Twenty-First International Conference on Technology, Knowledge, and Society

Abstract

Group and organizational learning has been conceptualized as a shift in the form and focus of conversation and interactions between individuals. Skilled facilitators are human experts tasked with creating dialogic interventions to increase the likelihood of learning and change. These interventions are rooted in the meaning experts assign to the flow of conversation among their clients - the members of the group or organization to which facilitators provide their services. While approaches to facilitation vary, a close analysis within any particular approach to facilitation can provide clues to facilitator meaning-making that drives interventions. Advances in LLMs (Large Language Models) have made it possible to evaluate these meanings in novel conversational interactions, providing an approach to design a virtual facilitation system to assist groups and organizations with inexpensive and ubiquitous skilled facilitation. The system can also be used as a pedagogical aide to teaching effective team communication skills. The development of such a system is described, beginning with the analysis of meaning-making in the Action Science tradition of Chris Argyris and proceeding to the basic architecture of software that uses an LLM to craft conversational interventions. The system is being developed for use by a non-profit to increase participation by the community of academics involved in organizational development. There is an opportunity to create spinoffs making use of and enhancing the system for special use cases.