Catherine Creede is partner in the Potential Group.Beth Fisher-Yoshida is CEO of Fisher Yoshida International, LLC and Director of the MS in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University.Placida Gallegos is professor of Human and Organization Development at Fielding Graduate University.Cover image: Courtesy of Barnett and Kim Pearce.

This volume offers a rich resource for understanding the complexity of communication processes and how we might ‘act wisely in(to) critical moments.’ For the first time, the theory and practice of the Coordinated Management of Meaning is compiled within one volume, moving us toward generative understandings of how we can facilitate the creation of better social worlds . ‘Communication is consequential’ and the contributors to this volume have made that abundantly clear.

• Preface: Evolution and Transformation: A Brief History of CMM and a Meditation on What Using it Does to Us, W. Barnett PearceChapter 1: CMM as Transforming Practice: An Introduction by Catherine Creede, Beth Fisher-Yoshida and Placida V. GallegosTransition 1: CMM as Facilitation, Beth Fisher-YoshidaChapter 2: Facilitating Episode Work, Linda BlongChapter 3: Levels of Context in Professional Coach-Client Communication, Irene SteinChapter 4: Taming the Lizard: Transforming Conversations Gone Bad at Work, Paige MarrsChapter 5: CMM and Healthcare Qualitative Simulation Research: Developing the Team’s Voice, Lydia ForsytheTransition 2: CMM as Interpretation, Catherine CreedeChapter 6: Achieving a Transcendent Episode: A CMM Analysis of a Theological Task Force in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., Jeff HutchesonChapter 7: Expanding Meaning of My Volunteer Work in Uganda Using Circular Questioning as a Self-reflective Journaling Practice, Catherine CreedeChapter 8: From the Ground Up: How a Grassroots Group’s Management of Meaning is Feeding People, Fostering Sustainable Agriculture, and Cultivating community, Karen BentleyChapter 9: Interactional Logics: Moving CMM Forward by Looking Back, Darrin S. MurrayChapter 10: On Becoming a Global Human: CMM, International Adoption, and the Global Burden of Self, Jeff LeinaweaverTransitions 3: CMM as Reflection, Placida GallegosChapter 11: CMM: A Reflective Tool for Engaging Diversity and Adversity, Ilene WassermanChapter 12: Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) as Reflective Practice, Beth Fisher-YoshidaChapter 13: CMM and the Case of the Missing Body, Jane PetersonChapter 14: Bodymindfulness in Coordinating the Management of Meaning Across Cultures, Adair NagataChapter 15: Living Into Very Bad News: The Use of CMM as Spiritual Practice, Kim PearceChapter 16: Editors’ Closing Thoughts, Catherine Creede, Beth Fisher-Yoshida and Placida V. GallegosAbout the Contributors Index