Interculturaldialogue has been used as a tool for increasing understanding in contexts where misunderstandings typically occur. For example, the European Agency for Culture was established by EU members to coordinate intercultural dialogue activities, "focussing on the integration of migrants and refugees in societies through the arts and Dl35s. Key events3 Jun 2023A summary of today's developments3 Jun 2023Prigozhin says Kremlin faction 'destroying the Russian state'3 Jun 2023Moscow ally Kyrgyzstan says it is ready to work with EU3 Jun 2023Ukraine's counteroffensive will be 'very impressive' - Gen Petraeus3 Jun 2023Ukraine's counteroffensive remains on track, deputy defence minister says3 Jun 2023Zelenskiy says Ukraine ready to launch counteroffensive – report3 Jun 2023Russian army may struggle in Bakhmut compared with Wagner, UK MoD suggests3 Jun 2023Opening summaryShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureMoscow ally Kyrgyzstan says it is ready to work with EUKyrgyzstan’s president said on Saturday that the ex-Soviet republic was ready to work with the Sadyr Japarov, whose country is an ally of Moscow, said Kyrgyzstan is ready to work hand in hand with the European Union to resolve shared problems, encourage dialogue and find lasting solutions. The EU hopes to tighten ties with a region Russia sees as its sphere of was speaking during a meeting with EU Council president, Charles on Friday took part in a summit attended by the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and high-profile gathering in the resort of Cholpon-Ata on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul was the second summit between the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and the EU, the top donor to the region and its main investment partner.“We offer a sincere partnership” to the region’s five former Soviet republics, Michel told Agence France-Presse in an interview president of the European Council, Charles Michel left, shakes hands with the president of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, during his visit to Kyrgyzstan. Photograph Xinhua/ShutterstockTwo people were killed and two injured by Ukrainian artillery fire on Russia’s Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, Reuters Kremlin said on Saturday that journalists from unfriendly countries’ would not get accreditation for the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Tass was told by the organisers of the forum on Friday that accreditation to the forum had been cancelled after receiving an earlier confirmation of accreditation on head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said Saturday that he was ready to send fighters to the Russian Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine and has come under intense reports that Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Telegram If the defence ministry, in the near future, does not stop what is happening in the Belgorod region … then of course we will come to defend Russian land. The civilian population is dying in Belgorod. He added he would not wait for an “invitation” to deploy his fighters comes after Ukrainian-backed Russian rebel groups have said they are still fighting inside Russia’s Belgorod governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that the region had been hit by 500 attacks on Friday - including artillery and rocket said five people had died in the shelling. The town of Shebekino has been most affected, with hundreds of its residents SabbaghUkraine’s president has declared his country’s military is ready to launch a long-awaited counteroffensive and hinted at concern about the possibility of Donald Trump retaking the White Zelenskiy, giving an interview to the Wall Street Journal, suggested that a significant attack could come soon and said he hoped a change in the US presidency would not impact military aid to Kyiv.“We strongly believe that we will succeed,” Zelenskiy told the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, although he acknowledged he did not know how long the counteroffensive would take or how well it would more We will succeed’ Zelenskiy says Ukraine ready to launch counteroffensiveA peace plan to end the war in Ukraine proposed by Indonesian defence minister, Prabowo Subianto, see post has been dismissed by called on defence and military officials from around the world, gathered at the Shangri-La Dialogue defence meeting in Singapore, to issue a declaration calling for a cessation in Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, said Russia had committed the act of aggression, occupying Ukrainian territories, and any proposals for a ceasefire would allow it to regroup and reinforce, Reuters said There are no disputed territories between Ukraine and the Russian Federation to hold referendums there,” he said. In the occupied territories, the Russian army commits war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Russia is now trying in every possible way to disrupt the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Here are some images coming to us over the hand out food to residents at a school on the outskirts of Kharkiv oblast, on 2 June. Photograph Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesUkraine’s deputy minister of defence, Volodymyr Havrylov, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Singapore. Photograph Caroline Chia/ReutersPresident of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets Estonian president, Alar Karis, Kyiv, on 2 June. Photograph APAImages/ShutterstockAs the world celebrated international children’s day this week, Ukrainians in Sydney and their supporters took part in the worldwide campaign dedicated to the issue of killing, kidnapping and deportation of Ukrainian children by Russia. Protesters bought toys to hold during the rally. Photograph Richard Milnes/ShutterstockRussia will come back to full compliance with the New Start treaty if Washington abandons its “hostile stance” towards Moscow, Russian news agencies reported, citing deputy foreign minister, Sergei United States said earlier this week that it would stop providing Russia with some notifications required under the arms control treaty, including updates on its missile and launcher locations, to retaliate for Moscow’s “ongoing violations” of the accord, Reuters to Ryabkov, the move did not come as a surprise to Moscow, and Russia’s decision to suspend the New Start treaty stands despite any Tass news agency quoted him as saying Regardless of any measures or countermeasures from the US side, our decision to suspend the Start treaty is unshakable. And our own condition for returning to a fully operational treaty is for the US to abandon its fundamentally hostile stance toward Russia. Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov. Photograph Maxim Shemetov/ReutersPetraeus also said that Ukrainians are determined “to liberate” all of its territory Well, there are quite categorical that winning for them is liberating all their territory. There’s no hedging on that. There are no discussions behind closed doors that oh look, we could give this up or give that up. They are determined to liberate their country. And again, to win the war and then win the peace. And of course, there will need to be some kind of, I think, some kind of negotiated resolution. We certainly don’t ever want to see another frozen conflict with new frontlines. And there’s a lot of pressure on Russia. Petraeus also said Putin could “hang on” in power once the war with Ukraine is over. He has still total control. Certainly, there’s some criticism of the ministry of defence, defence minister Shoigu, the chief of the general staff Gen Gerasimov and so forth, that’s allowable. No one criticises Putin or not generally, there has been some somewhat indirect by Prigozhin, by a few others. I think he probably could hang on to that power. And what we have to watch for are any indicators that the inconceivable, the toppling of Putin, could all of a sudden, seem very possible. In many classrooms these days, student discussion can grow so heated that passion threatens to overwhelm productive conversation. A harsh debate can leave students and instructors feeling upset, or make them discouraged about participating in future potential for hurt feelings, misunderstandings and stifled learning is even greater when classroom debates and campus events tackle hot-button topics like politics, race, religion and gender. And in today’s highly polarized atmosphere, when a comment taken out of context can go viral on social media, the consequences of an out-of-control conversation can be even more severe. Considering these high stakes, students and instructors may be tempted to avoid tough subjects altogether, or only discuss them with like-minded folks. But there’s another option. Today on the podcast, we’re learning about “dialogue,” a type of mediated discussion that may help students and educators tackle touchy topics more productively and use conflict as a learning opportunity. We’ll hear from Kelly Maxwell, assistant dean for undergraduate education in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts at the University of Michigan, which offers semester-long courses called “intergroup dialogues” on subjects that tend to provoke strong feelings, including class, sexual orientation and racial identity. Maxwell is also board chair of