Overview

Dialogue, a tool made known to the scientific and business worlds by quantum physicist David Bohn, takes a group far below the surface of organizational issues to find common understanding and unrecognized dynamics. Sometimes called a pathway to wholeness, dialogue is profound experience of personal and group transformation.

Although brought to the fore by Bohm in the late 1900's, dialogue as a process is probably as old as civilization. Whereas in modern day dialogues, the participants sit in a circle speaking into the metaphorical center, our ancestors sat in a circle around the night's campfire sharing perspectives of issues confronting the tribe. Their conversations took as little or as much time as needed for all perspectives to be fully aired.

The outcome to be achieved was mutual understanding of all perspectives, not agreement, not debate, not consensus, not strategy, not planning. Rather, the conversations around the fire were a recognition that the "reality"¯ was made of many perspectives, some of which were concordant and many of which were discordant. The elders wisely knew that the strength of the group relied on the ability of those around the fire to hold the tension of different perspectives and that the soundness of the eventual resolution would come from the recognition of wholeness.

Purpose

Just as the conversations around the campfire guided elders or chiefs of days gone by to resolve wisely the tribe's difficult issues, so today can dialogue guide organizational leaders to look at the difficult issues they face from the perspective of wholeness. The Houston Dialogueā„¢ takes as its purpose the instilling of collective and personal practices that underlie dialogue in order to support leaders in developing the perspective of wholeness when facing complex situations.

The Houston Dialogue will be available upon request to serve leaders of all types of organizations by dialoguing difficult and complex issues along with or on behalf of the leaders in order to facilitate deep understanding of the dynamics underlying these issues and to engender holistic approaches to solution.

The Courses

The Houston Dialogue™ is an ongoing experience of dialogue formatted in three parts:

• Collective Practices for Dialogue:
  The basic techniques of group dialogue are learned and practiced. The introductory practices will be presented in a three-day residential setting held in Houston or nearby. Following the introductory session, a combination of tele-dialogues and in-person dialogues will be held throughout the spring and summer of 2010. The concluding session will be a day-long in person session held in Houston. For those who choose to continue with the Personal Practices course, it will be held immediately after the last day of this course.
  
• Personal Practices for Dialogue
  This course focuses on practices for individual development to enable deeper levels of group dialogue. The structure will be the same as for the collective practices course: A three day residential will kick off the course, followed by a combination of tele-dialogues and one-day in person sessions during the fall of 2010 and spring of 2011. The concluding one-day in person session will be held in Houston in March, 2011. For those choosing to proceed on to the Emergent Leadership Dialogues, that course will begin the day after the Personal Practices course concludes.
• Emergent Leadership Dialogues
  This course include topics of deep concern to leaders, managers and members of all kinds of organizations: governmental, private, educational, not-for-profit, etc. Some of these dialogues will be conducted on behalf of requesting leaders to help them to surface new understandings and possible solutions to the issues they have brought forward. Emergent Leadership Dialogues will be held approximately every quarter from March, 2011 onward and are open for individuals who have completed the Collective and Personal Practices courses.