Each month, I share three articles that made me stop, think, and sometimes rethink my own assumptions. I hope they stimulate your thinking as much as they did mine.
Dartmouth Dialogues
Dartmouth College is making dialogue a deliberate part of university life. Dartmouth Dialogues aims to equip students, faculty and staff to engage across differences through respectful listening, open exchange and constructive dialogue. I was particularly struck by its emphasis on dialogue as something to practise, not simply learn about, and by the connection it makes between dialogue, relationships, collective responsibility and navigating complexity. Read the article
Why You Should Talk Before You Write
Rod Naquin explores a deceptively simple idea: conversation can do something that writing cannot. Drawing on Socrates and Cervantes, he argues that a written text cannot respond, clarify or change when questioned, while conversation can. His phrase “talk is upstream of text” particularly resonates with my own thinking about conversation as a way of thinking together. Read the article
Seven Rules of Good Conversation
Ian Leslie offers seven practical rules for avoiding bad conversation, from knowing when to stop talking to recognising that good conversation requires us to contribute as well as listen. What I like is his attention to conversation as a shared activity: neither dominating nor withdrawing, but taking some responsibility for making the encounter worthwhile. Read the article
Knowledge Letter: Issue: 316 (Subscribe)
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Image Credits: Midjourney
(Public Domain)
