Pedagogy : How to develop dialogue competencies

Replies to This Conversation

Permalink Reply by Dennis Dougherty on November 21, 2009 at 10:22am

Hi Pierre and all...

This is the best online World Cafe Conversation I have experienced. A conversation chockfull of ideas. All that is needed is a graphic facilitator. This past week we had a World Cafe with sixty-six of our employees. Much of everyone's earlier reflections will help to improve our future World Cafe's.

Pierre… I like the concept of three stones. Participants would need to self-evaluate their contributions as it will cost them one of their stones.

I’ve experienced too many ‘dialogues’ ruled by too few. Adding to this decision to spend a stone or not, would allow silence, pause, and reflection. Often, ‘dialogues’ are more akin to light conversations and equivalent to the sound of rain tapping on a tin roof.

What can one walk away with these light hearted banters?

Minimally, conversations are acts of speaking and listening, of sending and receiving. It requires active participation from both sides of the equation; from the one speaking and from the one listening.
Words and silent non-critical listening are the common currencies of conversations. Both forms of participation need to be “active” and “purposeful”.

I forget who… but I read that a talking stick can be used to bring silence into the conversation. A participant holds the talking stick and says nothing. This allows for silence and reflection around the table.

An active, under emphasized and essential element of dialogue is listening. As a symbol… the three stones would help balance sound and silence.

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Permalink Reply by Ria Baeck on November 22, 2009 at 1:04am

In the practice of circle (council) there are always little bells in the middle of the space, which can be rung by anyone who wants silence. It is one of the agreements of the circle, as long as the bell is rung, everyone keeps silent, the one who hit the bells will ring it a second time when the space is open again to speak.
More to read on Circle practice is the book by Christina Baldwin: Calling the Circle.

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Permalink Reply by Gayle Yamauchi-Gleason on November 3, 2009 at 9:09am

Dear Pierre-

Sorry to get in on this conversation so late, but I'd like to share a chapter I wrote on a listening practice called "Constructivist Listening" that I use in all workshops and graduate level classes that I teach. It can help to set the stage for the type of deep listening that is one of the goals of the world cafe process.

This chapter is being published this month (I believe) in a source book for Best Practices in Service Learning & Experiential Education (Kendall-Hunt), but I also use this in one day workshops with schools, businesses and non-profits, in the various ways outlined in the article. (If you read the last section of the chapter, "reflections," you'll read several excerpts from students learning the practice, and one mentioned the world cafe we had in class one month). We're also hoping to make the article available on the World Cafe site as a free download for others to use in conjunction with the world cafe process.

Let me know if you have an questions. Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Gayle

Attachments:

• Yamauchi-Gleason(2009)ConstructivistListenvCopyright:Forthcoming.pdf, 158 KB

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