What is it particularly suitable for

1. When a conversation goes around in circles for a long time and the group is not making much progress, Thinking Dialogue helps to get fresh thoughts.
2. At the beginning of a meeting, Thinking Dialogue can have the effect that everyone develops their own attitude to a topic, with which they can then start the meeting.
3. In addition, Thinking Dialogue can create a framework in which participants have more courage to address difficult truths

Why we love it

1. Fresh thoughts become possible where previously the discussion had gone round in circles.
2. If the listener manages to be with the thinking partner with full attention, it is a booster for the thinker, the whole group, the topic and the community experience.
3. Sometimes the conversation circles because the group lacks the courage to address difficult truths. Here, too, the protected framework of the Thinking Dialogue can break the ice, because if the difficult truths have already been spoken once in a two-way conversation, there is a greater chance that they will also be addressed in the whole group.

Procedure

• The facilitator sets a time frame and the duration of the thinking phases, in this example 10 minutes with two-minute changes.
• One starts with listening. The listener asks the thinker the starting question, for example: "What do you think about our topic xy?" Then he listens silently for minutes without interrupting.
• After two minutes, the thinker stops, no matter where he is in the flow of thought or speech, and the roles are switched. The thinker now becomes the listener and asks with genuine interest, "And what do you think about this now?" He says just this one sentence. Then he listens silently for two minutes without interrupting.
• The thinking partners change independently without an external time signal. Part of the task is to develop a sensitivity for evenly distributed parts of speech.
• After 10 minutes, the moderator gives the signal to end.
• The evaluation takes place in the plenary: In turn, everyone should share their completely new, fresh thoughts that have emerged in the Thinking Dialogue. If nothing new has emerged there, you can also remain silent.

Insider tips or "this is what we think is important".

1. The listening: As a listener, you cannot know where the thought journey will go. Anything you say or do will influence the thought process or interrupt the important thought that is just emerging. As a listener, therefore, you should not comment on anything, even with gestures such as a persistent nod, and you should not ask additional questions even if the other person is not saying anything at the moment, but listen very carefully and sympathetically the whole time. This also means that you do not think about what you would have to say about what you have heard (a difficult exercise ;-) ).
2. Speaking: As a thinker, you spontaneously say what comes to mind in response to the listener's question. You can refer to what your mastermind has said, but you don't have to. It is much more crucial to say what comes to mind at that moment . Use your listener's undivided attention as a vehicle to get into deeper thinking yourself. Unusual, but good: You can also remain silent during your speech in order to think quietly and only then continue speaking.

Attitude

1. An interested and respectful attitude towards the thinker is essential. The listener does not judge what is said.
2. Listening without bias is a form of appreciation.
3. What is decisive is not what is said, but the thought process that is triggered in the thinker when he is given full attention.

By the way: For a better readability we change the gender form per method.