the Difficult Dialogues National Resources Center, a nonprofit that supports dialogue work in higher education. It’s hosting a conference for university leaders at the end of October at Princeton to this week’s podcast on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play Music or wherever you listen, or use the player below. Or read the partial transcript, which has been lightly edited for How do you define dialogue, as opposed to some other kind of class discussion?Maxwell Dialogue is really about greater understanding. So it's bringing people together that have different views on particular issues, social issues often—maybe they have different identity backgrounds—seeking to understand one another in a more nuanced way. Or maybe they've never even talked with someone who has a differing opinion or perspective or experience. And so dialogue really brings those folks together to learn to listen, learn to speak one's truth and feel empowered to be listened week’s podcast is brought to you by Destinations Career Academy, powered by K12 Destinations serves school districts with flexible CTE solutions to get students “future-ready” for a changing job market, providing career exploration, real-world experience, and certification prep. Now offering 28 pathways in Health & Human Services, Information Technology, Business, Agriculture, and Manufacturing and the More at Sometimes, especially if one has a marginalized voice, they've never had an opportunity to actually be listened to. So dialogue is about empowering those voices. It's about listening and building empathy for experiences that may be very different from one's own, and really then seeking to understand where that perspective comes dialogue is happening in a classroom, of course there's content, but then there's the process of dialogue. So very intentionally bringing people together with some information, with some content, but then also allowing them to share their own experiences vis-a-vis the content. And then opening the thinking around whatever the complex issue especially younger students come with a very dualistic framework. It's either this or it's this. Dialogue helps uncover the complexity of a variety of issues. There's a lot of emotion in dialogue, too, which is a little bit different than a typical college classroom. So it's connecting the intellectual or the cognitive with that affective emotion, so that people learn that there are real stories behind some of the hot topics of the dialogue happen naturally and organically? Or have you found it's something that needs to be taught and practiced to actually occur?Maxwell I really believe in the latter, that it really takes intention, and faculty and staff have to find purposeful ways of engaging students in dialogue. So we talk about all kinds of diversity, equity and inclusion. And just because you have a diverse student body at any given institution doesn't mean that those students are interacting together. And, in fact, we know that not just students, but in society, we tend to hang around and live in neighborhoods that look like us or have very similar backgrounds like us. Our social media feeds often are reinforcing the beliefs that we already have. And so dialogue has to be intentional to bring people together. You don't just say, "Hey, we're going to have a dialogue about this controversial topic. We hope people from all sides will come. And then we see what happens." That is a recipe for disaster ... where people are just trying to get their side heard and win an really have to set up the space, both physically, so that it's welcoming for people, but also space meaning what's going to happen in the room. So setting guidelines or beginning with some kind of norm-setting. How are we going to talk together? How are we going to listen together? Recognizing that in a dialogue setting there probably isn't going to be resolution. The goal is really to hear each other deeply, really listen, and share one's own perspective, and understand your own perspective better through the process. And hopefully build some empathy along the love to hear more about that class in particular. How does it work? Is it for credit? Is there a professor?Maxwell It's a for-credit course that brings students together across different identities. So, for example, in a race-and-ethnicity dialogue, there are roughly equal numbers of students of color and white students in the dialogue space. And we train undergraduate peer facilitators to be in the dialogue space as there is not a faculty member in the classroom every week. They start and end the semester with a faculty member, and then the faculty member will observe. They're really observing the facilitators to coach and supervise them. And we really believe that peer facilitation allows students to ask that question that they really wanted to ask. Or sometimes students don't want to make a mistake in a classroom setting. So the peer leaders help to reinforce that, "It's okay here." That we're creating a space that is student-friendly and very much about the learning of the people in the so it is across the arc of a full semester. There's four stages to the dialogue process. First is group beginnings. So, instead of digging right into the hot topic of the day, it's really spending the first couple of weeks really getting to know one another, doing something called “sharing testimonials,” where every student in the room tells their story related to the identity of focus in the they do some learning through experiential exercises around social identities, discrimination, privilege, power, that kind of thing. And then they really get into the hot topics that they choose, based on the conversations that have been happening so far. And then they really are in the dialogue process. And then finally, [they] wrap up with, "What has this meant for me? Let me reflect on this collectively." What action do we want to take or individually, if any. So it's kind of a wrap-up at the dialogue techniques have something to contribute to so-called free speech debates that happen when controversial speakers or protest movements come to campuses?Maxwell I think in the moment, when the controversial speakers on campus, [that’s] not really a great time for true dialogue. But I think what can come out of it is to invite people from many perspectives to the table—maybe some that supported the speaker [and] some that opposed the speaker—and then have a dialogue. So we talked about having emotion and dialogue, but I think you want to lower the level from when the controversial speaker is there, when tensions are really high, bring that down a notch. Let a little bit of time pass, and then bring people together to say, "Hey, let's talk about this."Of course you can also do it on the proactive side, before a speaker is invited. Maybe you're hearing rumblings that somebody wants to start a controversy. Why not bring that group together with one that would really feel marginalized by a speaker, and really let them hear from one another. Why might that be very hurtful? Why might having this speaker be somewhat helpful, at least from the group that believes that to be so. And letting them really talk to one another and hear, and then it could change what ends up think that there's some understanding among some people that a call to dialogue can sometimes be associated with this idea of maintaining civility, which may feel like an attempt to silence urgency around political beliefs or lived situations. What do you make of that kind of tension? Maxwell For me, dialogue is about democratic engagement because there are voices that have been left out of our public sphere. And so bringing them to the table, the dialogue table, and really having their voices be equal to those that are often louder is really, really important, as far as our the same time, I completely understand the critique about, "Oh, we have to do this in a way that's very respectable." And I even talked about creating guidelines at the beginning. And I know some people believe that creating those guidelines can tamp down, but the point of the guidelines is to build a sense of how we're going to talk together even when controversy happens. So it's not to tamp down the conflict, but it's a way to say, "Okay, how are we going to handle conflict productively when it happens?"So I think that's a little bit of a difference from what I think of when I think of “civility,” which is, make sure everybody feels okay. It often signals that we don't want to rock the boat. And dialogue really is about rocking the boat because it's about de-centering power or de-centering the dominant narrative, so that those voices that don't get heard actually get at the same time, those voices that usually are the prominent ones, they're also there. They also have an opportunity to be heard, but they're heard at the same level, rather than squashing voices that are typically marginalized. And so it's a rebalancing of the voices around the table, so that the power is uncovered or those dominant voices are uncovered and made visible. And that's a really important and different thing than having a civil faculty who are anticipating a couple of potentially very tense semesters before and after the election, what would you encourage they do in their classrooms or on campus to, as you said, be able to dig in, but in a productive way?Maxwell It's hard to have a true dialogue in a sort of regular class, but I think you can set up dialogic techniques, using dialogic techniques to get the student group to be as dialogue-ish as [instructors should set] guidelines for discussion in classrooms. So using “I” statements, doing your own best and then expecting that from others as well. And then confidentiality in the space, too. You're not tweeting about what's happening here in our room, but that you take the learning out, but you don't take the stories that people are sharing out of the space.