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How to Use Dialogue, Collaboration and Simplicity to Design Better Meetings and Workshops

Tom Barrett · 11 October 2021 · 1949 words

What is your biggest challenge when you design workshops, meetings and professional learning sessions?

I tend to overthink my designs.

I turn the session inside out in my mind, pushing and pulling each part. I fill every moment and bolt-on exciting methods.

Sometimes I get so lost in the moving parts that I lose touch with the core intention. Learning is complex enough without my muddled meddling.

Have you ever experienced this design rumination before a big meeting or workshop?

I have designed hundreds of lessons and workshops, and many of them start this way. At worst, they are ugly amalgamations that struggle to stand under the weight of my ambitious plans.

We all spend a significant portion of our lives in meetings, workshops and sessions. The goal is to generate dialogue and interaction between participants to collaborate better as a team or organisation.

However, many people struggle with the design principles needed for successful meetings and workshops.

Three design principles are worth your attention when you design your next meeting or workshop. We look at the principles of dialogue, collaboration and simplicity.

Dialogic Learning

First, let’s consider the role of dialogue in meetings and sessions.

An important distinction I want to start with is the difference between dialogue and discussion.

Here is David Bohm explaining the subtle difference.

“Dialogue” comes from the Greek word dialogos. Logos means “the word,” or in our case, we would think of the “meaning of the word.” And dia means “through” — it doesn’t mean “two.” The picture or image that this derivation suggests is of a stream of meaning flowing among and through us and between us. This will make possible a flow of meaning in the whole group, out of which may emerge some new understanding. It’s something new, which may not have been in the starting point at all. It’s something creative.

Contrast this with the word “discussion,” which has the same root as “percussion” and “concussion.” It really means to break things up. It emphasises the idea of analysis, where there may be many points of view, and where everybody is presenting a different one — analysing and breaking up. That obviously has its value, but it is limited, and it will not get us very far beyond our various points of view. ~ David Bohm

To sum it up, dialogue creates new ideas and understanding, whereas discussion analyses the different parts and points of view.

In the context of meetings, dialogue means creating a safe space for open-ended dialogue where people can share their ideas and perspectives on a topic without being judged or scrutinised by others in the meeting.

This helps us develop an awareness of others’ views and collaboratively generate new solutions together. We also gain greater insight into our viewpoints through dialogue with others, which further refine those views based on what we learn from listening to each other.

Dialogue requires active listening from participants so they can be open to new ideas and perspectives. It also helps us generate creative solutions as we listen to each other’s contributions without judgement or presumption.

Creating such spaces requires care and attention during your design process:

Here are some more strategies:

Collaboration & Co-construction

The second design principle is collaboration: we should create opportunities for participants in meetings and workshops rather than work separately or competitively towards a goal.

Collaboration is the act of working jointly with others to produce something new. This involves dialogue, sharing ideas or information, and constructive feedback on each other’s work as it is being created.

I always turn to Mark Elliott at Collabforge to define collaboration:

True collaboration sits at the top of the 3Cs pyramid and is where two or more people create through adding, editing and deleting a shared pool of content. Just to name a few, improv jazz, co-authoring and workshopping are all fantastic examples of collaboration.

He goes on to explain that the essential value of collaboration is to resolve tension.

This perspective provides a new way of understanding collaboration: by coming together around a shared purpose, as a result, we generate tensions, to resolve them. They are something that we introduce into collaboration, consciously or otherwise and they are the raw material for co-creation. When tension is resolved through collaboration, it transforms into shared value — a valued outcome or output, newly created through the direct efforts of those involved. ~ Mark Elliott

Collaboration requires active listening from participants to be open to new ways of thinking about a topic. It also helps us build trust within teams by encouraging honest dialogue between team members, which allows them to understand their strengths and weaknesses better while offering support for one another in completing tasks effectively together towards achieving common goals.

Creating collaborative meetings means maximising dialogue opportunities through equal participation across all team members, creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable contributing without fear of judgement or exclusion.

