Speaking the Unspeakable: The Paper Dialogue Approach

• Main Authors: Ng, P.T., Liang, Thow Yick
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2005
• Subjects: Human Resources Management
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/2657; https://doi.org/10.1504/ijhrdm.2005.006325
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Effective communication is a vital characteristic of all learning organisations. Ineffective communication lies at the root of why people are not really working well and learning in teams. These people are poorly connected. Thus, the notion of dialogue is appealing. However, such a free flow of ideas, balancing advocacy and inquiry, is rarely observed in many organisations. The constraint is due to the culture of the people/organisation. When sensitive issues need to be addressed, most of these people display an unwillingness to speak their mind. Many elect to keep silent about their true feelings and prefer to say only the politically correct things. Fear and distrust exist prominently. Thus, dialogue facilitators find it difficult to get people to talk honestly and openly about issues, much less to uncover deeper mental models and constructing real shared vision. This paper examines this crucial problem, and experiments and describes an alternative method, called the paper dialogue, which could be effective in helping real feelings and honest opinions surface more easily, thus improving the collective intelligence of the organisation.