[And] then that relationship-building. Because how are you going to expect students to talk about controversial issues in your class if they don't even know the name of the person sitting next to them?I know that can be really tough for faculty members, because they don't want to take the time away from their content for this relationship-building, but it really pays dividends later in the class when students feel like they can give the benefit of the doubt to somebody else because they have some kind of connection with them. So early on, some daily icebreakers that help people get to know people's names, but also a little bit about the people in the room. And knowing that emotion is going to be present is really crucial. I've done a fair bit of faculty development as well, and I think the greatest fear that I hear from faculty is, what do I do when someone yells, or there's clearly anger and frustration in the room, or someone cries or something like that. Equipping faculty with the skills to manage emotion in the classroom. Because most faculty are not trained in that way and don't know what to do when it happens. Download the Math of Storytelling Infographic Learning how to write dialogue is an essential part of telling stories that work. Dialogue is a character’s verbal and non-verbal expression of what they are thinking and feeling. It’s through dialogue that other characters get a glimpse into what’s going on in each other’s minds. It’s also used to reveal to the reader those inner thoughts, feelings, and actions that want to come out. Contrast that with narration, which describes the world in which the characters find themselves in as well as the inner thoughts of potentially some of the characters. It’s through the balance of Dialogue and Narration that the story reveals itself to the readers and characters. Dialogue is the Yin to narration’s Yang. They both must be present and strengthen each other. Without clear, concise, and compelling dialogue, your character’s authentic self won’t shine through, the tension in your scenes won’t progressively complicate, and all that great narration will be for nothing. Dialogue must always serve a purpose. It intensifies the action as well as organizes it so that the emotion that people feel in a situation builds up while the characters are processing what’s going on. This real-time processing is important to remember since it’s these beats of processing that build great dialogue. Types of Dialogue There are two types of dialogue to think about when you’re writing a story — inner and outer dialogues. Both are important to understand and use depending on the type of characters and the story you’re trying to tell. Outer Dialogue Outer dialogue is a conversation between two or more characters. This is the type that is the easiest to identify since the tags and markers are present and it feels like a conversation. Inner Dialogue This type of dialogue is when the character speaks to themselves and reveals parts of their personalities or unburdens their soul. Inner dialogue is usually written as a stream of consciousness or dramatic monologue or just thoughts. Sometimes italicized, sometimes not. Sometimes with attributions, sometimes not. The way that inner dialogue is rendered on the page will depend on the POV/Narrative Device choice. A stream of consciousness type dialogue describes the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters. It borders on narration in that there are no dialogue markers or tags per se. It’s usually obvious when it’s happening. Dialogue Lives at the Beat Level A story has a nested structure with the smallest level being a beat. The story then builds up to scenes, sequences, acts, subplots, and finally the global story. For dialogue, it’s important to start at the beat level because the action and reaction that the characters are doing, based on the dialogue, will change as the scene moves from beat to beat. In the Story Grid universe, we use the Five Commandments of Story to build up these different story parts since they all nest together as you go from micro to macro. A Quick Review of the Five Commandments of Story The five commandments of story make up the component parts of a story. These commandments must be present at all levels for each component to work and move the story forward. Briefly, these five commandments are Inciting Incident upsets the life balance of your lead protagonists. It must make them uncomfortably out of sync for good or for Complications move the story forward never backward by making life more and more complicated for the protagonists. The stakes must progressively get higher and higher until the turning point progressive complication that shifts the life value and prompts the the point where the protagonists must make a decision by answering the best bad choice or irreconcilable goods question such as do I go in the cave or not? Or do I share my true feelings or not?Climax is the answer the decision plus the action to the question raised by a the results good or bad from the answer in the climax For dialogue, we’ll look at a similar set of commandments or tasks inspired by Robert McKee later on. We’ll also explore a way to analyze dialogue using the tasks and a few other techniques. As we go along, you’ll see why it’s important to think, write, and analyze dialogue at the beat level to build up great scenes, sequences, acts, sub-plots, and finally the global story. Three Functions of Dialogue According to Robert McKee, in his book Dialogue The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage, and Screen, dialogue has three functions Exposition, Characterization, and Action. Exposition “Exposition is a literary device used to introduce background information about events, settings, characters, or other elements of a work to the audience or readers. The word comes from the Latin language, and its literal meaning is a showing forth.’ Exposition is crucial to any story, for without it nothing makes sense.”Literary This trick with exposition is that too much information is hard for our brains to process. That’s what gives rise to the exposition is ammunition recommendations all writers hear. A story needs exposition to drive the story forward yet too much will distract, especially in dialogue, from the pace and flow of the story. It’s these fictional or non-fictional facts of the set character mindset and setting environment that gives the reader what the characters are experiencing and reacting too. It’s important to pace and time your exposition to not reveal too much too soon. You also have to take great care and skill to make the details of the character come alive in unique and novel ways so you keep the reader interested, which leads to another tried and true piece of advice — remember to show and not to tell. Characterization The sum of a character’s traits, values, behaviors, and beliefs. It’s how the author creates the characters in the reader’s mind. It’s through characterization that we can see and feel how the characters will react and interact. Action What a character does — mental, physical, and verbal. Action reveals what cannot be understood otherwise or would sound awkward to describe. Again show don’t tell. The action is what keeps the story interesting and moving along. Six Tasks of Dialogue All dialogue must have a purpose and perform one of the three functions. Within these functions, a great beat of dialogue will complete these six tasks taken from McKee’s Dialogue Express Inner Action Essential Action in Story Grid termsAction/ReactionConveys ExpositionUnique Verbal StyleCaptivatesAuthentic Let’s take a look at each one to see how they build up to great dialogue. For each, I’ll give an example of dialogue that completes the task from this wonderful article Ten Authors Who Write Great Dialogue. Task 1 Express Inner Action Each verbal expression requires an internal action to make it happen. These inner actions or essential action in Story Grid terms are how the character responds to the outside world’s stimulus as well as their own past experiences. The interaction of external stimulus and character subtext past experiences will create this inner action. This would be the essential action that the character wants to express or the goal they are trying to achieve. The example is from Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Drink up,’ said Ford, you’ve got three pints to get through.’ Three pints?” said Arthur. At lunchtime?’ The man next to Ford grinned and nodded happily. Ford ignored him. He said, Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.’ Very deep,’ said Arthur, you should send that in to the Reader’s Digest. They’ve got a page for people like you.’ Drink up.’ Ford’s goal is to get Arthur to drink up’, for what reason we don’t know, but for this beat, it’s pretty clear. Task 2 Action/Reaction Once a character takes action, there will be a reaction. This action/reaction dance will lead to the ultimate turning point of the scene between the characters. As the tension in a scene builds from beat to beat, so should the dialogue. The dialogue should stir up the emotions of the characters so there will be a desire to express more and more extreme inner actions. Let’s look again at the same example from Task 1. The Action/Reaction between Ford and Arthur escalates as Arthur complains that it’s too early to drink yet Ford prods him on by saying that Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.’ Task 3 Conveys Exposition What a character says, does not say, and how they say it will reveal exposition. The revealing of exposition in unique and novel ways is what separates good dialogue from great dialogue. For example, Judy Blume does this to great effect in this piece of dialogue from her book Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Nancy spoke to me as if she were my mother. Margaret dear–you can’t possibly miss Laura Danker. The big blonde with the big you know whats!’ Oh, I noticed her right off,’ I said. She’s very pretty.’ Pretty!’ Nancy snorted. You be smart and stay away from her. She’s got a bad reputation.’ What do you mean?’ I asked. My brother said she goes behind the A&P with him and Moose.’ And,’ Janie added, she’s been wearing a bra since fourth grade and I bet she gets her period.’ To the teenage reader, the line My brother said she goes behind the A&P with him and Moose’ says a lot about Laura Danker and why she has a bad reputation without saying what goes on behind the A&P. Task 4 Unique Verbal Style Each character will have a unique verbal style that they used to communicate their inner actions. This verbal style must be appropriate for the set and setting the characters find themselves in. This tone and tenor of their voice along with word choice or lack of words must be on theme for the character. The reader must say to themselves, “yeah, they would say that that way.” For this example, we’ll look at Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible. With all due respect,’ my father said, this is not the time or the place for that kind of business. Why don’t you sit down now, and announce your plans after I’ve finished with the sermon? Church is not the place to vote anyone in or out of public office.’ Church is the place for it,’ said Tata Ndu. Ici, maintenant, we are making a vote for Jesus Christ in the office of personal God, Kilanga village.’ Father did not move for several seconds. Tata Ndu looked at him quizzically. Forgive me, I wonder if I have paralyzed you?’ Father found his voice at last. You have not.’ Tata’s unique verbal style shows that English is his second language and as such, he means to not offend the priest giving the sermon. Equally unique is the priest that gives this dialogue the contrast it needs to know who is talking. Task 5 Captivates Dialogue must do work. It is not normal everyday speech. Great dialogue captivates the reader by being clear, concise, and compelling. There is no shoe leather or wasted words, movements, or expressions. It’s hyper speech in that, as the writer, you can think about every word. Looking at the example from Task 4, it’s clear that there is some tension between the characters. There are no wasted words in what Tata wants to accomplish and the tension between Tata and the priest is made more by Tata’s line Forgive me, I wonder if I have paralyzed you?’ Task 6 Authentic All dialogue must sound like the character would say it. Dialogue that falls flat or does no work will have readers saying “the character in the book would never say that.” An authentic character voice starts with a solid story and character design where the reader knows the character and will anticipate how they will express their inner/essential action. Inner/Essential action comes from a character’s authentic voice. For this task, we’ll look at some dialogue from Elmore Leonard’s Out of Sight You sure have a lot of shit in here. What’s all this stuff? Handcuffs, chains…What’s this can?’ For your breath,’ Karen said. You could use it. Squirt some in your mouth.’ You devil, it’s Mace, huh? What’ve you got here, a billy? Use it on poor unfortunate offenders…Where’s your gun, your pistol?’ In my bag, in the car.’ She felt his hand slip from her arm to her hip and rest there and she said, You know you don’t have a chance of making it. Guards are out here already, they’ll stop the car.’ They’re off in the cane by now chasing Cubans.’ His tone quiet, unhurried, and it surprised her. I timed it to slip between the cracks, you might say. I was even gonna blow the whistle myself if I had to, send out the amber alert, get them running around in confusion for when I came out of the hole. Boy, it stunk in there.’ I believe it,’ Karen said. You’ve ruined a thirty-five-hundred-dollar suit my dad gave me.’ She felt his hand move down her thigh, fingertips brushing her pantyhose, the way her skirt was pushed up. I bet you look great in it, too. Tell me why in the world you ever became a federal marshal, Jesus. My experience with marshals, they’re all beefy guys, like your big-city dicks.’ The idea of going after guys like you,’ Karen said, appealed to me.’ The man character in this dialogue is an outlaw who escaped from prison and would say and do what this character is doing. As for Karen, this bit of dialogue reveals a lot of exposition as well as the type of person a female federal marshal might be. Five Stages of Talk Dialogue All verbal action and behavior move through stages of steps to come to life. These stages go from desire to antagonism to choice to action to expression. For our purposes, we’re going to use these stages like the five commandments of story to ensure that as we analyze and write dialogue, we have an objective framework to apply again from McKee’s Dialogue. 1 Desire What the character wants to achieve in the scene or the essential action or the goal. Mostly, it’s to get back to a life balance that has been disrupted from the status quo or the character’s object of desire. Background desires will limit the character’s choice because they limit what the character will or will not do. More on background desires when we get into the analysis. 2 Sense of Antagonism What is preventing the characters from getting back to balance? What or who is in their way? The sense of antagonism is what the character is reacting to and is usually who they are dialoguing with. 3 Choice of Action The action the character wants to take to get to the desired scene intention based on their desires or inner actions. The choice of action has to be authentic to the character so that the series of possible actions or best bad choices make sense to the reader. 4 Action/Reaction The actual or literal action they take be it physical or verbal and the reaction that might occur. Desire is the source of action, and action is the source of dialogue. All are governed by the character’s subtext or past experiences. 5 Expression The verbal action as dialogue coupled with any physical activity that might also express the actions of the character narration of expression, physical act like screaming, stepping forward, clenching a fist, etc.. The expression must be authentic to the character and as such, the reaction to the expression by another characters will drive the action/reaction to the turning point, crisis, climax, and finally resolution. Dialogue Analysis Before we get to the mechanics of writing dialogue, let’s take a look at a framework to analyze existing dialogue so we can better understand its structure. This analysis framework consists of the following Characters Agenda + Voice MacroPre Beat/Scene Characters Subtext MicroFive Stages of Talk MicroPost Beat/Scene Characters Subtext Micro The first item on this list operates at the macro-level scene, sequence, etc while the last three operate at the micro or beat level. Characters Agenda/Subtext + Voice Character subtext or past experiences are what drive the expression of dialogue since they are what generate the inner action. A character’s subtext, their authentic voice, and their abilities to manifest action will constrain their expression. These guardrails of expression are what have to be considered when writing character dialogue. This is why it’s vital to have a solid story structure and character studies to guide your character’s dialogue. A character study is a description of the character that includes age, gender, physical appearance, internal and external struggles, quirks, etc. It’s a great way to ground a character’s dialogue since you want every word that comes out of a character’s mouth to be consistent with who they are and in their voice. It’s also their history along with character traits, values, beliefs, and skills that are the guardrails in which they can express their inner/essential actions. A character’s voice will also be unique to them. The more of a contrast in voice between characters, the more tension and the easier the reader can follow who is saying what. If characters have a similar voice sound or act the same, it will be harder for readers to keep track. Of course, you can use tags and markers to set off who is talking but as the reader gets to know the characters, it should become