To Dialogue or Not to Dialogue - a Communologue at the Atlanta Conference - October 2010
|
The members of the Imago Peace Project, which is a committee of the Imago Relationship International (IRI), are going to lead a Communologue in the Atlanta Conference, which would try to deal courageously, with the issue of dialogue and being dialogical in our Imago community.
The Imago Peace Project grew out of a desire within the Imago community to make a contribution towards peaceful solutions to conflicts within groups and larger communities, partly in response to the tragedy of September 11, 2001. It was felt that the most needed and important contribution of this group, would be to develop the core Imago concept of the Couples Dialogue into a form that would work in larger settings; in other words, in communities. Out of this group's initial work, the construct of “Communologue" was developed. The Peace Project's belief is that the processes of mirroring, validation and empathy, modified to fit a group setting, provide the same benefits to groups or communities that it provides in dyads: safety, freedom from reactivity, assurance of being listened to, and connection. Communologue is a natural expression of the Imago mission to heal the world one couple at a time with the reminder that Peace is listening.
Communologue is a powerful dialogical process for communication, and connection in groups of three or more. Just as Imago Dialogue enables couples to move from struggle into deep intimate connection, Communologue provides an opportunity for larger groupings to move from entrenched conflict and distrust into a space of compassion, deep understanding and free flowing exchange of ideas. Applications range from the intimate (family groupings, support groups, committees) to larger community settings (work settings, schools, community groups) to international issues and settings. While similar in many ways to Couples Dialogue, the successful Communologue experience requires its own set of skills and trained facilitators to guide the process.
The purpose of the
Dear Imagoens,
With the news of the unfortunate cancellation of Don Gibbon's workshop at the conference, the Imago Peace Project is stepping forward to offer a workshop entitled "To Dialogue or Not to Dialogue" that will provide an opportunity to address questions around the community dialogical component of Imago at this challenging time in our organization.
There are those of us who hold Imago as a community dedicated to dialogue and as such, hold the belief that members should be willing to dialogue about any issue. There are others who see Imago as a community dedicated to helping couples learn to dialogue, but see their relationship with their colleagues, in a different light, regarding dialogue.
We would like to use this opportunity to deepen our learnings about what it means to dialogue, to maintain an attitude of PreValidation in the face of intense feelings, to validate colleagues who hold positions with which we disagree, including PreValidating those who choose not to dialogue (and those who choose not to be in the room).
As Tim has written in his update, while it is not our intention to push forward any subject, we would also like to emphasize that the spirit and policy of Communologue is to invite and allow sharing of every subject, while taking care that each person will be heard and respected regardless of his/her positions. We have found that it is only from specific issues, safely and deeply shared, that the process can evolve into a universal application that we see as the third leg of Imago: Couples- Singles - Groups.
This Communologue which we named: "To Dialogue or not to Dialogue" would take place on Saturday, October 30th between 3:30 - 5:30, and be facilitated by members of the Peace Project.
We thank Tim and the Conference Planning Committee for all they have done to facilitate making this happen.
Love & Peace
Orli and the Peace Project.