How they participate, make decisions and deal with obstacles are critical to overall team performance. Teams are more than a group. Team skills are learned behaviors that must be practiced. In order to achieve real interdependence, team members must move beyond simple cooperation and everyday civility. Real teamwork rests on artful skills of dialogue, negotiation, and contracting as well as the ability to recognize and resolve conflicts when they arise.
Dialogue is different from discussion.
In a discussion, there is a clash of ideas where the passion and logic of one argument is pitted against another in the belief that the best one prevails. In dialogue, the passion is not for one's own argument, but for understanding each participant's point of view. In a dialogue ideas receive a more equitable hearing. The idea which is finally adopted has more to do with its merit than the quality or passion of presentation. Negotiation is an important, and often overlooked, tool any individual can use to change things that are not working.