Dialogue is a unique group communication process in that it is slower than normal, and all ideas are equal in status. All members are encouraged to express themselves, as the spirit moves them. Listening supplants winning the battle of who knows more and is “right”. Ideas unfold as each person adds to the conversation. We explore assumptions made. We suspend judgment, we allow creative ideas to unfold among us. In listening, we try to stand in the speakers mocassins. We speak when it is the right time.
My book, A Tao of Dialogue: A Manual of Dialogic Communication, is how to do it. We might say it is the way to do it. The Tao is ‘the way’, literally. The book is dialogic, for it contains pieces by my mentors, Ellinor and Gerard, and by our guide, David Bohm. It also has contributions from my dialogue colleagues with whom I studied, AnnaMay Simms, Glenna Gerard, Linda Ellinor, Michael Baroff, and Marcus Hauser.
Here is the link to Dialogue .