Genuine dialogue

May 29, 2014 Editorial

Dialogue is both a kind of conversation and a way of relating. It is a communication process in which participants may say or hear something they never said or heard before, and from which they may emerge irrevocably changed. The approach emphasises listening, learning, and the development of shared understandings. Dialogue differs from other central modes of communication, including mediation, negotiation, discussion and debate. In discussion, for example, parties try to persuade each other of the accuracy of a particular point of view.
The goal is to bat ideas back and forth, evaluate multiple perspectives, and select the best one. Parties try to justify and defend their assumptions and convince one another that theirs is the right opinion. In discussion, disputants have a tendency to become defensive and reactive.
Dialogue, on the other hand, seeks to inform and learn rather than to persuade. It is a conversation “animated by a search for understanding rather than for agreements or solutions.”
One is concerned not only about oneself and one’s own position, but also about the other party and the position that that party advances. Participants focus on their relationship and the joint process of making sense of each other, rather than winning or losing.
Dialogue has no fixed goal or predetermined agenda. The emphasis is not on resolving disputes, but rather on improving the way in which people with significant differences relate to each other.
The broad aim is to promote respectful inquiry, and to stimulate a new sort of conversation that allows important issues to surface freely. While opponents in deep-rooted conflict are unlikely to agree with each other’s views, they can come to understand each other’s perspectives.
The following conditions help to ensure productive dialogue:
People speak openly, and listen respectfully and attentively. Derogatory attributions, attacks and defensiveness have no role in dialogue. Participants do not make assumptions about the motives or character of others. Questions are sincere, and driven by curiosity.
When people enter into conversations with others, they bring with them basic assumptions about the meaning of life, their country’s interest, how society works, and what is most valuable. Most of these basic assumptions come from society and are rooted in culture, race, religion, and economic background.
As a result, people coming from different backgrounds have different basic assumptions and values, and these clashing views and perspectives often lead to conflict.
Dialogue attempts to expose these assumptions and the thought processes that lie behind them. It calls on participants to pay attention to their thinking, feelings, assumptions, and patterns of communication.
Their patterns of thought include feelings, desires, and ways of interpreting information. Individuals typically have a sense that their way of interpreting the world is the only way that it can be interpreted. They are not immediately aware of the degree to which their conception of reality is biased and influenced by their personal needs and fears.
In dialogue, participants explore the presuppositions, beliefs, and feelings that shape their interactions; they discover how hidden values and intentions control people’s behaviour and contribute to communication successes and failures.
However, this can happen only if people are able to listen to each other without prejudice and without trying to influence one another. Because its broad goal is to increase understanding about parties’ concerns, fears, and needs, dialogue centres on inquiry and reflection. Participants refrain from assuming that they already know the thoughts, feelings, and intentions of the other.
Instead, they assume that the other is speaking honestly from experience and listen closely.
This process of deep listening and reflection typically means that to be fully open to new ideas, participants must be ready to abandon their old ideas in the face of new and better ones.
They must be willing to change their minds and emerge from the dialogue as altered people. If they instead strive to convey their own points of view and defend their positions, genuine dialogue will not be possible.
We, in Guyana, particularly our decision-makers, seem oblivious to this fact.

Latest News

Genuine dialogue

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Shadman hits fifty, WI drop three catches on truncated day

Jai Signs on board with Kashif and Shanghai...

Marian Academy and Waramuri Primary set for...

Kharag family to sponsor feature event at Kennard...

Showstoppers, Pouderoyen, Brothers and Team...

Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey Championship...

Features/Columnists

The PPPC does not practice political inclusion

Haiti: Tragically Descending into Deeper Crisis

What’s going on with this $100,000 cash grant?

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Genuine dialogue

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]