When was the last time:
• you were truly engaged, interested, and even fascinated by a discussion?
• you left a meeting energized and actually thrilled about an exchange of ideas?
• you learned something new, about the world or yourself?
• you actually listened to someone else, and thought about what was being shared before taking any action?
I would venture to guess that its been a very long time… if perhaps never for many of us.
How often to we cringe to see two talking heads spouting their own agendas at each other while their actual dialog is nonexistent? How much time have we wasted in “meetings” and “Webinars” when we don’t even hear what is being said? We often sit there with our laptops open, paying only half-attention as a voice drones on somewhere in the nether regions of our consciousness. Is that time well-spent?
Enter “Notes on Dialogue” by Stringfellow Barr, former President of Saint John’s College, which is best known for its unusual curriculum, the Great Books Program, based on discussion of works from the Western philosophic, scientific and literary canon. Students at the college are responsible for their own education. Tutors are there only to guide, cajole and redirect as necessary. There are no “lectures” but the main process of learning takes place in a seminar format, that relies on discussion as outlined below.
“Notes on Dialogue” is a short treatise that lays out the groundwork for Seminar behavior at the college, and is a shining example of true education at its best. It provides profound support for the group, the individual, and the collective consciousness that can be developed through mutual respect and consideration. I submit here that the guidelines presented within this document are well worth considering in professional settings in addition to this academic environment. The true sharing of ideas and of valuable collaboration are dependent on how close we can get to this ideal.
I strongly suggest you read the entire document, but to whet your appetite, here are a few digested guidelines from the document.
• Brevity stimulates dialectic – the effort to be too complete is often self-defeating.
• The imaginative and the unexpected are frequent ingredients of Socrates’ style, and Irony can go farther in making a point than long-winded explanations.
• Interrupting a speaker is forbidden, but a quick question can help redirect conversation
• The will of “self insistence” gives way to the will to learn over time.
• In dialectic, “participational democracy” consists in everyone listening intently; it does not consist in “equal time”. (for speaking)
• It does not matter who’s mouth gets used by the dialectical process, provided all are listening intently.
• The name of the game is not instructing one’s fellows, or even persuading them, but thinking with them and trusting the argument to lead to understanding.
• When free minds seek together for greater understanding, they tend to move, as the mind of Socrates so characteristically moved – with playfulness and a sense of the comic.
• The truly relevant jest is never out of order so long as we can pursue our dialogue with high seriousness and with relevant playfulness.
