Generative Dialogue

When groups are at an impasse, it is often because they have begun to define themselves by the “boundary profiles” that divide them: the habitual ways of thinking and communicating that keep them fragmented.

Men and women, black youth gangs and white police forces, labor and management, R&D and finance, corporate and community leaders, prison guards and inmates, doctors and nurses, rival corporate leaders, teachers and school administrators... All have good reason for mistrusting each other. But there are often times when both sides need each other in order to be effective. Dialogos principals and associates have had intensive experience with all these types of situations, and more, in reaching a generative solution that leaves each side “whole” in service of a larger purpose.

Papering over the differences in some superficial way does not work. It simply suppresses the tension into a veiled politeness that will break down at an inopportune moment. Consensus-building and even conflict management operate effectively, but only on a structural level: they do not address the thinking and emotion underlying the tension.

But in a long-term setting, it is possible to enlist groups in generative dialogue: the deliberate design of sessions that move from politeness to breakdown to mutual inquiry and creativity together. These processes involve working with both sides separately and then together, building awareness that distinguishes between:

• The unintended causes of conflict that will dissipate with greater awareness, and
• The significant impasses whose solutions require unprecedented thought and action to break through.