a foundation for processes that support designing and creating preferred futures. Implications for these reflections suggest a liberation from the constraints of labels such as “conflict,” “problems,” and “resolution.” The contribution to a communication practitioner toolkit contains the World of Difference orientation for managing human differences, and design thinking as a conceptual stance for the creation of deliberate and effective patterns of communication.