The purpose of an informed strategy dialogue is to stretch the parameters of current thinking, deepen our knowledge base, introduce new data, expand information and ideas, and allow us to listen and think in different ways. —> critical dialog can lead us to new possibilities.
Listen openly, suspend judgement and explore.
“A good strategic thinking dialogue is informed, risky, and critical.”
“Critical dialogue is not necessarily data or fact driven. It can draw from intuition, imagination, and experience and is enriched by deep-dive questions.”
“engaging in the critical reflective processes is a highly iterative (i.e., “messy”) process that leads us to a deeper level of thinking”
A good critical dialog doesn’t mean endless spewing of pointless garble.
Critical dialog is about testing and validating their assumptions.
Challenge and conflict is vital and necessary for progress and innovation.
“Generally, I find that it tends to take at least six rounds of these questions before executives start to hit on something.”
“Good critical dialogue is informed” – partners have the necessary knowledge. HOWEVER, they don’t have the same knowledge base or share the same frames.
Learning is construct meaning from data. Critical dialog helps us with that.