Step 3:
Prepare your first dialogue
If you are planning to organize dialogues, it is good to start by doing one within your team. To start, establish a plan for the dialogue – please find our proposal below.
Once you have delivered the first event, conduct an evaluation – discuss what worked well and what requires modification. By taking part in a dialogue yourself, you will better understand what it is and how it works for your future participants. Organizing the first dialogue for your team, group of invited participants, or local community requires some preparation.
Here are a few steps to consider:
Define the purpose: Within your team clearly define why you are organizing this dialogue and what goals you want to achieve.
Choose a topic: Select a topic that is relevant to the participants and that you want to address during the dialogue. Ensure that the topic is clear and specific so that participants know what to expect. For topic examples please see Step 2: Map polarizing issues in your society.
Schedule and venue: Choose a convenient date and venue for the dialogue. Keep in mind the participant limit to secure speaking time for everyone – ideally, the group should be 10-12 people. Make sure the venue is suitable for a facilitated discussion and provides comfort for all. If your dialogue has around 10 people, reserve up to 3 hours.
Invite participants: Inform participants about the planned dialogue and invite them to take part. Explain why their presence is important and what benefits may come for them. If you’re inviting people you don’t know you will need a landing page with all of the important information on the dialogue, registration form, and visual materials to attract people from different bubbles. For more information please see Step 6: Set up your recruitment.
Select facilitators: Choose a person (preferably two) responsible for moderating the dialogue. Facilitators will assure the flow of the meeting, introduce rules, manage the sequence in which participants speak and interrupt when someone takes too much time. However, the most important task of facilitators is to assist the conversation by encouraging/modeling active listening focused on understanding the other person.
Create a safe and open atmosphere: Ensure to create an atmosphere conducive to open and honest discussion. Assure participants that their opinions will be respected, and the dialogue will be conducted in an atmosphere of mutual respect.
What happens in a dialogue?
A typical dialogue has three parts:
Introduction (ca 30 minutes)
This phase should consist of greetings and technical information, introducing the rules for the dialogue, facilitators' roles, some icebreaker and introduction of the topic (2 introductory sentences + dialogue question).
Dialogue (ca 2 hours)
Question-guided conversation (for details please see Step 4: Conduct your first dialogue)
Wrap up (ca 30 minutes)
Ask participants to summarize the experience by answering two questions: What is our common ground on the topic? On what do we differ? Finally, ask each to share the most important moment of the dialogue and explain why it is so.
After the dialogue takes place there are several things to take care of such as: reaching out to participants and sending them tips on how they can maintain their psychological well being, and asking them for feedback. You should also evaluate internally your first dialogue and decide on what you want to share as an output. For some guidelines see Step 10: Publicize output and evaluate impact.