The Structured Dialogic Design (SDD) method is an advanced software-enabled, facilitated dialogic method for stakeholder groups to define the dynamic relationships of a problem system and to collaboratively design alternative future scenarios for consensus action. SDD is often used in conjunction with other dialogic or design methods known to and adopted by the hosting community or organization, to ensure an effective transition between methods deployed in a scenario design engagement.

We promote two major thrusts of SDD practice: Democratic transformation in civil society and government, and the organizational transformation of enterprises and institutions. Both of these arena represent social  systems design, and both require the inclusion and participation of all perspectives relevant to the problem system. In other words, transformation design success hinges greatly on stakeholder understanding and recruitment for dedicated workshop sessions. In this way, SDD appears much like other transformation methodologies, such as Future Search or Art of Hosting. SDD is unique in that it is often planned as a series of iterative learning /design engagements, from Definition through Design to Action.

Management theorists have defined different levels of transformation, including improving operations, strategic transformation, or corporate self-renewal. The general thrust of transformation efforts aims toward significant organizational changes that institutionalize desired behaviors necessary for long-term business success. While some management thinkers may place the responsibility solely on management to accomplish transformation, in our view successful transformation depends on the collaboration of all stakeholders in the enterprise, at a minimum by adopting the new practices as full participants.

Kotter (1995) showed that transformation efforts fail to the extent that organizational communication and collaboration fails. While every employee may have a stake in transformation, only a smaller number of stakeholders can be directly involved in collaborative design of the new organizational architecture. For enterprises that espouse organizational values of participation, innovation, and trust we advocate a democratic approach to collaboration involving organizational representatives in structured dialogic design.

Two predominant themes of systemic organizational change include enterprise transformation and design or structuring organizational architecture. These are strategic processes aimed at redefining the operational structures, processes, and business models of an enterprise, involving systemic design comparable in complexity to system engineering.  The management literature reveals inherent conflicts question regarding the alignment or reconciliation of system and information architectures with operations.  Dialogic design resolves the issues of alignment through iterative learning and negotiations toward a consensus on priorities within each view.

These concepts and methods are defined and discussed in numerous research articles and client reports, some of which are available online and others of which are available on request.