Peacebuilding Manual/Facilitating Dialogue
Facilitating Dialogue
Facilitation of dialogue is a skill that can be especially useful during the stage of confrontation, before the situation has polarised to the point of the crisis. Of course, the application of this skill will need to be adapted to the particular culture and circumstances in which you are working. Guidelines for facilitating dialogue include:
- being clear about one’s role and objectives as a facilitator- that of assisting the process of communication without expressing your own views about the issue being discussed and of setting an atmosphere where differing views can be discussed;
- helping participants identify their own objectives – helping groups and key persons to own and support the structure and aims of the process;
- assisting participants to agree on ground rules for the dialogue- who will set the rules, decide when rules are violated or need to be changed;
- encouraging participants to listen to each other – seeking and articulating differences or common grounds, asking for personal opinions rather than political statements, listening to feelings and emotions