history

HISTORY DIALOOG AND DYNAMIC JUDGMENT-FORMATION

The Impulse
Lex Bos (1925-2006) received his doctorate from Wageningen University in 1974 for his thesis “Judgement forming in groups, polarity and rhythm as key to the development of social organisms”. In his thesis, he exposed a number of unprecedented and groundbreaking elements, unprecedented for the time, underlying the human judgment process. With his work, he breaks through the linear thinking on judgment (imaging => judgment => decision-making) that was leading at the time and sometimes still is today. Dealing with judgements was one of his life themes.
Many people fix themselves and the processes they find themselves in with others with quick judgements. By focusing on the individual and asking open questions – not common at the time – Bos knows how to get people and organizations moving. From complaining to asking. The lemniscate as a metaphor creates a clear and real picture of judgment processes. In this way, Bos creates the possibility of ‘working scientifically in such a way, in terms of content, method and objective, that a society appears with a human scale and a human face’ (Bos, A.H., Judgement-making in groups, 1974, p. 3).

The first years
A few years after the publication of the thesis, the first training sessions started. Niko Kollewijn played a central and inspiring role in this. At colleges of higher education, ministries and in the business world, judgement training was used, e.g. at Phillips, Douwe Egberts. In the then state-owned postal company, the PTT (now PostNL), Martin van den Broek was the first and central person as trainer. He received increasing requests from educators/trainers, to be trained in working with, and training Dynamic Judgement-formation (DJF). This led to the founding of the Dialoog Foundation, by Martin van den Broek, Maarten Klatte and Lex Bos in 1990.

Dialoog Foundation
The Dialoog Foundation was founded with the main objective of training people in the transfer of DJF. In addition, the foundation aims to further develop DJF over time, both in terms of model and methodology, as well as its application possibilities. In doing so, the Dialoog Foundation maintains an active network of people who apply DJF.

Growth and internationalization
In the 1990s, the number of trained professionals grew and with it, the number of companies and organizations dealing with DJF. More areas of application also appeared: mediation, individual coaching and team and organization development. Bos spoke at several international conferences, worked with companies and organizations abroad and gave a number of international master classes. In these, he discussed the latest developments and research findings in the field of Dynamic Judgement-formation. Over the years, various Publications (see publications) in the field of judgement forming have appeared both nationally and internationally.
Following the death of Lex Bos in 2006, all relevant international contacts came together and in 2007 this led to the establishment of: The International Association for Dynamic Judgement-formation.