Re: Dialogue processes LO1815

jack w. patterson (vjwpa@calgary.chevron.com)
Tue, 27 Jun 95 13:44:00 MDT

Replying to LO1776 --

>Don Christensen writes ...
>
> I live in an organization which has yet to accept -- much less understand
> -- dialogue as distinct from discussin or any form of collective vocal
> combat. Any suggestions beyond Senge's material and the materials from
> IA? TNX
>

I just finished a facilitating a "situational analysis" workshop for a
small family owned business that is building a business plan. They had
never used facilitators in the past and had never followed any kind of
process for dialoguing.

I introduced the use of a variety of "nerf" and "koosh" balls to gain
input from all participants. The participants had a lot of fun, listened
to each other and gained tremendous insight. No one (me included) new
that we were developing dialogue.

The exercise was that the person holding the ball talked and then tossed
the ball to someone else to talk. The results were incredible. Next step
is to remove the ball.

--
Jack Patterson
vjwpa@calgary.chevron.com