The World Needs Dialogue

My friend Peter Garrett has been working professionally with the David Bohm Dialogue process since the mid-1980s, and we arranged a weekend event together with David in Gloucestershire in 1988. Bohm's work has recently returned to prominence with the release of the new film, Infinite Potential, about his life and work, which had over half million views on YouTube. Part of this was about his relationship and conversations with Krishnamurti – both men took the view that human thought itself, along with language, was the source of many of our challenges, especially those 'wicked problems' characterised by complexity, which require holistic and non-binary thinking. For Bohm, the problem was what he called fragmentation and the adoption of fixed dogmatic positions that undermine communication in general and negotiation in particular. In his introduction, Peter notes that organisations embody different forms of power structure with respective interacting lines and centres – and much of his work has been with organisations.

This volume of papers prepared for a 2018 conference consists of five sections: the first explains why organisations need dialogue, followed by sections describing interventions in criminal justice, healthcare, politics and economics, and finally some contributions on 'acorn' projects. A central theme throughout is the need for a common understanding requiring presence and openness. The critical four practices are deep listening without interrupting, respecting, suspending judgement and assumptions, and voicing. This needs to be framed within the context of checking in and checking out, with expert facilitation. There are many interesting examples given from various settings, and I was struck by the list of themes arising in prisons including loss and grief, being misunderstood, prejudice and assumptions, being labelled, isolation and loneliness, power and control. Results have been encouraging, and we badly need this dialogue approach applied to our most pressing ecological and political challenges by moving beyond nationalist positions and interests to genuine respect and collaboration. As such, this is a pioneering and inspiring volume.