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Unlock Your Dialogue Skills

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By Karmen Š

Do you want to … Talk to your friends and colleagues with openness and curiosity? ... Understand other people better? ... Get to know your neighbours better or do a project with them? ... Get along with your partner on a joint vacation? ... Have a pleasant time when your children and grandchildren visit you? ... Or you want to be able to take part and contribute at local community events?

We warmly invite you into the world of conversation!

Dialogue brings us closer together and helps us to learn from each other, get to know each other and better understand each other’s needs. Dialogue is not always easy, nor does it always come naturally to us.

We encourage you to practise and not give up even if things don’t go perfectly.

The journey to dialogue is good to start by looking at some terms and concepts. When we understand what dialogue is about, we can avoid conflict and promote communication. Partners in project DIAL (Dialogue in Adult Education) believe that:

Dialogue is a genuine exchange of our views and experiences that can generate new insights and help us see different perspectives. By listening to each other we deepen our understanding and connection with one another. After taking part in a dialogue we might find ourselves change and grow. In a good dialogue we feel good, it creates bridges and makes cooperation easier.

The main principles of a dialogue important to observe are the following:

  • Anyone can participate and share their story equally
  • We approach dialogue with curiosity and openness to others.
  • There are no right or wrong answers
  • We are respectful towards each other
  • Everyone has a part in creating a safe and confidential atmosphere

Dialogue is built on four basic skills. These skills are:

  1. self-reflection
  2. listening
  3. talking
  4. suspending your reactions

Have you ever had a conversation that went really well? Can you think about things that made it so good? Was it the information you shared or the way you felt during your conversation? What do you think makes a good dialogue?

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P.S. The importance of dialogue extends of course beyond the personal to the workplace and our democracies. This is why it's vital to spread it as widely as possible. Feel free to download Dialogue for all: A Short Guide to Unlocking Your Dialogue Skills.


This blog is based on Dialogue for all: A Short Guide to Unlocking Your Dialogue Skills. Authors of the text and guide: Aleksandra Czetwertyńska, Katarzyna Werner, Marion Fields, Milla Holmberg, Karmen Šemrl, Bernarda Potočnik, Ioannis Dontas, Manolis Chrysostalis, Andrea Zalabaiova, Giuliana Pitino.

Comments

  1. Karmen ŠMarch 6, 2024 at 4:30 PM

    For me personaly suspending the reactions is themost difficult part

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bernarda, SloveniaMarch 10, 2024 at 5:32 PM

    Creating an opinion is fuelled by emotions which makes it so difficult for us to stay calm, especially when we disagree with somebody. So, I guess suspending our reactions is not so much a matter of what we think about something, as it is a matter of how we feel about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. IoannisMarch 14, 2024 at 2:49 PM

    I personally focus on the element of respect. We should show respect to the others in order to receive respect from them. The element of respect includes listening to the others, talking in a good manner to the others, suspending reactions so not to offense the others and, of course, self-reflection before talking in order to maintain the quality of the dialogue. So, it is actually a dominant element. Don't you agree?
    But, what happens in reality?
    In reality, we generally demand respect but not offering it at the same time. Simply because we have turned to demanding beings and not offering ones. For everything. We keep being driven by our XL-sized ego of ours and this does not let us be humble and respectful...
    Rule-based dialogue can be proven to an excellent tool to exercise ourselves in minimizing this unruly ego of ours; to self-improve. We should try it, every day. In the morning, at noon and in the evening. Like an antibiotic! :)

    ReplyDelete

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