Facilitation · 2-4 hour sessions or multi-day retreats

Bohm Dialogue

A collaborative communication model designed to explore the collective thought process and the 'tacit' ground from which human interaction emerges. Unlike debate or discussion, it focuses on the flow of meaning ('dia-logos') to reveal hidden values and cultural conditioning that govern group behavior.

When to use Bohm Dialogue

Effective for cultural transformation, resolving deep-seated systemic conflicts, fostering high-level collective creativity, and addressing 'wicked problems' where traditional analytical problem-solving has reached an impasse.

How Bohm Dialogue works

Facilitators can integrate this by removing traditional hierarchies and agendas, instead creating a 'container' where participants hold their opinions out for collective inspection. The facilitator acts not as a leader but as a participant-observer who helps the group maintain a focus on the process of thinking rather than just the content of the conversation.

Phases of Bohm Dialogue

  1. Gathering in a Circle: Participants sit in a circle with no fixed agenda, no leader directing content and no decision to reach. The facilitator explains the purpose of dialogue and then steps back to hold the space.
  2. Suspension of Judgment: Participants notice their assumptions and reactions and hold them in view instead of acting on or defending them. The facilitator invites people to observe their impulses to argue, fix or persuade and to voice them as observations.
  3. Active Listening and Observation: Participants listen to others and to their own thinking, paying attention to how thought moves through the group. Silence is allowed; people speak when moved to and build on what is said rather than rebut it.
  4. Sharing of Tacit Meaning: Unspoken assumptions, values and cultural conditioning start to surface and are shared openly. Participants voice what lies beneath their positions and explore where these meanings came from, without trying to resolve differences.
  5. Emergence of Common Consciousness: A shared pool of meaning develops as the group thinks together rather than as competing individuals. It cannot be forced; the facilitator closes with reflection on what the group noticed about its collective thinking.

Key principles

  • Suspension of impulses and judgments
  • Non-hierarchical participation (No leaders)
  • Focus on thought as a systemic process
  • Prioritizing observation over analysis
  • Creation of a shared 'common consciousness'
  • Absence of a fixed agenda or immediate goal-orientation

Best for

  • Collective learning
  • Cultural transformation
  • Metacognitive development
  • Team cohesion

Considerations

  • Requires participants to be open to inquiry and willing to abandon the need for immediate 'results'
  • Can be uncomfortable for those accustomed to structured, goal-driven environments
  • Demands high mental energy to maintain awareness of one's own thought reflexes

Attribution & sources

Developed by David Bohm, influenced by Jiddu Krishnamurti and Patrick de Maré (c. 1980s-1990s)

Primary source

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