About the training
Conversation is one of the most important, if not the most important, means of bridging differences. Yet having a good conversation is far from easy. You try to contribute to a complex discussion and find that your words are taken differently from what you mean. You explain as clearly as possible during a public participation evening what a certain policy is for, but no citizen seems interested; on the contrary, tempers flare. Research and practice show that talking about difficult issues often widens rather than narrows differences.
Reason enough to delve into the question of why conversations turn out the way they do, what mechanisms and patterns play a role and how the quality of conversations can be improved towards dialogue. A dialogue is a special kind of conversation in which the aim is not to win, as in a discussion or debate, but to arrive at something new together. An important starting point here is real listening and trying to increase mutual understanding. A dialogue thus also means working on the (working) relationship.
Unique to this training is the focus on real conversations in real life settings. What is said, how is it reacted to and what is its effect on the further course of the conversation? How can we understand all this and, above all, how can we do it better?
