Leadership

eople use dialogue and discussion without thinking about it. It comes naturally. It is hard to notice when one switches between them because it is so natural. However, discussion comes to us more naturally than dialogue, especially in the times we live. We live lives that suggest we do not have time to open up to many ideas, come up with a few then decide whats best. Always moving forward, progress is key. But to those people who are patient, and open up a conversation through dialogue, the possibilities are greater. And as the handout mentioned, if a group opens up the conversation through divergent conversation the answer people look for in a convergent conversation almost presents itself to them. Both discussion and dialogue have their place, but people have leaned too much on discussion. It is time a greater portion of our society learns the difference between the two so we can learn to start using dialogue more often.

I often speak with team mates using dialogue and discussion. Often in reference to our coach or our positions. I find that typically the conversations begin by using discussion, because we are upset and feel the need to find an immediate solution. This is typically directed at our coach, no players like the coach and would like to have another coach replace him. This takes the form of a discussion, we immediately start looking for a solution. But after we narrow down the possibilities through discussion we widen the options with dialogue, expanding the possibilities for what we could do. I find that dialogue is a much better choice because it creates much better options.

Another topic is our positions. This also has to do with our coach. However dialogue only helps us talk about this for a little while. Usually it helps to start with dialogue for a short time to give us a better range of options but if we let it go too long we do not get anywhere. We need discussion to narrow down where we would place each of our players in order to be...