Publications

Featured Books

Flanagan, T. R,, and Christakis, A. N., (2009). The Talking Point: Creating an Environment for Exploring Complex Meaning. Information Age Publishing.

The Talking Point is all about how people learn within groups. People can be much smarter than crowds if you measure “smart” as decision-making speed. Crowds can be much wiser than individuals if you measure wisdom by depth of understanding. It is possible to understand a great deal of information yet (or maybe because of this) you can also be slow to make decisions. If rushed, crowds will make poor decisions in spite of their wisdom. So… to get good group decisions on a time scale that will keep pace with policy development needs and social necessities, groups have to be supported so that their decision-making process can be accelerated. Much has been said and written about this problem over the years. It is dangerous to have the power of groups without the wisdom of groups, and it is tragic to have the wisdom of groups without the power of groups. The Talking Point presents a meeting point for the wisdom and power of groups through the use of Structured Dialogic Design.

Christakis, A. N., with Bausch, K. (2006). How People Harness their Collective Wisdom and Power to Construct the Future in Co-Laboratories of Democracy. Information Age Publishing.

We have all experienced the benefits of dialogue when we openly and thoughtfully confront issues. We have also experienced the frustration of interminable discussion that does not lead to progress. Co-Laboratories of Democracy enable large, diverse groups to dialogue and generate positive results. Many group processes engender enthusiasm and good feeling as people share their concerns and hopes with each other. Co-Laboratories go beyond this initial euphoria to:

  • Discover root causes
  • Adopt consensual action plans
  • Develop teams dedicated to implementing those plans
  • Generate lasting bonds of respect, trust, and cooperation.

Co-Laboratories achieve these results by respecting the autonomy of all participants, and utilizing an array of consensus tools including discipline, technology and graphics that allow the stakeholders to control the discussion. This 2006 volume presents the state of the art discussion of the methodology developed by Dr. Christakis and John Warfield over a 30 year period of Interactive Management.

Jones, P.H. (2002). Team Design:  A Practitioner’s Guide to Collaborative Innovation. Philadelphia: Xlibris.

Revised by the author in 2002. A comprehensive guidebook to team systems development practice, first published in 1998 (Handbook of Team Design, McGraw-Hill).

Team Design gives system designers, team facilitators, project managers, and process analysts a facilitated consulting toolkit in one handbook. A comprehensive guide to collaboration in software product development for best-practice processes and products. Find formats and methods for team workshops, based on your organization, business, project type, desired end result, and lifecycle phase.

