Guidelines for Dialogue

Be open and suspend judgment – don’t disparage other points of view.
Keep dialogue and decision-making separate - dialogue precedes decision-making, negotiation or action.
Speak for yourself, not as a representative, and treat all participants as peers.
Listen with empathy - acknowledge you have heard the other especially when you disagree.
Look for common ground – but also freely express differences in terms of ideas, not personality or motives.
Search for and disclose hidden assumptions in yourself and others.

Meeting Design and Facilitation

The Reid Group specializes in working with you to create the most effective design for your meeting needs, whether you are planning a organizational meeting, a community-wide forum on controversial issues or a national conference:

Company meeting design and facilitation
Designing and facilitating regional and national conferences
Facilitating conversations on important issues

We also offer skill-building workshops in a number of other areas that can enhance the effectiveness of your meetings:

Productive Conversations
Principles & Practices for Discussing the Heart of the Matter
Principles & Practices of Dialogue
Skills & Practices for Facilitating Conversations Across Divides

Contact us for a free, 30-minute consultation to discuss your pressing needs in the area of meeting design and facilitation, or send us our Hoped-for Outcome Sheet.