Dialogical leadership for global challenges

As you engage in dialogue with others, do you find yourself defending or suspending? William Isaacs explains that human conversation evolves in two potential directions: defending or suspending. “Defending” conversations use facts and data to answer problems and employ explicit reasoning. They often lead to controlled discussions in which advocacy and abstract verbal brawling devolve into competition, debate and down beating. By contrast, “suspending” is a more conscious and choiceful state of listening without resistance. Suspending conversations may lead to reflective dialogue, and reflective dialogue frequently leads to generative dialogue that is creative and inventive, and which produces new insights, unprecedented possibilities and group flow.

There is a need for greater reflective dialogue among all of us as we navigate the complexity of our personal and professional lives and the global challenges that confront us. Dialogue has a rich history, and there are many ways to conduct a dialogue session.

Isaacs identifies four dialogue types: movers, followers, opposers and bystanders. Movers provide direction. Followers support completion and follow through, based on the suggestions and leadership of movers. Opposers oftentimes confront or block movers’ suggestions and support correction of courses of action. Bystanders provide perspective as they look at situations from the “outside-in.” All of these types, in a proper dialogue, move through states of voicing, listening, respecting and suspending.

Voicing is the process that asks, “What needs to be said?” Voicing entails speaking the truth of one’s own authority and thinking. Listening is the process that asks, without resistance or imposition, “How does this feel?” Respecting is the process of asking, “How does this fit?” It requires awareness of the integrity of another’s position and the impossibility of fully understanding his or her perspective. Suspending is the process of asking, “How does this work?” and is the suspension of judgment, certainty and assumptions. Progression through each of these states is a valuable learning experience for members of an interdisciplinary team.

What is your dialogical leadership style? Are you often in defending or suspending mode? What is your preferred role? Are you a mover, follower, opposer or bystander? Dialogical leadership skills are essential to success, given the debate that is being waged in terms of health care reform in this country and around the world. Consider exploring some resources that will support dialogical approaches to global challenges.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership, published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International