Business Team Meeting Discussion Analysing Concept

Ideally, before engaging in dialogue, groups should learn basic dialogue principles and decide upon ground rules specific to their situation. However, the sequence below has been tested in many varying settings and is a helpful start. In addition to this sequence, please review these sample ground rules.

Sequence:

  1. Create a safe container or sacred space for dialogue. This can be accomplished by starting with a moment of silence, affirmation, or something similar
  2. Set guidelines for dialogue – see sample guidelines elsewhere on this site
  3. Offer the question or issue for exploration – i.e., the “theme” of the dialogue session
  4. Share stories related to the question, issue or theme
  5. Listen as colleagues or honor the person who is speaking
  6. Close the dialogue. Explicitly state or mark the close of the dialogue session, shifting to discussion mode
  7. Debrief the learning. (dialogue process, content, and take aways/next steps)
  8. (Optional) Transition. To regular meeting discussion or other processes