Article Summary: The chapter entitled “Leading Dialogue Processes to Build Commitment and Reach Shared Understanding” discusses the importance of communication to build strong relationships both with internal teams as well as with clients and other members of the organizations. The article starts out by explaining the importance of communication and the need for proper dialogue in the workplace. It then goes into a background of how the workplace communication has changed with the technology and other changes within organizations. The tempo of business innovation has increased toward discovering new rules and rapidly applying vast resources to play the new or better game. (Ulrich et. all, 2003, p. 149) The article then goes into the cost of improper communication. It talks about how important it is to make sure that everyone is on board with the leaders’ ideas. The problem that most leaders have with getting their ideas to fruition is that they surround themselves with “yes men” and they accept it when the people in the room just nod their heads and agree with whatever the leader is saying. This is listed as the biggest pitfalls in communication. It then goes into how to avoid getting into the “yes man” state. One way that it says to avoid the pitfalls is to encourage and use other people’s opinions in order to bring more meaning to the topic. In a dialogue session, individuals might hold a spate opinion but that opinion is expressed and then absorbed into the group and one final group meaning would be seen. (Ulrich et. all, 2003, p. 159) Another way to avoid the pitfalls and yes men is to bring in a consultant. When used properly consultants act as needed moderators that are used to help bring out opinions and open up healthy conflict and dialogue in order to get the needed actions and results. The book also encourages the use of visualization techniques. This occurs when a large group breaks up into smaller groups and brain storm. Their ideas are then...