Rick,
I did some work for an industry group to work on the question, "How can we
start to hold an effective conversation with leading environmental
groups?" Their intent, as I heard it, was not to persuade or manipulate,
but to find ways to decrease posturing on both sides and increase
dialogue.
I agree with your assessment that "Forward thinking executives and
companies... are thinking about how to improve the quality of dialog with
the public" and was excited to participate. I also recognized the systemic
constraints that a need for funding creates (by creating pressure for each
side to take more extreme positions).
With this group, I started by taking a look at their published papers to
help them recognize how what they say is being heard by their various
constituents as a result of the presuppositions revealed in their use of
language. I did this not to encourage them to modify their language to
match their constituents' thinking, but to reveal their own mental models
(or whatever we want to call it), so that they would understand how their
models might affect the dynamics of the conversation. It was sort of a
reality check - do you really want to hold a dialogue? What does your
language say about your intention? It was a revealing and challenging
process for them.
I also proposed a model to raise the logical level of the conversation to
a point at which the concrete disagreement could be framed in terms of the
intent of each position (this is a fairly standard approach to conflict
resolution).
While these were fine starting points for preparing one side of the
conversation, obviously I was not working with the public side, and the
project went nowhere.
I did all of this work a few years before learning about either Bill
Isaacs' work in dialogue or The Natural Step, both of which I think would
have enriched my framework greatly. I am very interested in learning more
about The Natural Step and thinking about how it can be applied to this
kind of situation. I hope this thread evolves.
-- Marilyn Darling Signet Consulting Group mdarling@warren.med.harvard.edu