“Dialogue…is an art and a discipline that deepens and grows more meaningful the more we engage init. Dialogue also gets better the more we try out different moves and experiment with a variety of ways to listen more fully, speak more fluently from the heart, communicate more coherently, affirm more generously and learn more lastingly from those around us.” (West-Burnham et al. 2007) 

Effective professional dialogue encompasses the following: 

• Good listening skills, 

• Having empathy and compassion, 

• Being open to question and challenge, 

• Respecting the integrity of all participants, 

• Being inclusive, 

• Understanding disagreements, 

• Testing alternative opinions, theories and hypotheses, 

• Developing contributions, 

• Employing analytical strategies, 

• Encouraging positive discussions, 

• Being willing to share information and knowledge, 

• Encouraging reflection, 

• Sharing problems, anxieties and doubts, 

• Showing appreciation, 

• Planning and reviewing, 

• Building trust, 

• Motivates, 

• Using regular feedback. 

Jane Ball asserts that Professional Dialogue provides an effective and at times profound way of talking and thinking together that gives groups of people access to the quality of engagement usually only achieved in one-to-one or small group conversations. 

Consider your leadership team: 

• How are disagreements handled and resolved?  

• Does one or a small number of participants dominate conversations?  

• How are decisions reached and changes made?  

• Does everyone contribute? 

• Do they focus on the problem, not the person? 

• Do they generate and debate various possible solutions? 

• Are there opportunities to share and disseminate research and evidence? 

• Is there purposeful collaboration? 

• Does respectful challenge occur? 

“Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don’t just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, and engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn’t just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards…It’s like a spark that two minds create.” (Zeldin, 1998) 

This blog was written by Bretta Townend-Jowitt, Education Consultant and Trainer.