Some theories about dialogue for a module on workshop facilitation in MSc Agile Software Development

1. Dialogue

2. DEVELOPMENTAL LEVELS
Theory of Developmental Levels (Herb Shepard 1965)
Primary Mentality
 A zero-sum game between individual and group
 If an individual co-operates, the group gains
 But the individual loses out
Secondary Mentality

The co-operative group gains more viewpoints

And strengthens each person’s individuality

3. CONSENSUS
Facilitated workshops usually aim for
consensus
Consensus is defined as:
 General agreement
 Absence of sustained opposition
 Taking account of all parties’ views
 Reconciling any conflicting arguments
www.bsigroup.com/en/Standards-and-Publications/About-standards/Glossary/
Attempts to gain consensus can degenerate
into forcing people to say that they agree

4. DIALOGUE IS MORE AMBITIOUS
 Negotiation aims to arrive at an agreement
between parties that differ
 Collaboration aims to share decision-making
 Consensus aims to reconcile conflicting views
 Dialogue aims to find a new understanding,
leading to new ways to think and act
that, in turn, lead to other new ideas

5. WHAT IS DIALOGUE?
 DIA = through
 LOGOS = word / meaning / gather together > relationship
 DIALOGUE = flow of meaning through relationships
 TQM seeks to solve the problem of errors,
not by correcting errors after they occur, but
by changing processes so errors don’t occur in first place
 Dialogue seeks to solve the problem of fragmentation
not by rearranging the components of conversation, but
by uncovering and changing the underlying structures
that cause fragmentation in the first place

6. EARLY (first?) USE OF DIALOGUE
To improve conversations among physicists
David Bohm (1965) advocated:
 Groups of 20–40 people meet in a circle
(enough people to avoid any family dynamic)
 For several hours each day, over several days
 No agenda
 Try to suspend preconceptions and prejudices
 Look at process, at how thoughts have moved

7. EARLY (first?) USE OF DIALOGUE
David Bohm describes Dialogue as:
 1st person speaks
 2nd person hears similar meaning (not the same)
 As 2nd person replies, 1st person sees a difference
between what he meant to say and what 2nd person heard
 This difference suggests something new
 As dialogue continues, new content emerges
 So they are creating something in common, new

8. BOHM’S PHILOSOPHY
Bohm on Physics
Reality involves unbroken wholeness in flowing movement
Bohm on Dialogue
Thought is a collective enterprise arising from how we discourse
Conditions for effective dialogue
 All participants must "suspend" their assumptions,
literally, to hold them "as if suspended before us";
 All participants must regard one another as colleagues;
 There must be a facilitator who holds the context of dialogue

9. MEETINGS ARE LONELY PLACES
Most of the time, we think alone:
 We defend our position
 We look for evidence to prove that
we are right and others are wrong
 We avoid being vulnerable to other opinions
 We withhold information
 We feel hurt or betrayed
 We lose respect for the other side

10. HISTORY
Cultures that used dialogue survived for a long time:
e.g. Native Americans, Ancient Greeks, Maoris
So, is dialogue something we already know?
or is it something we have forgotten?

11. CLAIMS for DIALOGUE
When F W de Klerk visited Nelson Mandela in prison,
they devised a new context for South Africa
John Hume & Jerry Adams talked privately
about how to stop violence in N. Ireland
In both cases, dogmatists went to great lengths to prevent these conversations. .
Isobel thinks the magic here was that the conversations were out of the public eye.
A new “mind” emerges, if:
Participants believe that maintaining good feelings
within the group is more important than holding to
their fixed position

12. HARGROVE
A dialogue is a conversation where:
There is a free flow of meaning … and
Diverse views & perspectives are encouraged
People desire to learn from different colleagues
Collaboration is based on inspiring visions
It is deeply purposeful,
focused on practical accomplishments
that are carried out in conversations

13. FACTS model