About · Guiding principles

Our guiding principles

When technology makes conversations analyzable for many people, three things have to stay with people: the encounter, the individual statement, and the decision.

We turned this into three questions. They guide how we record, analyze and use conversations, in citizen dialogues, in organizations, and when we accompany teams.

analogdigital
How do analog and digital formats go together?
People talk to each other, not to a device.
The encounter happens in the room; technology stays in the background.
What we mean
The digital serves the analog. It starts with people meeting each other. Recording and analysis come in so that we can bring together statements from many rounds of conversation.
For example
In facilitated citizen dialogues, people talk in small groups. One device per group records only if everyone agrees, and nobody has to install an app.
Where we draw the line
In facilitated dialogues, no AI leads the conversation. It analyzes it when everyone agrees.
nuancedcondensed
How do we summarize conversations without losing important statements?
Traceable, not a black box.
Every finding leads back to the statements behind it. You don't have to take the AI's word for it; you can check.
What we mean
The small is not lost in the large. Summarizing many voices easily loses the quiet, unusual and contradictory ones. That is why we connect results to the statements they come from.
For example
In the analysis of citizen dialogues, every theme lists the statements assigned to it. Diverging views show up as tensions.
Where we draw the line
We don't smooth contradictions into an average.
humanmachine
What does the AI analyze, and what do people decide?
People interpret, people decide.
The AI sorts and suggests. What it means and what happens next is for the participants to decide.
What we mean
Interpreting and deciding stay with people. AI reads many conversations faster than any team. What they mean, a group only works out by talking about them, ideally together with everyone affected.
For example
When we accompany teams, the team itself decides which tasks the AI takes over and which it keeps. In citizen dialogues, the participants check the results and decide on next steps.
Where we draw the line
We never let AI decide what follows from a result.

Why we build these tools, and what is still open, is in our Theory of Change.

Theory of Change → The team → Request a conversation

Our guiding principles

People talk to each other, not to a device.

Traceable, not a black box.

People interpret, people decide.