extremely clear who the characters are based on what they say and do. Pre Beat/Scene Characters Subtext The character study above is a macro level synopsis of the traits, values, beliefs, quirks, and skills that a character has. All of these parameters may or may not come into play at the Pre Beat/Scene level since all characters arrive at a beat with a macro-history and micro-history. As I mentioned before, the macro history is the guardrails of their action or what will be in character for them to do while the micro-history what happened before the beat/scene they are about to come into. It’s these micro-histories that will shape how the character acts at the moment. For example, if the character comes to the beat tired or hungry, they will have a different action/reaction than if they were fed and well-rested. Five Stages of Talk Each beat of a scene should follow the five stages and build on each other. If one or more of the stages is missing or not as strong, the dialogue is not doing its job. Again, dialogue is not real-life speech and it must not meander or build up like people talk in real-life with all the um’s and likes and on the nose exposition that real-life speech can have when a person is trying to figure out what to say. For a character, the writer can bypass all that at the moment thinking to deliver what the character wants to say. Every word must be intentional and mean something to the characters and the story. Post Beat/Scene Characters Subtext After each beat, the characters subtext has changed in some way since their inner action has been expressed or some new exposition has been revealed. These new facts need to be considered for the next beat or scene since it’s the sum of the characters experiences. Dialogue Analysis Examples Let’s take a look at a few examples of dialogue and how the analysis framework can be applied. Example 1 — Fargo For our first example, we’ll look at the movie Fargo that we analyzed on the Story Grid Roundtable Podcast. I picked this as the first one because it clearly shows the five tasks of dialogue as well as the pre and post beat subtext, which changes substantially from the start to the end of the scene. Characters Agenda + Voice Carl and Gaear want to get to the hideout after kidnapping Jean. Carl is a highly-strung, talks too much know-it-all while Gaear is the strong/silent but deadly type. Pre Beat Subtext Kidnappers Carl and Gaear are taking their victim Jean to the hideout. They get pulled over on the highway for not having a license plate. Carl and Gaear want to deceive the trooper so he does not find Jean. This scene takes place at 02733 after they get pulled over on the highway. Dialogue CARL How can I help you, Officer? TROOPER Is this a new car then sir? CARL It certainly is, Officer. Still got that smell TROOPER You’re required to display temporary tags, either in the plate area or taped to the inside of the back window. CARL Certainly TROOPER Can I see your license and registration, please? CARL Certainly. Yeah, I was gonna tape up those … The tag. You know, to be in full compliance, but it must have [CARL shows a $50 to the TROOPER] … must have slipped my mind. So maybe the best thing to do would be to take care of that right here in Brainerd. TROOPER What’s this sir? CARL My license and registration. Yeah, I want to be in compliance. I was just thinking we could take care of it right here, in Brainerd. TROOPER Put that back in your pocket please, and step out of the car, please, sir. [TROOPER hears Jean whimpering. Looks in the back and Gaear smashes his head then shoots him dead.] CARL “Whoa. Whoa, Daddy.” Five Stages Desire Carl wants to get to the hideout with Jean without being Sense of Antagonism The of Action Carl tries to talk his way out of the trooper sniffing around by hinting at a Carl presents his wallet with a $50 sticking out of it. The Trooper senses the bribe and asks Carl to “put that back in your wallet and get out of the car.”Expression Carl looks at Gaear, wondering what to do. Gaear smashes the cop against the car and shoots him dead. Post Beat Subtext Gaear killed the trooper and now they need to take care of the body and get out of there quickly. Carl is clearly upset about what happened and now knows, more than before, that Gaear is a psychopath. Example 2 — Pride & Prejudice Jane Austin’s Pride & Prejudice is the masterwork in the Love > Courtship genre. Her use of dialogue makes the story flow and gives great scenes like the one below between Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Bennet. Characters Agenda + Voice Mrs. Bennet wants to marry off one of her daughters to Mr. Bingley. Mrs. Bennet is quite excitable so her voice is high pitched and fast. Mr. Bennet is a serious man but loves to give his wife a hard time since he knows that she’s a gossip. Pre Beat Subtext We are introduced to three of the Bennet sisters and how obsessed Mrs. Bennet is with marrying them off to good men so the family can be taken care of. Dialogue “What is his name?” “Bingley.” “Is he married or single?” “Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!” “How so? How can it affect them?” “My dear Mr Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.” “Is that his design in settling here?” “Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.” Five Stages Desire Mrs. Bennet wants to know more about Mr. Bingley for her Sense of Antagonism Mr. Bennet’s apathy to doing soChoice of Action Mrs. Bennet wants to know as much as she can about Mr. BingleyAction/Reaction Mrs. Bennet tells Mr. Bennet that she is thinking that Mr. Bingley would be a good match for one of her daughters. Mr. Bennet is Mrs. Bennet wants Mr. Bennet to inquire right away and is adamant about him doing it quickly. Post Beat Subtext Mr. Bennet will be pestered by Mrs. Bennet until he goes for a visit to inquire about Mr. Bingley’s status. How to Format Dialogue The rules for formatting dialogue are straightforward for 90% or so of the dialogue you’ll write. It’s best to start with the simple and expand as you get better at writing dialogue. There are two formats to consider when writing dialogue — what tag or markers to use and proper punctuation. Dialogue Tags A dialogue tag is a small phrase either before, after, or in between the actual dialogue itself to communicate attribution of the dialogue who is speaking. The most common tags are said and asked with the most common placement being after the dialogue as in “Can you come here?” Jane asked.“I’m on my way,” Jack said. There is some debate as to the types of tags or a variety of tags that should be used. This centers around whether adding the actions to the characters as opposed to adding the narration after the tag as follows “Can you come here?” Jane yelled from the other room. “I’m on my way,” Jack shouted back. Compare that to “Can you come here?” Jane asked. Her voice echoed as she yelled from her home office, which was added last summer.“I’m on my way,” Jack said. His low baritone rattled the windows in Jane’s office. I don’t think there is any right answer to what to do but I would add that it will depend a lot on what type of pace you want your dialogue to take. For rapid-fire dialogue, the amount of complexity in the tags and narration will slow it down but also can reveal exposition about the characters as illustrated in the last example. The set and setting of where the dialogue takes place will affect the tone and tenor between the characters. These variables affect the pace and the variety of pace in a story makes it more interesting and engaging. We’ll talk more about that in how to write captivating dialogue. Punctuation Dialogue punctuation rules are simple. There are two parts that need to be punctuated the actual dialogue, which identifies the words spoken, and the dialogue tag, which identifies who is speaking. The basic rules of dialogue punctuation are as follows Surround your dialogue with quote marks and add a comma before closing the quotes if you’re using a new paragraph for new periods inside of quotation marks when not using dialogue tags. These basic rules should get you most of the way to properly formatted dialogue. This excellent post from Thinkwritten will get you the rest of the way. How to Write Dialogue That Captivates Readers Captivating dialogue is effortless for the reader to read and digest. It never gets in the way, always feels natural, and is in the authentic voice of the character. In order to do that, we’ll apply the captivating dialogue framework to write the dialogue and if needed, we follow that up with the analysis. Not all dialogue you write will require analysis so don’t feel like you have to look at every single beat of dialogue. Rather, save the analysis method for when you’re stuck or the dialogue is not working. Captivating Dialogue Creation Framework At the Story Grid, we like frameworks and objective ways to craft stories. For us, this is the best way to have a consistent process of creation, where if we follow the process, we have a better shot at creating a story that works. The same goes for dialogue. The importance of this process-driven methodology comes to light when a story or beat of dialogue has problems. Since we rely on objective measures, usually we can pinpoint the problem and provide a solution. For dialogue, I propose the following framework Genre Specific Conventions, Scenes, Tropes, and StylesCharacter Studies + Annoying Quirks + Authentic VoiceRamp up Conflict + TensionWeave Subtext using ExpositionBalance Dialogue/Narration for PaceRead it AloudAnalysis when needed 1 Genre Specific Conventions, Scenes, Tropes, and Styles All writers need to pick a genre. Genre selection will then lead to the conventions, obligatory scenes, tropes, and styles that readers of the genre are expecting. This list of requirements allows the writer to already have scenes and tropes that will give hints for great dialogue. For example, if your story is in the Love > Courtship genre, then one of the Obligatory Scenes is when the lovers meet — you can’t have a love story without lovers. The dialogue between the lovers needs to convey some form of either interest or hate or a combination of both. When they talk about the potential suitor to others, the exposition of interest or annoyance or lust comes through in the dialogue. Or in contrast between inner and outer dialogue what they say to others versus what they admit to themselves. Much of this will depend on the POV you’re using. In terms of scene tropes, any Crime story usually has a scene in a police car or station house. The words the police use will be in a certain style and readers will expect the good cop/bad cop or a police car ride or an integration scene trope. 