Articles & Reports

  • Christakis, A.N. (1996).  “A People Science”: The CogniScopeTM System Approach,” Systems, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1996, pp. 16-19.
  • Christakis, A.N. (1973). “A New Policy Science Paradigm,” Futures, 5, pp. 543-558.
  • Christakis, A.N. (1985). “The National Forum on Non industrial Private Forest Lands,” Systems Research 2, pp. 189-199.
  • Christakis, A.N. (1987). “High Technology Participative Design: The Space-Based Laser.” In John A. Dillon, Jr. (ed.), General Systems, Volume XXX, Louisville, KY: International Society for General Systems Research, pp. 69-75.
  • Christakis, A.N. (1988). “The Club of Rome Revisited.” In William J. Reckmeyer (ed.), General Systems, Volume XXXI, New York, NY: International Society for the Systems Sciences, pp. 35-38.
  • Christakis, A.N. (1993). “The Inevitability of Demosophia.” In Ioanna Tsivakou (ed.), A Challenge for Systems Thinking: The Aegean Seminar, University of the Aegean Press, Athens, Greece, pp. 187-197.
  • Christakis, A. N. (1996a). “A People Science: The CogniScopeTM System Approach,” Systems: Journal of Transdisciplinary Systems Sciences 1, pp. 16-19.
  • Christakis, A. N. (1996b). Learning About the CogniScopeTM System Approach, CWA Report prepared for the 1996 Asilomar Conversation on Designing Social Systems, Interactive Management Consultants, Paoli, PA.
  • Christakis, A.N., Krause, L., and Prabhu,Y. (1988). “Synthesis in a New Age,” Systems Research 5, pp. 107-114.
  • Christakis, A.N., Warfield, J.N., and Keever, D. (1989). “Systems Design: Generic Design Theory and Methodology.” In Michael Decleris (ed.), Systems Governance, Publisher Ant. N. Sakkoylas, Athens-Komotini, Greece, pp. 143-210, (in Greek).
  • Christakis, A.N.,Christakis, N.A., Conaway, D., Feudtner, C., Geranmayeh, A., and Whitehouse, R.J. (1994). Designing the Good Review Practices, CWA Report FDA-694-1, Interactive Management Consultants, Paoli, Pennsylvania.
  • Christakis, A.N.,Christakis, N.A., Conaway, D., Feudtner, C., and Whitehouse, R.J. (1995a). Application of the CogniScopeTM System for the Conceptual Design of the AMF Project Plan, CWA Report FDA-195-2, Interactive Management Consultants, Paoli, Pennsylvania.
    Christakis A.N., Conaway, D. (1995b). Designing the Development of Regulatory Science, CWA Report FDA-395-4, Interactive Management Consultants, Paoli, Pennsylvania.
  • Christakis, A.N., Christakis, N.A., Conaway, D., Geranmayeh, A., and Snow R.M. (1996). Designing Office of Chief Counsel, CWA Report FDA-895-6, Interactive Management Consultants, Paoli, Pennsylvania.
  • Christakis, A.N., and Bausch, K.C., (2002). Technologue: Technology-Supported Disciplined Dialogue, in Robert, N (ed.) Transformative Power of Dialogue. Elsevier Publishing Co.
  • Christakis, A.N., Conaway, D.S. and Bronfman, B. Anticipating Alternative National and Regional Futures in Energy Efficiency, World Futures, (forthcoming).
  • Christakis, A.N., and Conaway, D.S. (2001). Anticipating Alternative National and Regional Futures in Energy Efficiency, Final Report, CWA Ltd., Paoli, Pennsylvania.
  • Christakis, A.N., and Dye, K.M. (1999). Collaboration through Communicative Action: Resolving the Systems Dilemma through CogniScopeTM, Systems: Journal of Transdisciplinary Systems Sciences, Volume 4, Number 1.
  • Christakis, A.N., Dye, K.M., and Post, D. (1999). Partners’ Forum for Designing a Framework for the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis, Final Report, CWA Ltd., Paoli, Pennsylvania.
  • Christakis, A.N., McDonald, R. and Conaway, D.S. (2001). Forest Service Priority Setting for Fiscal Year 2003, Final Report, CWA Ltd., Paoli, Pennsylvania.
  • Christakis, A.N., Conaway, D.S, Rudavsky, Shari, and Schwartz, Peter (2002). Collaborative Leadership for Patient Safety for Ambulatory Surgery in the Office Setting, Final Report, CWA LTD., Paoli, Pennsylvania.
  • Christakis, A.N., Conaway, D.S. and Bausch, K.C. (2002). A Wisdom of the People Forum: Designing a Transnational Indigenous Leaders Interaction in the Context of Globalization (Co-Laboratory of Democracy), CWA Ltd., Paoli, Pennsylvania.
  • Dye, K.M. and Conaway, D.S. (1999). Lessons Learned from Five Years of Application of the CogniScopeTM Approach to the Food and Drug Administration, CWA Ltd. Report, Paoli, Pennsylvania.
  • Dye, K.M., Feudtner, C., Post, D., and Vogt, E.M. (1999). Developing Collaborative Leadership to Reframe the Safe Use of Pharmaceuticals as a National Health Priority, Final Report, CWA Ltd., Paoli, Pennsylvania.
  • Jones, PH. (2010). The Language/Action Model of Conversation: Can conversation perform acts of design? interactions, XVII.1, Jan-Feb 2010.
  • Jones, PH. (2009). Learning the lessons of systems thinking: Exploring the gap between Thinking and Leadership. In Integral Leadership Review, IX (4), August 2009.
  • Jones, PH. (2008). Socialization of practice in a process world: Toward participatory organizations. In Proceedings of Participatory Design Conference 2008, Indiana University, Oct 1-4 2008.
  • Jones, PH. (2008). Socializing a knowledge strategy. In E. Abou-Zeid (Ed.) Knowledge Management and Business Strategies: Theoretical Frameworks and Empirical Research. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
  • Jones, PH, Christakis, AN., and Flanagan, TR. (2007). Dialogic design for the intelligent enterprise: Collaborative strategy, process, and action. In Proceedings of INCOSE 2007, San Diego, June 25-29.
  • Laouris, Y. 1998. “Citizens’ Contributions to the Political Settlement in Cyprus.” Speech given at Peoples’ Europe 98 Conference, as part of a symposium with special advisor Sir David Haney, London, June 5–7.
  • Laouris, Y. (2000).  The double personality of the Cypriot society.
  • Laouris, Y. (2004). Information technology in the service of peace building: The case of Cyprus. World Futures, 60, 67–79.
  • Laouris, Y. (2008). The Law of Requisite Action (in preparation).
  • Laouris, Y. and Christakis, A. (2007). Harnessing collective wisdom at a fraction of the time using Structured Design Process embedded within a virtual communication context. I Int. J. Applied Systemic Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, 131-153.
  • Laouris, Y. and Laouri, R. (2008). Can information and Mobile technologies serve close the gap and accelerate development? World Futures, 64 (4), 254-275.
  • Laouris, Y. and Michaelides, M. (2007a). What obstacles prevent practical broad-band applications from being produced and exploited? In: Towards an inclusive future Impact and wider potential of information and communication technologies, Editor Roe Patrick. Chapter 7.
  • Laouris, Y. Michaelides, M. and Sapio, B. (2007). What are the obstacles that prevent the wide public from benefiting and participating in the broadband society? Conference Proceedings Cost 298 conference, Moscow 2007.
  • Laouris, Y., Erel, A., Michaelides, M,. Damdelen, M., Taraszow, T., Dagli, I., Laouri, R. and Christakis, A. (2009). Exploring options for enhancement of social dialogue between the Turkish and Greek communities in Cyprus using the Structured Dialogic Design Process. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 22, 361–381.
  • Laouris, Y., Michaelides, M., Damdelen,, M., Laouri, R., Beyatli, D., & Christakis, A. (2009). A systemic evaluation of the state of affairs following the negative outcome of the referendum in Cyprus using a structured dialogic design process. Systemic Practice and Action Research 22 (1), 45-75.
  • Laouris, Y., Michaelides, M., Damdelen,, M., Laouri, R., Beyatli, D., & Christakis, A. (2007). A Systemic Evaluation of the State of Affairs Following the Negative Outcome of the Referendum in Cyprus using a Structured Dialogic Design Process.
  • Warfield, John N., and A. Roxana Cardenas. A Handbook of Interactive Management. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 2d, 1994.