1. Print out this worksheet and distribute to your group members.
2. Read the scenario provided, and jot down notes if you feel it will help you share your ideas.

Once at the meeting, there are tactical and more emotional elements to consider.

Tactically:

• Ensure everyone has paper and pen to write down ideas as others are speaking.
• Clarify the rules beforehand, i.e., no interrupting.
• State the intention and purpose of the dialogue session.

On a more emotional level, participants in dialogue sessions:

• Initiate the dialogue with an empathetic mindset;
• Stay curious, don’t judge others’ ideas;
• Identify and clarify assumptions;
• Search for value in others’ positions;
• See new options;
• Work through the tension (which can be extreme);
• Work together toward common understanding;
• Reflect on others’ points of view;
• Come out of the session with a stronger understanding of and empathy for how other people view an issue, situation, etc.

The scenario

—Conduct a mini-workshop using the following hypothetical scenario or, using the following scenario as a guideline, substitute a real issue facing your group.

Your company is undergoing a major change, including new technology systems and more formalized departments, jobs and performance evaluation. These changes have some significant effects on how long-time employees do their work (and in some cases, what work they'll do). People in the organization have started to recognize factions growing: executives, supervisors, long-time employees and new employees. Negativity and back-stabbing have become increasingly common. The ‘cast of characters’ are:

• Margaret Edwards, a 26-year-old consultant with an Masters of Business Administration Degree (MBA), hired six months ago by the new CEO, directly out of graduate school, to help create more efficient systems and identify redundant jobs.

• Alex Deal, a 59-year-old Chief Executive Officer who was brought in one year ago by the much-loved company founder, Susan Bernard.

• Antonia LaPierri, the firm's 42-year-old office manager, who joined the firm ten years ago as Company Founder Susan Bernard's first employee.

• Robert Nolan, a 31-year-old marketing and office associate, hired two years ago to assist with a variety of administrative and technical projects.

—Assign a group member to play each role to get the conversation going. The other group members will participate as themselves. If you have fewer than four participants, select either Margaret or Alex and Antonia. If you have three participants, assign roles for Margaret, Alex and Antonia.

—"In character," engage in a discussion about the change issue underway at the company, using this comment to jumpstart the conversation:
Antonia LaPierri, our office administrator mentioned above, was asked by Alex, the CEO, to share this comment she heard from a company employee: "This would never happen if Susan were still running this place. That new CEO comes in here and has no respect for our history and even less for us employees. And then he hires that child, Margaret, who has absolutely no experience whatsoever, to ax jobs."

—How do you respond to this when you're "in character" as Margaret, Alex, Antonia and Robert, or speaking for yourself if you don't have one of these roles? Share your opinions about the change issue and the comment reference above.

—What are some of the major issues you believe exist around the employee's comment and the whole issue of the changes underway in the company.

—Ask each other questions about how the characters might feel in this situation, and how they personally feel about the issues raised in this example.

—What assumptions are made in the comment above, or others’ comments?

Post-Dialogue Debrief

• What opinions and beliefs did each of you voice during your discussion about this scenario?

• What judgments and assumptions are these opinions based on?

• Did the discussion cause you to see another opinion or way someone else might approach the issue?

• What have you learned about the judgments and assumptions that you hold about your own company, coworkers and job?

• What tools or approaches used by your group during the discussion worked well? What would you differently?

• How you transfer these skills to a staff meeting, and why would you want to transfer the skills? As a group, identify no fewer than five answers to each of these questions.

• If you can't come up with answers to the above, what opinions, roles, expectations and beliefs prevented you from "moving outside the box" of these opinions, beliefs, etc.?