2 Character Studies + Annoying Quirks + Authentic Voice Once you have settled on your genre, you’ll need to figure out the characters in your story. For convenience, we’ll assume that all stories will have at least a victim, a villain antagonist, and a hero protagonist. These three characters will clearly talk to each other at some point and need to have enough of a difference so that it’s clear who is talking even without dialogue tags. A quick character study of a few paragraphs describing the character along with some character-specific quirks will set the tone for how they speak. It’s always a good idea to have character quirks that annoy other characters so that the tension is built into every interaction. For example, in the Fargo scene we looked at before, Carl and Gaear have quirks that get on each other’s nerves. Carl talks too much. He thinks he’s the smartest of the two. Gaear is quiet and reserved but will resort to violence when he is annoyed. This makes Carl nervous so he talks more thus annoying Gaear even more. As the movie progresses spoiler alert, Carl annoys Gaear to the point where Gaear shoots and kills him. Talk about ramping up the conflict + tension. 3 Ramp up Conflict + Tension Dialogue should moderate the pace of the story and the best way to do that is to ramp up the conflict and tension between characters. All dialogue should perform the six tasks and conflict is the best way to accomplish that. The true nature of a character and frankly people in real life are revealed under stress and strain. The inner action that’s under control one minute will suddenly explore out when the conflict or tension is ramped up. Great dialogue will masterfully “power of ten” the conflict and tension to a crisis and climax that will surprise and delight the reader or viewer. Another way to think of this conflict and tension ramp is to imagine you’re a director of a movie. The actors are in the scene and you’re trying to visually capture the energy of the scene. At your disposal is the shots the camera can get. Wide shots. Narrow shots. Split shots. Out of focus shots. All of these pieces of the scene can be used to reveal what the characters are doing. The same goes for written dialogue. Being able to “move the shot” around in your dialogue will give different ways to ramp up the conflict or change the pace. Being specific about a certain detail or use of a word or even a group of people off in the distance can make a difference. That’s what’s done in this Die Hard Scene. Image how you would write this into a script or novel HAN GRUBER [On the radio] You are most troublesome for a security guard. JOHN MCLANE [Imitates buzzer] Sorry, Hans. Wrong guess. Would you like to go for double jeopardy where the scores can really change? HANS GRUBER Who are you, then? JOHN MCLANE Just a fly in the ointment, Hans. A monkey in the wretch. A pain in the ass. It’s a simple exchange but it ramps up the tension and also reveals John’s character, Han’s character and the exposition that John is going to cause all sorts of trouble for Hans. We don’t know how yet and that’s what makes us want to keep watching. 4 Weave Subtext using Exposition When characters are under stress and strain, it’s easier for them to reveal hidden secrets or details that they might not want to reveal. It’s these “oops” moments or a reflective moment that makes great dialogue. These moments are what is meant by using exposition as ammunition to reveal character quirks, subtext, and story details. The challenge is to not make the exposition reveal too obvious or boring or “on the nose.” That type of dialogue will distract the reader from the story and harms the flow of the story. As an example, look at this passage from Little Red Riding Hood to see how exposition is used to reveal story details. “You will need to wear the best red cloak I gave you,” the mother said to her daughter. “And be very careful as you walk to grandmother’s house. Don’t veer off the forest path, and don’t talk to any strangers. And be sure to look out for the big bad wolf!” “Is grandmother very sick?” the young girl asked. “She will be much better after she sees your beautiful face and eats the treats in your basket, my dear.” “I am not afraid, Mother,” the young girl answered. “I have walked the path many times. The wolf does not frighten me.” This beat of dialogue foreshadows what is to come and while maybe not as subtle as it could be, it gives the reader the necessary background to create tension as the girl sets off to grandma’s house. 5 Balance Dialogue/Narration for Pace Dialogue does not live in a vacuum. It needs narration to give subtext, explain the physical world, and to set up the situations our characters find themselves in. While there are no hard fast rules on the split between dialogue text and narration text, I did a brief study of 14 books from Project Gutenberg. See below for the statistics. A perfect split between dialogue words and narration words would be 50%. Anything below 50% would be more narration. Anything above 50% would be more dialogue. As you can see from the sample, there tends to be, on average, more narration than dialogue. This intuitively makes sense since narration sets up dialogue and most dialogue uses tags or markers to set it off. My guess is that the Dialogue/Narration ratio will depend on the genre, so take these numbers as such. Another consideration on the Dialogue/Narration spectrum is the pace of the story. In general, the more narration in a scene, the slower the pace while more dialogue will tend to make the pace faster. That’s one of the reasons that dialogue is not real-life speech. It is stylized speech in which the author, through the characters, has a purpose for each word. When dialogue hits its mark, the pace of the story quickens because all of the sub-text, narration setup, and stylization reveals the characters inner action in the least amount of words. When writing dialogue, it’s good to mix up the dialogue/narration ratio so that the reader can feel the pace quicken or take a break to internalize and synthesize what just happened. This variety in dialogue will keep readers interested and yearning to find out what happens next since story is about change and the way a story changes should be varied. 6 Read it Aloud Nothing gives you a better sense of the tone, tenor, and pace of dialogue like reading aloud, preferably in each character’s unique voice and accent if present. Reading dialogue aloud will connect the words on the page with the processing in your brain. What I mean by this is that when you verbalize dialogue, your attention is heightened because you have to read then speak. That’s a different pathway than the normal shortcuts most people take while reading, skipping connector words or full-on sentences. 