Focused Conversation

Basic tool for hosting structured and inclusive conversations

The Focused Conversation offers participants a clear structure for effective communication, conversation and decision making around a topic, problem or experience. It encourages the sharing of experiences and provides valuable new insights and perspectives. It’s created by the Institute of Cultural Affairs.

What is
Focused Conversation
about ?

What is

Focused Conversation

about ?

What is this Basic Tool about ?

The Focused Conversation method provides an effective structure for discussion to take place. It works well because it follows a natural human process of experiencing, thinking and deciding. The method provides the facilitator with the set of tools to skilfully formulate questions that allow all participants to contribute to a genuinely inclusive discussion that achieves the conversation’s intended aims.

When and why is this Basic Tool used ?

The Focused Conversation can be used in any conversation a group of people is having, where they need to come up with a collective way forward. It helps people to flow through a natural thinking process collectively and not get stuck.

Focused Conversation can be used in many situations as a basis to:

Collect data and ideas
Discuss difficult issues
Reflect on important issues or events
Work as a group on presentations and reports
Reflect on accomplishments or failures, with an opportunity for learning
Focus multiple interests on a particular topic or issues
Increase understanding of ‘givens’ in a situation
Explore levels of consensus that may already exist within the group
Avoid heated arguments by provoking thoughtful dialogue
Move any discussion to a productive end
Reach a level of shared awareness on a given topic or issue

Additional Questions about the Basic Tool

Have you ever been in a conversation that has gone around in circles, where people talk but fail to really communicate? Have you experienced discussions where some dominate the conversation while others don’t contribute at all?

Many of us identify with the experience of sitting in a meeting after which we are not clear what decisions had been made and how or why certain conclusions had been reached. The Focused Conversation tool provides effective structure for discussion to take place.

Ken Wilber

MuseKiss

Audience

Is participant experience relevant for Focused Conversation ?

It's okay if participants haven't seen the inside of a classroom in years

Audience description for Focused Conversation

Any groups that would like to communicate more effectively & inclusively. Facilitators that are looking for a basic tool to host clear and structured conversations.

Requirements

Experience level of the facilitator

Routine as participant OR professional facilitator

Number of Facilitators :

Run Through

Prep Work (excluding materials)

Prepare the structure that you would like to follow. What is the conversation about? What could be helpful questions in each of the phases?

Pre Exercise

Check-in, warming-up

Post Exercise

Check-out or closing

Online

Potential for Solely Online & Blended Learning

Yes, the facilitator can follow the same structure

project

IN WHICH THIS method WAS DEVELOPED

Hosting Empowerment

ERASMUS +

Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union. Find more information about the program and its goals here: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/.

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Creative Commons license:

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