June 2005 Newsletter

Dear Colleague,

We thought you might be interested in the first newsletter of the Generative Dialogue Project (GDP), a community building and action research project that focuses upon dialogic change processes.

You are receiving this newsletter at our initiative one time only. To continue receiving the newsletter quarterly, send an email with the word "subscribe" in the subject field or subscribe online at the GDP website. If you know someone who may want to subscribe, please forward this issue to them.

Welcome to the first issue of the GDP newsletter. We now have a website at www.generativedialogue.org where you can find information about our activities and research findings. Check out the GDP messageboard, where you can enter into conversation with a large community of dialogue practitioners.

What is the GDP?

The GDP is a community building and action research project. We focus upon dialogic change processes that encompass both personal and societal transformation. Through dialogue--deep conversations among all relevant system actors--people develop a greater level of understanding and awareness about the problems they face and each person's role in a larger system of interactions. By doing so, system actors are able to generate new alliances, collaborations, and solutions that go beyond traditional approaches.

Our mission is to bring generative dialogic change approaches into worldwide, mainstream use. The GDP is a project of the Global Leadership Initiative, sponsored by The Synergos Institute in partnership with Global Action Network Net, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Society for Organizational Learning.

We began our work in late 2003 in response to many years of field experience and early research findings that indicated the value of a broader understanding and mastery of dialogic approaches to complex global problems. We are particularly interested in how to sustain this type of activity over the years necessary for deep change and across the distances that separate actors in a global system. You can read more about generative dialogic change at http://www.generativedialogue.org/about/more.html

Activities to Date

We are currently in Phase I of the GDP. We are researching and writing about the current state of global dialogue, and building a community of practitioners to advance the goals and the mission of the GDP. Our Phase 1 report will be out soon and available through our website at http://www.generativedialogue.org/resources

I. Analyzing the Field

For the Phase 1 analysis, beginning in 2004 we undertook a broad scan of print and electronic documentation and conducted interviews with over 40 people who are undertaking significant global change, many of whom are using dialogic approaches in their work. We focused largely on organizations or initiatives doing cross-sectoral (business, government, civil society) global work on a variety of issues. We looked at how they define their goals and strategies and how they use dialogue to pursue them.

For example, we interviewed the lead organizer of the Forests Dialogue, a community of practitioners in the forest industry who are working together on the conservation and sustainable use of forests. We also spoke with a representative of the Global Reporting Initiative, which is creating global reporting standards for companies that want to disclose environmental and social impacts of their activities. Our interviewees included personnel in the following organizations/initiatives, among others:

We have also talked to a number of leading researchers and practitioners who are involved in fields that are related to or embody aspects of dialogic problem solving. These include: conflict prevention, negotiation and mediation, peace building, participatory rural appraisal, and democratic governance, among others. Interviewees included experts such as Europe-based Minu Hemmati who studies and promotes multi-stakeholder processes at the global level, and Elena Díez Pinto in Guatemala who leads the Democratic Dialogue Project of the UNDP.

Many of our interviewees indicated the need for more peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing around themes like: relationship building, organizing meaningful conversations, addressing power issues, and creating consensus. Here is an excerpt from one of our interviews, with Chris Grieve from the Marine Stewardship Council, a multi-stakeholder group that is working to certify sustainable fisheries:

What I'd find interesting is sitting and talking with others about how they do partnership and how consensus happens. I'd like to find out from them what actually worked. What were the key elements of getting into the dialogue "zone?" Was it something that you set out to do, or was it the circumstances? How did you achieve success? I'm interested in dialogue, in consensus, in bringing the difficult stuff together. It would be very useful if we had a way to bring people together around those ideas.

The analysis of the Phase I research and interviewing activities will be available soon at our website at http://www.generativedialogue.org/resources

II. Community Building and Community Launch

We are now assembling a community of advanced dialogue practitioners--people actively engaged in addressing global challenges--who have the skills, experience, and inclination to advance their collective work. This core group will help shape the project's action research agenda and build the community of practice in the coming months. Read more about the GDP community at http://www.generativedialogue.org/community

We will conclude Phase I with a community launch meeting in October 2005. The meeting will be built around several cases on global problems in different issue areas. These could be for example, climate change negotiations at the level of UN and multi-stakeholder dialogues; conflict resolution in war zones; or civil society-business dialogues. The launch meeting will be designed to give the issue owners and other stakeholders (such as funders and companies) as well as dialogue promoters and experts opportunity to discuss the cases in depth and consider the best dialogic change processes to use in those contexts. Separately, the practitioners will be given time to reflect together on what general learning emerged from the case discussion that might be codified and applied more broadly. You can read more about Phase I and what is planned for Phases 2 and 3 at http://www.generativedialogue.org/activities

Upcoming Activities

The Core Group is undertaking a series of teleconferences, also built on the case study approach, over the next several months in order to build momentum for the community launch in October 2005. During the calls the group will engage in conversation around a specific case study, which is written up and made available on our website prior to the call. We seek to understand what challenges the project conveners presently face, and how dialogic approaches were used or could be brought to bear on their work.

Some of these conference calls will be open for listening to the wider GDP community. That includes you! We will send out notices in advance of the calls with call-in information. You can also keep your eye on this page: http://www.generativedialogue.org/activities

Newsletter Information

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