7 Analysis When Needed Not all of the dialogue you write will need a detailed analysis discussed above. My guess is that the more dialogue you write, the better you’ll naturally ask yourself the important questions about raising the conflict by power of ten, revealing exposition, keeping a consistent character voice, and distilling the words characters say into tight interactions. If you do get stuck, then doing the analysis will get you unstuck. Remember that dialogue that’s not working is usually rooted in a fundamental story problem and my guess is that the analysis will reveal an underlying story problem that will need to be fixed. Pitfalls to Look Out For Most dialogue pitfalls come from not setting up the subtext enough so that the characters can express their inner action in their authentic voice. Usually, it’s obvious when the exchange is read aloud but sometimes the writer can get so consumed with the process that even an aloud read can’t find it. The analysis framework will likely catch any problem but as I mentioned before, it can be cumbersome to apply to all your beats of dialogue. That’s why I have come up with a couple of spot checks for your dialogue to quickly catch the majority of the pitfalls that writers run into. Confusion on Who’s Talking This is especially problematic with more than two people talking. Use the tags liberally to get the flow and then fine-tune in later Too much cursing takes away from the power of the words and will bore the reader. That does not mean that a well-placed f-bomb will not hit the use of Period Speech/Mixing of Speech If you’re writing period pieces, then getting the words right Humor Humor is hard to write and should be used sparingly unless you’re writing a comedy. Pay particular attention to jokes that are meant to break the tension since those are the of Dialogue Tags Don’t get carried away with having to mix up different dialogue tags. When in doubt, use said and asked. Having too many different dialogue tags can wear out the the Nose Dialogue Avoid stating the obvious or what the characters already know. This is the classic telling problem where the action of the character is more important than them telling the other character what they are doing. Your best tool for catching dialogue problems will be reading it aloud over and over again so that you get the tone and tenor of the character’s authentic voice down cold. It’s also good practice to step away from the dialogue so you can look at it fresh after doing something completely different. Dialogue Writing Prompts The framework above is a good way to create dialogue once you have an idea. Sometimes, those ideas are hard to come by. That’s why having a few go-to writing prompts will make the creation process a little easier. The best resource I found for prompts comes from Daily Writing Tips and their post 70 Dialogue Writing Prompts. At the end of the post, they also have a list of additional resources for even more prompts. The ones I have listed below are a sample of what Daily Writing Tips has as well as the other resources. The sources are denoted in brackets. “Ma’am, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. Please, sit down.” [Daily Writing Tips]“This is going to be way harder than we thought.” [Daily Writing Tips]“Oh man, I’ve had the worst day ever.” [Daily Writing Tips]“You must have misheard me.” [Daily Writing Tips]“If you could just set it down – very slowly – and then back away.” [Daily Writing Tips]“Do you maybe think, in retrospect, that this was a terrible idea?” [Daily Writing Tips]“I’m so sick of all this gloom and doom. Why can’t people just be happy?” [Marylee McDonald]“You’re going in there right now and apologize.” [Marylee McDonald]“I’m asking because I’ve seen the way you look at me.” [A Cure for Writer’s Block]“Will you stay the night?” [A Cure for Writer’s Block]“I want to spend the little time I have left with you and only you.” [A Cure for Writer’s Block]“Sometimes, being a complete nerd comes in handy.” [Chrmdpoet]“How much of that did you hear?” [Chrmdpoet]“People are staring.” [Chrmdpoet] Hopefully, you won’t need to use too many prompts. Again, dialogue problems are usually story problems so if your story structure and character design is solid, then your dialogue should follow. If you get stuck and can’t figure a way out, then read one of the masterworks in your genre for inspiration. Chances are, those stories will inspire you and get you past your block. The Golden Rule of Dialogue Dialogue problems are story problems. If you feel that your dialogue is weak or lackluster, chances are, your story fundamentals are not in place. Luckily, you’re reading this on the Story Grid and we can help. The Story Grid is a framework for telling better stories. It exists to help writers objectively evaluate their stories to see what’s working and what’s not. The best place to start is the editor’s six core questions and the five commandments of story. These macro and micro tools will give you some keen insights into where your dialogue problems are coming from. If you’re like me, then most of your dialogue problems will come from not setting up scenes properly five commandments, character development wants and needs, and moving the story forward conventions and obligatory scenes. Clear, concise, and compelling dialogue is achievable the same way you write a great story — by starting out with a clear, concise, and compelling framework. A framework like the Story Grid can help give you objective measures of how well your story works so you can learn how to write dialogue that flows naturally from your character’s authentic voice. Special thanks to Kim Kessler for reviewing this post and providing some great feedback. References Robert McKee Dialogue The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage, and ScreenJames Scott Bell How to Write Dazzling DialogueMarcy Kennedy A Busy Writer’s Guide to DialogueSammie Justesen Dialogue for Writers Infographic Download the Math of Storytelling Infographic Share this Article 🟢 Twitter — 🔵 Facebook — 🔴 Pinterest GET 100% OFF A STORY GRID BOOK OF YOUR CHOICE GET 100% OFF A STORY GRID BOOK OF YOUR CHOICE Sign up below and we'll immediately send you a coupon code to get any Story Grid title - print, ebook or audiobook - for free. Browse all the Story Grid titles /ˌdaɪəˈlɔg/ /ˈdaɪəlɒg/ Other forms dialogues If you land a role in a local play, you will probably have to memorize several lines of dialogue. If you disagree with how that play is being produced, you may want to open up a dialogue with the director. Dialogue can refer to spoken lines in a dramatic performance such as a play, a film, or a television show. It is also any conversation between two or more people. On the written page, dialogue between characters is usually enclosed by quotation marks. When persons representing different political parties or different nations are said to engage in a dialogue, it means they are probably negotiating something of importance. Definitions of dialogue noun a conversation between two persons noun a discussion intended to produce an agreement “they disagreed but kept an open dialogue” synonyms negotiation, talks noun the lines spoken by characters in drama or fiction synonyms dialog see moresee less types duologue a part of the script in which the speaking roles are limited to two actors type of book, playscript, script a written version of a play or other dramatic composition; used in preparing for a performance noun a literary composition in the form of a conversation between two people “he has read Plato's Dialogues in the original Greek” synonyms dialog Pronunciation /ˌdaɪəˈlɔg/ /ˈdaɪəlɒg/ DISCLAIMER These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word dialogue'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of or its editors. Send us feedback EDITOR'S CHOICE Look up dialogue for the last time Close your vocabulary gaps with personalized learning that focuses on teaching the words you need to know. Sign up now it’s free! Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement. Get started In the first article of this three-part series, we identified five types of conversations, while in the second article, we looked at examples of these five types of conversations, and what could be accomplished. In this third and final article in this series of “Daring to Dialogue”, we continue by looking at dialogue more in-depth, trying to gain an understanding of how this conversation works. Structure of Conversation Determines Performances or Outcome The first step when we’re aiming for dialogue is to understand how conversations work. Conversations have a structure, and it’s the structure that actually determines performance or outcome of a conversation, and whether we are more in monologue or dialogue. Every sentence that we say can be coded into one of four actions, and that’s what makes conversations effective is when we’re able to voice all four of these actions fluently in a conversation. When we’re able to do that, the nature of the conversation changes, and we move from monologue to more skillful conversation and dialogue. Next, we’re going to walk through these four actions and notice, as I tell you about them, where you might start to place some judgment on one or more of them. The First Conversation Action Step is Move’ The first action step is move’. Move initiates. It suggests a new direction or introduces a new idea or concept in the conversation. For an example, “Let’s go to lunch.” This is a move. After a move, there are different responses. Next comes follow’. For example, “Sounds good,” this is a follow. Oppose challenges, oppose pushes back on ideas, providing alternatives or corrective action. For example, “No, I can’t today.” This is an oppose. Bystand bridges. It provides a neutral perspective or inquiry. For example, “I notice we have two different points of view here,” this is a bystand. Move and Oppose. Follow and Bystand Move and oppose are the vocal actions of advocacy or similar to defending, like we have in debate, and follow and bystand are the vocal actions of inquiry. Here’s the thing, we need both advocacy and inquiry in order to have a skillful conversation. Skillful Conversation With All Four Actions My husband and I had a trip planned to Bora Bora, which was a consequence of the pandemic. The other day he said, “Let’s go to Bora Bora.” That was his move. And I followed and I said, “I would love to.” And then I said, “I wonder what the current travel requirements are.” That was my bystand. And then I opposed, and I said, “But even if we could get there, I don’t really want to wear