Brought to you by Jeff Thoren, DVM, ACC  

Open, frequent and constructive communication is one of the keys to sustainable success. Yet most organizational communication is broken. It tends to be more one-way than interactive; more talking than listening; more advocacy and less inquiry; little room for integrating opposing points of view.

Organizations are networks of relationships – and breakdowns in interpersonal interactions and communications are a frequent occurrence. This month, we’ll explore how to address this dilemma and how the behaviors associated with the practice of dialogue are powerful tools for developing the capacity for deep, authentic conversation.

Here’s this month’s feature ...

Sustainable Transformation through Dialogue by Deepika Nath

From The Linkage Leader – Linkage, Inc., 2009

Highlights from the article:

• Dialogue is a conversation between equals. It is more than one person’s understanding; it makes the implicit explicit – whether assumptions, values or intentions that control and drive behavior; and builds collective meaning and community. Dialogue is inherently relational and collaborative.
   

• Dialogue is a framework where participants speak simply, authentically and from the heart, and listen openly, attentively and with respect. Four key behaviors are involved:

1. Voicing requires the courage to speak your ideas and the courage to hold a silence – to know what is really worthy of being spoken. The key questions: “What needs to be said” and “Who will speak for me if I don’t speak for myself”.

2. Listening is attending to the spoken and unspoken aspects of the conversation, the tone, the reactions and feelings – listening with “more than our ears”. It requires letting go of resistance, and silencing the inner chatter of the mind.

3. Respecting is the willingness and ability to honor the other(s), and respecting differences without needing to fix them or bring them to resolution. It requires deep inquiry to understand the other’s intention.

4. Suspending one’s judgment is not to defend or advocate for one’s position but to keep an open mind and inquire into the position of another – the experiences, assumptions and beliefs that contribute to this position. Suspending judgment leads to trust and safety, allowing open, honest and authentic communication.

• Introducing dialogue into your team or business can be as simple as:

-  Ensuring that each person in turn has a chance to (without interruption) voice “what needs to be said” from their perspective.
-  Allowing for some silence for reflection between speakers.
-  Being honest and authentic when speaking.
-  Being deeply present and attentive when listening.
-  Being succinct while still allowing for spontaneous expression.

• High performing teams are characterized by strong communication and a commitment to the success and growth of the team members. Dialogue enables the creation of a safe and trusting culture within the team where there is a genuine effort to listen to dissenting points of view without reacting and to engage in a process of inquiry to understand the basis for differences in perspective. This results in shared learning and growth.
   

• As the business environment becomes more complex, a single individual simply does not have all the requisite knowledge to succeed. By necessity there must be reliance on collective intelligence. Through conversation, people are able to create, refine and share their knowledge. Dialogue provides a mind-set for real conversations and also contributes to creating an environment of safe risk taking and learning.

  
For the full text article, go to ...
http://www.linkageinc.com/thinking/linkageleader/Documents/
Deepika_Nath_Sustainable_Transformation_Through_Dialogue.pdf

   
Getting Reality on the Table

Who owns the truth about what’s “real” in a company or business? The answer? Every single person in the company, including entry level employees, owns a piece of the truth about what’s really going on. The operative word is piece. No one, not even the business owner, owns the entire truth, because no one can be in all places at all times.

One of the goals of dialogue is to get everyone’s reality out on the table, so it can be considered. Everyones! Until the multiple - sometimes conflicting - realities of key individuals and constituents have been explored, implementing a plan can be a decidedly tentative endeavor.

To the degree that you resist or disallow the exploration of differing realities in your workplace and at home, you will spend time, money, energy, and emotion cleaning up the aftermath of plans quietly but effectively torpedoed by individuals who resent the fact that their experience, opinions, and strongly held beliefs are apparently of little interest to those “in power.”

Here is a three step process to insure that you are considering multiple perspectives:

1. Make a proposal. Identify the issue on the table and, if you have a solution in mind, make a proposal. Say, “This is the issue and this is what it looks like from where I stand, and this is what I propose we do about it.”

2. Check for understanding. Invite questions. Say, “before we go any further, please ask any clarifying questions you may have.” If you notice someone who is silent but looks puzzled or concerned, draw them into the conversation.

3. Check for agreement. Openly and actively encourage people to share opposing views and resist the temptation to defend your idea immediately. Say something like, “I believe this is the right way to go, the right course of action. But I suspect some of you may see it differently. If you do, I’d like to hear it. I know that my enthusiasm may make it hard to challenge me, but my job is to make the best possible decision for the business, not to persuade you to my viewpoint. So please speak up.” Then ask each person to share their thoughts.

What’s the payoff for examining multiple realities? People learn to think. When reality is thoroughly examined, participants often walk out of the meeting with ideas that no single individual had walking in.

Source: Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott

 
Next Month

Almost everywhere we turn, trust is on the decline. Trust in our culture at large, in our institutions, and in our companies is significantly lower than a generation ago. “Trust makes the world go ‘round,” and right now we’re experiencing a crisis of trust. So just how do leaders go about building organizational trust?

To receive this FREE monthly e-Newsletter via e-mail go to our e-Newsletter Sign-Up Page.  Please feel free to pass the e-newsletter along to your colleagues, friends and family.