Answers for questions to come: reflective dialogue as an enabler of strategic innovation

Purpose – To conceptualize and theorize dialogue's diagnostic as well as generative functions for strategic innovation and organizational change. Design/methodology/approach – Conceptual development with case illustration. Findings – Strategic innovation requires shifts in existing mental models of organizational actors that underlie the overall strategy paradigm of a firm. Dialogue as a form of reflective conversation enables actors to alter managers' mental models through conscious, critical exploration. Research limitations/implications – Conceptual framework introduces reflective dialogue, as a crucial processual element for encouraging shifts in mental maps and as a necessary, but not sufficient condition for strategy innovation; provides an analytical framework for enhancing understanding of the emergent processes of strategic innovation, and for studying shifts in organizational actors' mental models. Practical implications – Provides organizational change agents and strategists with perspectives and frameworks for appreciating and fostering reflective dialogue in the context of strategic thinking and innovation. Originality/value – Concept of reflective dialogue and associated frameworks link micro‐levels and macro‐levels of strategy innovation and address critical process elements.