7. Dialogue conversation
Dialogue conversations can be used in all phases of the U-process, yet the most common use is during the preparation phase.
At a Glance:
Dialogue conversations engage the interviewee in a reflective and generative conversation. This tool can be used to prepare for projects, workshops, or capacity building programs. Dialogue conversations:
Provide insights into questions and challenges that the participant face;
May help you to find partners for a project,
Prepare participants for to an upcoming event;
Begin to build a generative field for the initiative you want to co-create.
Purpose:
To initiate a generative dialogue that allows for reflection, thinking together and some sparks of collective creativity to happen.
Uses & Outcome:
Dialogue conversations are used to prepare for projects, workshops, capacity building programs or change initiatives in the following ways:
Provide data on the participants’ current challenges, questions, and expectations or on the organizational current challenges.
Create increased awareness among participants or within an organization about the upcoming process and how it might serve their needs and intentions.
Increase the level of trust between facilitators and participants that helps to create a generative field of connections.
Set Up:
People and Place
- Dialogue conversations work best face-to-face. If not possible, use phone interviews.
Time (Figures are estimates and need to be adjusted to the specific context.)
30-60 minutes for a phone conversation.
30-90 minutes for a face-to-face conversation.
Materials
Use the conversation guideline (questionnaire), but feel free to deviate when necessary.
Use a paper and pen to take notes. Sometimes use a tape recorder.
Process:
Step 1
Preparation
Define/revise questions to adjust to the specific context and purpose.
Schedule the conversation. If the participant will be conducted face-to-face, find a quiet space.
Get information about the participant and her or his organization.
If several participants conduct the conversation agree on roles (primary interviewer, note taking).
Step 2
Before you meet the participant allow for some quiet preparation or silence. For example, 15-30 minutes prior to a face-to-face conversation begin to anticipate the dialogue with an open mind and heart
Step 3
Begin the conversation. Use the dialogue questionnaire on next page as a guide, but depart from it to allow the conversation to develop its own direction.
Sample questionnaire:
Describe the leadership journey that brought you here.
When have you faced significant new challenges, and what helped you cope with them?
Describe your best team experiences. How do they differ from your other team experiences?
What top three challenges do you currently face?
Who are your most important stakeholders?
On the basis of what outcomes will your performance be considered a success or a failure - and by when?
In order to be successful in your current leadership role, what do you need to let go of and what do you need to learn? What capabilities do you need to develop?
How will you develop your team? What do you need from your team, and what does your team need from you?
Nine to twelve months from now, what criteria will you use to assess whether you were successful?
Step 4
Reflection on the dialogue. Reflect on your conversation and listen to yourself: what important questions come up for you now that you take out of this conversation and into your forward journey? Take some time immediately after the interview to review:
What struck me most? What surprised me?
What touched me?
Is there anything I need to follow-up on?
After all dialogues have been completed, review the data, and summarize results.
Step 5
Close feedback loop: After each dialogue (by the following morning) send a thank-you note to your interviewee.
Principles:
Create transparency and trust about the purpose and the process of the dialogue.
Practice deep listening.
Suspend your “Voice of Judgment”: look at the situation through the eyes of the participant, don’t judge.
Access you ignorance: As the conversation unfolds, pay attention to and trust the questions that occur to you.
Access your appreciative listening: Thoroughly appreciate and enjoy the story that you hear unfolding. Put yourself in your interviewee’s shoes.
Access your generative listening: Try to focus on the best future possibility for your participant and the situation at hand.
Go with the flow: Don’t interrupt. Ask questions spontaneously. Always feel free to deviate from your questionnaire if important questions occur to you.
Leverage the power of presence and silence: One of the most effective “interventions” as an interviewer is to be fully present with the interviewee—and not to interrupt a brief moment of silence.
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Sequence
1. Preparation :
Define/revise questions to adjust to the specific context and purpose.
Schedule conversations.
If the dialogue will be conducted face-to-face, find a quiet space.
Get information about the participant and her or his organization.
If several participant conduct the conversation agree on roles (primary participant , note taking).
2. Before you meet the participant
Allow for some quiet preparation or silence. For example, 15-30 minutes prior to a face-to-face interview begin to anticipate the conversation with an open mind and heart
3. Begin the conversation.
Use the interview questionnaire on next page as a guide, but depart from it to allow the conversation to develop its own direction.
4. Reflection on the conversation.
Take some time immediately after the dialogue to review:
4.1. What struck me most? What surprised me?
5.2. What touched me?
5.3. Is there anything I need to follow-up on?