Perspectives on Dialogue: Making Talk Developmental for Individuals and Organizations

Examples of How Dialogue Can Be Incorporated into Work Processes

It is doubtful that, in most organizations, dialogue could immediately be part of the regularly scheduled Monday morning staff meeting. The norms for how people relate to each other, what they can and cannot say, who they are supposed to be, may be too strong to overcome. The problem, of course, is that it is difficult to put aside the power and mistrust that keeps people from engaging in dialogue in the first place. If everything but the talk stays the same—that is, who makes the decisions, who sets the limits, who has special access to knowledge—then how can people relate in a different way? It is, I think, too much to expect people to position dialogue on top of the existing ...