The Art Of Dialogue
And The Power Of Being Unplugged
Unstructured Visual Thinking
We use the word ‘unplugged’ to describe the concept of small, more informal and often ‘one on one’ meetings with us. These are informal ‘conversations’ designed to create safe environments to just talk.
They create great opportunities for the exchange of ideas.
- They allow us to listen without the pressures of agendas.
- They provide the space for realistic, less guarded, wholly unscripted conversations — a much more natural dialogue.
- They are confidential, respectful and designed in a way that’s more likely to uncover genuine insight.
- They are focused on getting to what matters and as a result enabling us to deliver value to the client.
- They are powerful because they involve listening without any judgement, prejudice or bias.
- They assume nothing, they have no predetermined agenda and as a consequence they will ensure we arrive at something meaningful.
The conversations are objective but we bring all our experience — they create an entirely natural way to just chat. If it feels right, or is genuinely appropriate/valuable, then we might weave insights and learning from our work around the world.
A Bigger Picture But It’s Not About Making A Bigger Program
These discussions are often a part of larger programs but there’s never an agenda driving for a bigger program or any specific outcome. They’re an hour or two — or less. They’re unstructured in that they don’t follow a format or prescription. They’re relaxed and not threatening. They thrive on spontaneity. They feel like they were just a great conversation.
They’re a human, non threatening way to talk about the important stuff — and designed as simple conversation. There’s no pressure to crack a particular problem. Interestingly though the human brain works on live stimulus — so it’s highly likely that fresh thinking will emerge.
Spontaneity together with natural conversation is what drives creativity. Unstructured dialogue that’s well directed results in new patterns. This encourages the chemistry in the brain to bring about more ideas.
Conversations allow us to get to the right questions
We’ve learned that the reason things don’t improve is because we’re not asking the right questions. Having more dialogue in more natural ways enable us to shape better ways of framing our real challenges and in turn helps us phrase better questions.
Always working in the way we’re thinking
When we think about it our most valuable moments are often when we are in reflection — walking in the park — certainly when least expecting it. There is no artificial moment or event that can just make that happen.
Clients deserve a trusting environment to speak openly — a safe space to share their thoughts. Often it’s hard for people who are close to a given situation to objectively think it through — and then to know how to think about a plan to go fix it.
In high pressure situations/roles it’s natural (but by no means ideal) to stab at remedies until one works. We need to talk. Let’s do breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Anything but meet at the office.
Read More About How We Create Value Through Conversation
How conversations are the raw material of structured output and deliver the critical thinking — creating sustainable value for the long-term
Understand More About How This All Works
Click here to understand more on how to engage and work through complex challenges.