It involves fostering mutual respect among participants; removing barriers that could prevent collaboration, such as power hierarchies, rules and regulations, or a lack of dialogue.

Here are some strategies to design better collaboration in your next workshop.

⟶ Create opportunities for dialogue by asking open-ended questions that promote collaboration.

⟶ Encourage participants to share their ideas and suggestions without being afraid of judgement or correction while facilitating a safe space where they can listen openly to others’ contributions without feeling uncomfortable.

⟶ Design the meeting around a broad central theme, question or problem rather than narrow topics, which foster a greater chance of collaboration within teams as team members work together towards finding common ground on multiple issues from different angles.

⟶ Facilitate collaborative sessions by allowing ample thinking time for each solution before vetting them with the larger group; encouraging discussion between all team members to build consensus until everyone feels comfortable moving forward.

It is important to note that collaboration does not mean every team member must contribute equally in discussions nor participate in dialogue sessions all together at once. Sometimes participation can be done outside of meetings, through independent dialogue, including written dialogue (e.g., blogs) or digital community spaces, platforms and documents

Simplicity & Clarity

The third design principle we need to consider is simplicity: how can we simplify the process of meeting, creating workshops or facilitating sessions?

In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Simplicity is another design principle I believe is essential when designing better meetings and dialogue sessions.

Simpler processes allow for easier understanding ⟶ greater engagement from participants ⟶ increased motivation due to reduced levels of stress caused by excessive instructions.

It’s worth noting, though, that simplicity does not mean making things less complex entirely but rather taking unnecessary elements away, so they are still effective without being overly complicated.

For example, a dialogue session could be more straightforward by having fewer prompts for dialogue for participants to respond or reducing the number of questions on the agenda, so discussions naturally flow from topic to topic rather than being confined by time constraints and rushing through some.

Simplicity also means keeping meetings more concise with clear objectives in mind, so there is less confusion over why we’re engaged in these conversations together and their purpose, which helps create clarity around dialogue topics and increases participation among team members.

The design principle of simplicity has helped ground me to what matters:

Learning experiences worthy of people’s time.

Over many years of disciplined application, I know I need to pause. I catch myself. I realise what to do, reduce and move ahead with restraint.

American technologist and designer John Maeda shares a handful of protocols for designers who strive for simplicity in his book The Laws of Simplicity.

Let’s use some of them to design a staff meeting:

  1. Reduce. Thoughtful reduction. Do you need the meeting? Is there a viable alternative? What is the critical outcome? What does a successful session look like? Cut anything that doesn’t contribute.
  2. Learn. Reflect on previous sessions. What works for your staff? What is a high impact strategy for this outcome? Do more high impact work.
  3. Context. Stay anchored to the bigger picture. Illustrate the perspective you want everyone to take. Set the meeting in a timeline of development and explore what’s next.
  4. Emotion. In the right moments, more emotions are better than less. Don’t be afraid to share personal stories and insights — be open and human.
  5. Trust. Invest in building trust with your colleagues. Also, trust your simple design, don’t let the monster back in!
  6. Failure. Learn from what has not worked? What feedback from previous staff sessions can guide you? Avoid the same mistakes.
  7. The one. Remove the obvious and replace it with meaningful activities. E.g. more time for dialogue between colleagues. Space to think, talk and ponder.

Summary

Dialogic learning, collaboration and simplicity are the three core design principles we explored. Dialogue creates new ideas and understanding, whereas discussion analyses the different parts and points of view. True collaboration comes from two or more people creating together through adding, editing and deleting a shared pool of content. If you want to make your meeting or workshop space psychologically safe for participants, ensure the environment is simple and collaboratively designed.

Reflect on the following talking points as they relate to your professional learning and design experiences.

Your Talking Points

Tom Barrett has written on dialogue, leadership and learning for fifteen years. Dialogic Learning works alongside school leaders and their teams, in Melbourne and beyond.

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Originally published 11 October 2021 on Medium.