Resources for a Conversation:
GENERATIVE CONVERSATION/DIALOGUE

Instead of pouring knowledge into people's heads, we need to help them grind a new set of glasses, so they can see the world in a new way. That involves challenging the implicit assumptions that have shaped the way people historically looked at things.
John Seeley Brown
Palo Alto Research Center

Qualities of Generative, Transformative Conversation
  • There is mutual respect between persons
  • There is time to really talk...
  • People listen even when there are differences
  • People are accepted and not judged by the others
  • The conversations strengthened our relationships.
  • People explore questions that matter
  • Shared meaning is developed that wasn't there when the
    conversations began
  • People learn something important
  • Mutual commitment is strengthened
  • The conversation enables the group to determine who cares
    about what and who will be accountable.
  • The conversation catalyzes action.


Develop Questions that Matter

  • Strategic questions create dissonance between current experience and beliefs.
  • They evoke new possibilities for collective discovery.
  • They are clear, bold, and penetrating.
  • Questions serve as glue that holds together overlapping webs of conversations. Through probing questions diverse thoughts combine and recombine to create innovative solutions.

WE CANNOT EXPERIENCE GENERATIVE, TRANSFORMATIVE CONVERSATIONS UNLESS WE ARE ATTENTIVE TO OUR INNER WORK.

  • We are to be aware of our feelings as new or hard questions are raised.
  • We are to know which feelings arise from our own history.
  • We are to own our feelings and take responsibility for them.
  • We are to explore issues despite our feelings.
  • We are to take care of ourselves.
  • We are to be open to exploring alternatives as we are honest about our feelings.

Dialogue: The picture or image that this suggests is of a stream of meaning flowing among us and through us and between us. This will make possible a flow of meaning in the whole group, out of which will emerge some new understanding.
David Bohm


To Make Dialogue Possible

  • Cultivate curiosity.
  • Be aware of your defensiveness. Remember that defensiveness is normal as a first response, but we don't need to stay there.
  • Acknowledge defensiveness.
  • Explore the assumptions beyond your defensiveness.
  • Be as open as possible to other assumptions or points of view.
  • Keep focused on the reason for the conversation.
  • The LSI can be a valuable tool.


Materials prepared by Sr. Nancy Westmeyer, a Franciscan from Tiffin Ohio, who is skilled in helping parish based groups have conversations. Contact her at nancyw@totalink.net


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