DIALOGUE PRINCIPLES & PRACTICES
Dialogue is not conversation,
discussion or debate.
CONVERSATION is casual and on the
surface. “How is
the weather?” “What new books have you
read or movies have you seen?”
DISCUSSION is a volleying of ideas
back and forth, typically when people
are more busy or interested in what
they are going to say next rather than
truly listening to each other.
DEBATE
has a winner and loser and sides that
are deemed to be either right or
wrong.
In
DIALOGUE we are all winners.
DIALOGUE is:
-
-Listening to learn about the other
by creating an open space within
yourself.
-
-Speaking authentically and
exploring another by suing “I”
statements.
-
-Doing your best to suspend and
catch your own reactions,
assumptions, beliefs or judgments in
order to learn about someone else.
You still have them, of
course, but you are now opening
yourself to new ideas and concepts.
-
-You
are not necessarily changing your or
another’s mind but committing to
helping everyone be heard.
CIRCLE
GUIDELINES
A
circle is not just a meeting with the
chairs rearranged.
To come into a circle is to remove
oneself from the middle and to place
something else there around which we
and those who are in circle with us
can gather. Every
circle from the first campfire to the
United Nations asks for the
commitment to create a center that
symbolizes the group’s highest purpose
and then sit at the rim.
The
following guidelines will help a
circle function more successfully:
-
Consider the center a sacred space
-
Open and close
hearing each voice (Check-in &
Check-out)
-
Listen with Attention and
Discernment without judgment
-
Only one person speaks at a time
-
Speak with
Intention
-
Offer experience instead of advice
-
Decide together how decisions will
be made
-
Work toward consensus when possible
-
Decide
together what is to be held in
confidence
Seeding
CIRCLES