The course Normative Situation made it possible for me to rethink familiar managerial and business situations and to view their parameters and dynamics in a fundamentally new way. I see particular value in the fact that the course moves beyond the mere balancing of interests and shifts the focus to a deep understanding of norms and the work of meaning-making.

The course provides a clear, structured model of the levels through which a normative situation is mastered, making it possible to diagnose what is taking place consciously and to choose an appropriate behavioural strategy.

I found it especially interesting to learn that the first two levels of mastery—the impulsive and the field-based—are destructive to the normative situation and should therefore be passed through as quickly as possible. In the course’s examination of the process by which a normative situation is transformed, it was shown why hidden interests, fear, and the drive for self-assertion are the very things that most often block transformation—and how one can work with these forces constructively rather than through coercion.

Finally, one of the particular jewels of the course is the integration of decision-making in the transformation process with Graham’s communication pyramid. To my mind, this is an exceptionally successful insight.

I checked the translated text for Russian-language artifacts. One accidental insertion remained in an earlier draft and has been removed in the final version above.