ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a contextual framework for group analytic practice in organizations, developing the notion of communication as a contextualized unit of meaning. It describes a consultancy process with a community of Anglican monks, preparing for an important decision. The relationship between context and meaning is central for group analysts with their core interest in the ‘nuances of interpersonal communication’. G. Bateson highlights the distinction between the digital and analogic as two separate but connected levels of context: digital – the content of a message – and analogic – its relational meaning. Building on Bateson’s original formulation, Pearce and others, have developed a framework they call Coordinated Management of Meaning, for making sense of communication and for orientation to action, connecting macro and micro contexts in a communication exchange. The interpretive act represents a reflexive opportunity for exploring links between emotion, meaning, and action and higher-level contexts that shape them.
