Conversation Cafe

Improving Dialogue

Great books available for learning how to have great dialogue

My comment is that there are some wonderful books out there on dialogue. I have recently purchased 3--but i'm a book addict so don't feel you have to get all three. They are: 1)(my favorite so far) "Dialogue and the art of thinking together" by William Isaacs. 2)"Dialogue: Rediscover the Transformative Power of Conversation" and 3) (just barely into this book so far) by Susan Partnow and her sister Elaine T. Partnow, "EveryDay Speaking for all Occaisions". These books are teaching me more about the need for and art of suspending judgement as well as other valuable information on dialogue. There is a diagram in 1) above that explains the four quadrants of how dialogue progresses and how to (although there is no step by step guarenteed approach) get by the difficult 2nd quadrant of conversation where folks often do not suspend judgement. Instead, the author offers a different way to deal with conflict in conversation and that would be inquiry--asking questions to get deeper into where a person is coming from. This may sound elementary, or maybe not, but the book has much to offer other than this. Trust me on this--you will be wiser in your conversations as a conversationalist or facilitator or combination of the two. Great reading!!