CONCEPT
Circular Response
Follett's concept of interaction as continuous mutual modification — each participant simultaneously affecting and being affected by the other, with outcomes attributable to the process rather than to either party alone.
Mary Parker Follett's foundational concept for how genuine collaboration operates. Against the linear model in which A speaks, B listens, B responds, Follett insisted that human interaction in organizational settings is a continuous process of mutual modification. When A speaks, A is initiating a process that immediately changes both participants. B's response is not to A's statement but to the situation A's statement has created. A is further changed by observing B's response, which modifies A's understanding of what she said and meant. The interaction is circular, not linear. Each participant simultaneously affects and is affected by the other. The product — decision, insight, solution — is not attributable to either participant individually but to the circular response itself. AI collaboration exhibits precisely this structure, with its own specific failure mode: co-active delusion.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The circular response concept has implications for the AI moment that Follett could not have anticipated but that her framework is uniquely equipped to