Typical Scenarios
In this section, you will find different scenarios or challenges faced by practitioners and decision-makers who wish to use dialogue in order to make better decisions or to resolve problems that arise in different contexts where collaboration is required.
If you do not find a scenario that lies close to the challenge you are facing, please let us know. In that way, we can try to expand this section with scenarios that may help others. You may even have seen examples of how typical challenges have been resolved in a skilful way and wish to share these. Please take the time to share these with us. Here is a link to a contact page (it will open in a new tab)
PERSONAL LEVEL
Prepare yourself for a difficult conversation
Summary This scenario is a suggestion as to how you could prepare yourself for conversations where the person you are speaking to may be antagonistic, critical or aggressive.
INTERPERSONAL LEVEL
Scenario – A Tense Encounter
This scenario deals with the challenge of having a difficult conversation with another person. It is in the form of a story. It covers some important points regarding preparation and then suggests issues such as communication, creating space for others and for oneself, the skills of labelling, mirroring and asking the right questions, and finally the method of including the “no” in decisions. This scenario emphasises the meta-skils of empathy, presence and non-judgement and illustrates the dialogic framework.
GROUP LEVEL
Setting clear meeting objectives
How do you create clarity regarding meeting content, purpose and limitations from the start?
SOCIETY LEVEL
Negotiating conditions for dialogue
How can you get parties into the room in the first place and how do you enable them to attend without feeling threatened?
Design to create trust
How do you design dialogue that will contribute to increased trust between the different actors regardless of their power and prior history?