Dialogue
A Way to Think and Talk Together That Allows Our Collective Common Sense, Wisdom, and Potential to Flourish
A Culture of Peace, as defined by the United Nations, is living with a set of values, attitudes, modes of behavior and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue and negotiation among individuals, groups and nations. To abolish war and violent conflicts we need to transcend and overcome differences with understanding, tolerance and solidarity among all peoples and cultures. Learning from our diversity, through dialogue and the exchange of information, is an enriching process.
Yet, the concept of dialogue remains elusive and our ability to conduct it with skill can be a challenge. To provide some insight into this often misunderstood but desperately needed talent this page explores some of the elements that comprise dialogue.
“Dialogue is a conversation in which people think together in relationship. Thinking together implies that you no longer take your own position as final. You relax your grip on certainty and listen to the possibilities that result simply from being in a relationship with others – possibilities that might not otherwise have occurred."Most of us believe at some level that we must fix things or change people in order to make them reachable. Dialogue does not call for such behavior. Rather, it asks us to listen for an already existing wholeness, and to create a new kind of association in which we listen deeply to all the views that people may express. It asks that we create a quality of listening and attention that can include — but is larger than — any single view.”
—William Isaacs, author of Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together
Duxx Graduate School of Business Leadership
“Synchronicity
is an external manifestation of an internal connectedness. It is a symptom
of perceptual change that is rooted in the deep relatedness of all life.
When we develop an awareness of the whole within which all parts and interrelationships
sit, synchronous events become commonplace occurrences. While synchronous
events are fascinating and useful, it is in the change in awareness, the
focus on relatedness and the whole system that produces them, that the
far-reaching value lies. Collaborative partnerships and shared leadership
depend on the development of this focus. Dialogue encourages this shift
of mind. In dialogue we listen for connections, for relationship. We release
the need for any particular outcome and ask questions that seek a new and
yet unseen level of understanding. We expand our listening to perceive
connections and wavelengths that we might have previously filtered out.
It is no surprise that our awareness of and availability to synchronicity
increases.”
authors of Dialogue: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation
“As
we enhance our respect for the sanctity of life and human dignity through
our daily behavior and steady efforts toward dialogue, the foundations
for a culture of peace will deepen and strengthen, allowing a new global
civilization to blossom. With women leading the way, when each and every
person is aware and committed, we will be able to prevent society from
relapsing into the culture of war, and foster and nurture energy toward
the creation of a century of peace.”
Write
us at imagine_peace@att.net.
