Monday, April 29, 2019

Why You Should Engage In Dialogue Facilitation

By William Green


What does the word dialogue mean to you. No doubt that this is a much overused and hackneyed term. Whatever the case, it is usually being categorized along the same lien as communication and interaction. It entails listening, understanding, being open minded, withholding judgment, and focusing on interest rather than speeding up solutions. Needless to say, all of these seem like a pie in the sky thinking. In the end, it all boils down to the result rather than the ways and the means. Learn about dialogue facilitation.

There are many ways to define and delineate the term dialog. Whatever the exact wording, however, perhaps anyone can agree that it sounds friendlier than debate and more productive than discussion. There is something meaningful with this activity, or at least the potential to create meaning through a positive and constructive exchange. That makes dialogue something to achieve and yearn for with every team, group, and most remarkably, perhaps, with opposing parties.

To this end, it is also essential to highlight the differences between the 3Ds, discussion, debate, and dialogue. To start off, a discussion is really more on the presentation of ideas. Debating, on the other hand, entails a win or lose mentality. Theres a lot of stressful disagreements, with the parties involved defending their own respective opinions to the death. Especially in formal settings, the validity of feelings is questioned, looked down upon, and thereafter discounted. People listen with the objective of having something to counter afterward, and it involves the disregarding of relationships.

Lets juxtapose both with dialogue. Now, this one is more about broadening perspectives, and not limiting and delineating them. Of course, you may express some outstanding ambiguities, but it is with the intent of understanding others, rather than establishing your own superiority. The parties find common grounds of agreement and list with a view to understand and make a consensus. Its all about inviting inquiry and most especially, building relationships.

Although dialogue as a noun is pretty much elastic and general term, we have all used its implements sometime or other. That is because, with everything that involves conflict resolution and management, communication is a quintessential part of it. We have seen methods like mediation and negotiation used, and the thing is, they are actually an integral part of the communication equation.

Good facilitation skills are another nub for discussion. In constructive communication, one aims to comprehend the views and perspectives about the other party. They openly listen and dissect how their experiences shape their convictions. They will also need to keep an open mind, accepting the beliefs of others as valid and real.

Next, they should know how to formulate good questions. That will set the stage for the participants to open up and move towards each other. They should give prompts that would give way to discussions of everyones fears, needs, and interests. On a personal level, they must evince integrity. They must have an innate understanding of the group dynamics as well, and that involves zeroing down to the individual elements.

Although the importance of this exchange is pretty much established, it is also outfitted with a lot of technicalities, convolutions, and general nitty gritty. In that case, holding a successful exchange can be said to incorporate all the facts and figures of rocket science. The question on how to set up and prepare for a successful dialogue is always a moot point for those at the creating and receiving ends, both.

The constructive results of dialogue are quite easy to actuate with a little bit of tweaking. If only the remarks were substantive, with fewer people, with ample open spaces, more coffee brakes, the particularities go on and on. However, all these will be successfully toggled and juggled by a good facilitator, so you had better hand it to them.




About the Author:



0 comments :

Dí lo que piensas...

 
twitter facebook google plus linkedin rss feed email