Participants listen to understand and gain insight into the beliefs and concerns of the others. Questions are asked from a position of curiosity. Statements are predictable and offer little new information. New information surfaces. Success requires simple impassioned statements.
Success requires exploration of the complexities of the issue being discussed.
Debates operate within the constraints of the dominant public discourse. Participants are encouraged to question the dominant public discourse, that is, to express fundamental needs that may or may not be reflected in the discourse and to explore various options for problem definition and resolution. Participants may discover inadequacies in the usual language and concepts used in the public debate. This table contrasts debate as commonly seen on television with the kind of dialogue we aim to promote in dialogue sessions conducted by the Public Conversations Project.