# Conversational inquiry ## Short definition Conversational inquiry is a CMM-informed method for exploring how meaning is created, coordinated, and changed through dialogue. ## Level [[LEVEL 3 — METHODS]] ## Expanded definition Conversational inquiry treats conversation as the place where social worlds are made. In CMM, communication is not only a way of reporting experience; it is a way of creating relationships, identities, patterns, and possibilities. Conversational inquiry therefore focuses on how people ask, answer, interpret, position, and respond to one another. This method helps practitioners stay curious about the process of communication itself. Rather than only asking what people think or feel, the practitioner asks how meanings are being made between people, what conversational moves are shaping the interaction, and what other forms of dialogue might become possible. Conversational inquiry is especially useful when the problem is not simply a topic being discussed but the way discussion itself is organised. ## Purpose of this method * To explore how meaning is produced in conversation. * To notice patterns of asking, answering, interrupting, avoiding, explaining, blaming, or repairing. * To support more reflective and generative dialogue. * To help participants become aware of how they shape the conversation. * To open new conversational possibilities. ## When to use this method * When conversations repeatedly become stuck or circular. * When participants struggle to hear one another. * When the process of dialogue needs attention. * When assumptions, meanings, and interpretations need to be explored. * When a practitioner wants to slow down communication and make it visible. * When new ways of speaking and listening need to be developed. ## How this method works The practitioner attends closely to what is happening in the conversation. This includes the content being discussed, but also the form of the dialogue: who speaks, who is silent, what questions are asked, what meanings are assumed, what responses are invited, and what remains difficult to say. Conversational inquiry may involve pausing the dialogue and reflecting on it with participants. The practitioner might ask what just happened in the conversation, what meaning a response carried, what was made easier or harder to say, and what alternative conversational move might be more useful. The method aims to make communication more intentional, ethical, and generative. ## Non-clinical example In a community meeting, participants repeatedly move from concerns into blame. Conversational inquiry helps the group notice that each concern is quickly treated as an accusation, which then invites defence. The group explores how to ask questions that keep concern open rather than turning it into blame. ## Clinical example In a family session, a parent asks a child, “Why do you always do this?” The child becomes silent. Conversational inquiry slows the moment down and explores how the question was heard, what response it invited, and what other question might invite reflection rather than shame. ## Step-by-step process * Identify a conversation or interactional pattern to explore. * Notice how the conversation is currently organised. * Attend to who speaks, who is heard, and who becomes silent. * Explore what meanings are being assumed. * Identify conversational moves that invite openness or closure. * Pause and reflect on the process with participants. * Ask what the conversation is creating between people. * Experiment with alternative questions, responses, or positions. * Reflect on how the dialogue changes when the process changes. ## Questions before using this method * What conversation needs closer attention? * Is the difficulty in the topic, the process, or both? * Are participants able to reflect on how they communicate? * What meanings may already be assumed? * What kind of dialogue would be more useful? ## Questions during use * What is happening in this conversation right now? * What did that question invite? * What became easier or harder to say? * Who is being positioned in what way? * What meaning is being created between people? * What other response could open the conversation? * What would make this dialogue more respectful or useful? ## Questions after use * What did participants notice about the conversation? * Which conversational moves were helpful? * Which moves closed things down? * What new ways of speaking became possible? * How might participants continue this kind of inquiry outside the session? ## Related epistemologies * [[CMM epistemology]] * [[Social constructionism]] * [[Relational epistemology]] ## Related schools and models * [[CMM]] * [[Systemic Therapy]] * [[Social constructionist therapy]] * [[Collaborative Therapy]] ## Related concepts * [[Communication as action]] * [[Coordinating meaning]] * [[Meaning-making]] * [[Speech acts]] * [[Metacommunication]] * [[Relational responsibility]] ## Related techniques * [[Meaning questions]] * [[Speech act questions]] * [[Metacommunication questions]] * [[Communication pattern questions]] ## Related pathways * [[CMM pathway]] ## Key theorists / contributors * [[W. Barnett Pearce]] * [[Vernon Cronen]] * [[Harlene Anderson]] * [[Kenneth Gergen]] * [[Sheila McNamee]] ## Key texts / references * Pearce, W. B. (2007). Making social worlds: A communication perspective. * Pearce, W. B., & Cronen, V. E. (1980). Communication, action, and meaning. * Anderson, H. (1997). Conversation, language, and possibilities. * McNamee, S., & Gergen, K. J. (1992). Therapy as social construction. ## Notes / source material This method links CMM’s communication perspective with dialogical and social constructionist approaches that treat conversation as a site of meaning-making and change.