a mask on a plane for 15 hours right now.” It’s just not what I had envisioned. Next, I made a new move and said, “Let’s come back to this in six months and look at it.” This is an example of a conversation where you can see all four actions happening and we need all four to be voiced and active in the conversation in order for it to be a skillful conversation. Dialogic Approach vs Monologic Approach What can a dialogic approach versus a monologic approach get you? Engaging in dialogue comes from a belief that human beings create, refine, and share knowledge through conversation. And to illustrate the need for dialogue, I want to tell you a quick story. It’s a tale of two companies. The first one I’ll call “Blue Ocean Tech” and the second I’ll call “First Stack”, both are in the tech sector. These two companies had several similarities, both are about the same age. They were founded about 11 years ago. International organizations with offices worldwide, and Blue Ocean was a bit larger with about a billion in annual revenue and First Stack was about 200 million in revenue. Both companies were also experiencing what I call a front page crisis. This is where the executive team gets feedback from their organization via the media, on the front page of paper. And as you might imagine, this induces high stakes and it causes a great deal of disruption. So, executives in both of these companies were feeling called out, very blindsided. And as is often the case, one side of the story played out in great drama over the media and the other sides of the story remain untold. Just imagine; for the story to have made its way to the press, there is a great deal of frustration, a lack of feeling heard, and not valued by the employees. And in both cases, a belief that a moral crime had been committed by the executive team. Here’s where the similarities of those stories end because each company had a choice to either suspend or defend. First Stack chose to defend. They publicly defended their position and explained why the issue had happened. First Stack hired a consultant, a mediator, and the legal team to draft new policies and processes to fix the problem that they believed had created the mess in the first place. This might sound great, but it has kept the organization stuck in the same dysfunctional patterns that created their crisis in the first place. That was top down, in other words, the chances of them having another Groundhog Day moment are high. First Stack has returned to their old behaviors of monologue and protection. However, they’re filling in their mind, the roles expected of leaders, and yet both sides, employees and executives feel greatly misunderstood and deflated. Blue Ocean Tech made the choice to suspend. And they publicly took responsibility for what was happening, declined any further comment, noting that they were turning internally to listen. The executives of Blue Ocean Tech began to hold listening sessions in small groups across the company. Executives cleared their calendars and wanted to hear firsthand from employees what was happening. Blue Ocean Tech took action from their first round of dialogue, and then actually continued using that dialogic approach, engaging the whole company from the get go. The conversations have actually shifted the culture in the organization and changed the leadership team for better. They are still working on the outcomes of the story, but the end is pretty promising and the change feels sticky and real, because they are too changing mindset and thinking, not processes and rules. And they are moving forward, but with a very different energy and outcomes than First Stack. Defend vs Suspend. Different Action, Different Outcome Let’s get into what happened here. The executives in Blue Ocean Tech are no different from me or First Stack or you, but they had something in place that was different. They had a few key people around them that they trusted, who pushed back and opposed. Their very first instincts encouraged them to start listening without answers or solutions, just listening. This was daring and brave, and it was completely outside their comfort zone, but they did do it, and the executives in Blue Ocean Tech listened. It seems like the simplest thing in the world to do, and yet it was the hardest for them. They struggled with all the assumptions and the stories that we talked about earlier. But the impact was immediate and people really appreciated being respected and heard. Listening and asking questions are undervalued and underused because somewhere along the way, we have this story that heroic leadership looks like leading from the front, large, visible, making moves, setting direction, having all the answers. We also have a story about what unhelpful leadership looks like. It’s passive, it’s not leaderful, it’s not knowing, it’s listening, and that’s the story that First Stack bought into. In First Stack the executives didn’t see at all how prioritizing voices of those lower on the totem pole would align with the internal vision that they held about what leadership should look like and do in this kind of situation. And they were incredibly afraid of opening Pandora’s box if they involve staff. Instead of listening or asking questions, they just moved forward with what they thought should happen. Leaders Bring The Weather! The moral of this story is that leaders bring the weather. Early in my career, I worked at a small startup and we had a private chat channel. When the CEO arrived each morning, someone would give a weather report in the chat. It’s cloudy, it’s sunny, it’s stormy, literally what the mood of the CEO was. This weather report informed my plan and others for the day. On sunny days, I knew I could have important conversations that mattered. If the weather was stormy or cloudy, those were the days that I wanted to lay low and go home early if possible. As leaders, you don’t have to have a title to be a leader, but you bring the weather. So, your words, your energy, your tone, all matter. When you are frantically running down the road, too busy to pause and ask questions, you send the message that there’s no space for conversation here. But when you show up willing to suspend your viewpoint, ask questions and listen to those around you, you are signaling to others that their point of view is important and that they are valued, and you are actively creating the space for dialogue to happen. The weather you bring is not about what happens to you, it is how you choose to respond. What if instead of focusing on the solution in monologue, we focused on creating the space for dialogue, with the belief that on the other end of the dialogue would be a more sustainable solution that no one person could have thought of on their own? Your Leadership Challenge Moving Forward! I have a challenge for you as you move forward. Be intentional about choosing monologue or dialogue. Remember, there is a use for monologue, like when you want to get a bunch of information out, but where monologue does not serve us is in the complex, repetitive, no easy answer conversations. When a conversation matters, remember these key takeaways, suspend rather than defend. Suspend your viewpoint rather than defending it, this way you can hear others. Stay in the conversation. Remember Blue Ocean Tech and their commitment to staying in the conversation, even when they were hearing things that were hard to hear. Voice all four actions, move, follow, oppose, and bystand. All four actions are needed to be voiced in a skillful conversation. Listen, rather than having an answer. It Takes Courage to Lead! Again, Blue Ocean Tech courageously took a seat and listened to the voices and experiences of employees. This is where real potential for change comes in. Create a space for dialogue, and you have to go first! Think about Katherine, who made the choice to create space for dialogue, even though it had not been part of her previous leadership style. She recognized that big, bold vision she had for the company, depended on engaging all voices. And she had to make space for that to happen. Here’s the deal, we will not consciously choose to be a victim, and yet when we defend, this is the role we are taking unconsciously in lots of ways. For far too long, we have and continue to talk about agile as frameworks, practices, and tools. And then we wonder why changing culture and leadership style are still cited as the top challenges to achieving business agility. Conversations Are Our Interactions In order to courageously lead transformational change, the kind that supports organizations seeking agility in our fast paced world, we really need to take seriously from the agile manifesto that it’s about individuals and interactions. Conversations are our interactions and they require bravery. They are the core practice of how we learn, how we solve complex challenges, how we make meaning of our current environment, and how we innovate moving forward. I ask you How can you be more intentional about choosing dialogue? If you missed the previous articles in this series, you can find them here. Part 1 How Daring to Dialogue Improves Performance and Creates a Culture of Agility Part 2 The Most Effective Approach of Continued Dialogue It’s Where Change Happens! If you’d like to watch Marsha present this, click here for a video!

where does the dialogue happen