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COLLABORATION:
Over time, we have learned that conciliatory dialogue is, among other skills, aided by:
• Remembering that nothing is impossible if we don’t mind who gets the credit
• Understanding that servant-leadership is about enabling, not controlling, others
• Sustaining high tolerance for ambiguity
• Welcoming newcomers at their point of entry
• Holding strong convictions tentatively and keeping all boundaries permeable
• Seeking to listen and learn rather than be right
• Ensuring all comments are related to the task
• Remembering that reality lies in the second glance, after dealing with prejudice in the first
• Acknowledging that thinking is difficult and that people move at different speeds
• Remembering that fragility is a mark of value: that which is not fragile may be pretentious
• Throwing out dogma, while preserving any wisdom or poetry that inspired it
• Checking one’s own tribalism and egotism by remembering that we share our fragile planet with others
• Being aware that dialogue’s ultimate goal is resolution and reconciliation
And two others from Independents For Frome – http://www.iffrome.org.uk
• The noble art of losing face will one day save the human race
• Democracy is the art of thinking independently together: http://www.constitutionalists.uk
Peter Challen: updated: 4th April 2016