We have provided a small sample of graphical patterns of typically hidden interactions CA has diagnosed from research across an array of organizational settings.

Understanding these patterns, their unintended consequences and the business costs they produce, reinforces the need for individual and organizational change and how to more effectively produce it. CA maps have five primary components:

1. a statement of the desired outcome,
2. a statement of initial conditions from which the patterns emerges,
3. a description of the recurring actions or inactions taken,
4. a description of the results of the action/inaction as experienced by individuals and
5. a description of the overall effect on the desired outcome or the organization.

To Speak or Withhold: This map describes the underlying patterns that contribute to individuals' withholding their difficult to discuss thoughts about critical issues When individuals withhold critical information, make intuitive judgments about others or rely on their own assumptions based on their experiences instead of seeking to make the thought or feeling discussable, the risk of being inaccurate and ineffective is high.

Different Dictionaries: This pattern manifests itself repeatedly across organizations, levels or roles. In instances where the intended meaning of a verbal or written communication was missed, checking on the definition of a word or words can make all the difference. These variations in meaning may be extreme or slight and may be produced by cultural, gender, social and/or personalized nuances in meaning that have evolved tacitly over time in our individual vocabularies. Frequently, individuals believe that the meaning of their words is intuitively obvious to others and knowingly or unknowingly base their judgments of self and others according to those "obvious" meanings.

As you look at Different Dictionaries, you might want to think about specific language and how the pattern applies in your organization. For example, what does "as soon as possible" mean to you? What could it mean to others?

CA provides the conceptual knowledge and tools that will allow individuals to quickly learn how to check for Different Dictionary issues and recognize this possibility are able to minimize the potentially damaging unintended consequences that occur when this pattern is unchecked.