Guidelines for Doing Dialogue

 

1. Dialogue is time bounded. Each dialogue is done for a specific, decided upon time.

 

2. Dialogue regards the equivalence of all people who sit in a circle, where no one person holds a position of power. People temporarily agree to give up their "titles", and to act as colleagues during the dialogue process.

 

3. People agree to suspend judgment (of what others say, even of what they themselves might say).

 

4. People agree to give up advice giving and problem solving, and concentrate only upon that which is being shared in the present.

 

5. There is one person who acts as a facilitator, (from the Latin, facile, to do or make easy) who keeps the group within the guidelines.

 

6. People practice generative listening, rather than listening to answer questions or make judgements.