Dialogue Day: sharing experiences for effective communication

What do you get when you put a group of communications professionals in a room together? Stimulating conversation and valuable insights. At least, that was what happened when we invited fellow professionals to join us for Dialogue Day on 17 May.
Together, we explored how much time we spend in dialogue, how effective it is and how dialogue is changing in the internet era. There were plenty of positive experiences to share.
Online tools, for instance, can create a genuine sense of dialogue and participation. Many people reported how Microsoft Lync and Google Hangouts enable international teams to work together effectively. Their ability to use images and type comments help members who are not so confident in spoken English.
But there were also confessions of too many meetings where teams forget the basics like defining a clear outcome or making time to wrap up and capture actions! What’s more, when we’re busy, we all risk ‘broadcasting’ rather than listening and truly engaging in dialogue with people.
Paradoxically, the proliferation of communications channels from websites to social media only increases the risk of broadcasting. It’s easy to push out a message. We can spice up our stories with infographics, images, audio, and video. But, as our participants agreed, this doesn’t constitute dialogue.
In the world of search engines and almost infinite choice, the real challenge is to create content that your desired audience will actively look for and interact with. Your content has to hit all the right buttons for people to give you permission to communicate with them.
To find out more, explore our Dialogue Day “7 golden rules of communications” or take a look at our Dialogue Day picture gallery.