Culture of Dialogue

Early this morning we had a meeting to discuss school climate – which is defined as, “multidimensional aspects of a school encompassing both characteristics of the school and perceptions of the school as a place to work and learn.” During the meeting a middle school teacher shared her vision about the type of communication culture she would like to see in Saline Area Schools.  The term she used was, “a culture of dialogue” where ideas and vulnerabilities can be openly shared and accepted by others.

During the day I thought about this comment and about the organizational communication that occurs, along with the type of communication I see expressed in society.  Maybe “election season” is not a good time to think about dialogue vs. debate – but frankly, I struggle to find examples where I see us consistently modeling dialogue.  I do see evidence of debate throughout our culture.

We will be getting the group that met today back together in a couple weeks, however, in the meantime I am going to try to model using dialogue driven communication and look for examples in the media and/or community where a culture of dialogue is chosen over a culture of debate.