Thus, we didn't include training during the seminars. We focused training on how to do interactive teaching in the electronic classroom. What we learned is that faculty teach the cognitive content and shy away from the emotional issues inherent in difficult dialogues. Intense emotional responses may or may not be overtly expressed, but the emotional dimension is clearly present and most often discernible. It violates the code of silence and highlights everybody's vulnerability and defensiveness.
Some difficult dialogues are oral.
Those are the ones we are most often aware of. But many are brewed in silence. They are more likely to happen when you have diverse students and multicultural curriculum. Some happen spontaneously, but you can actually prepare for them and think about ways in which, helping our students engage in difficult dialogues, is part of what we need to be doing. The outcome of a difficult dialogue is always unpredictable.