Research | The Life of Dialogue - Establishing a transactive relationship

This writing is about communication between people. To be more precise: it's all about dialogue, people talking to each other and learning. I will refer here to John Friedmann's article about transactive planning and especially to the seven statements about what are the conditions for meaningful conversation between two people. According to Friedmann institutions do not relate to each other as wholes but through complex series of exchanges among individuals. Although these individuals usually have formal roles they still communicate each other as persons.
Problems in the communication between people are caused by differing formal roles or statii or cultural differences etc. Messages are exchanged but relevant meanings are not communicated. People speak "different languages" so to speak. As people attending to a planning process usually have different viewpoints and different educational backgrounds, their way of processing information is different. For examble the jargon the planners use might not be intrepreted in a correct way. The real solution to these problems involves a restructuring or establishing a basic relationship between the stakeholders. The relationship between two people is basically built on dialogue that happens face to face in real time. Face to face conversation is very important, because the communication between people works in many levels including non-verbal communication. Friedmann describes the conditions for meaningful dialogue as follows:

1. Dialogue presumes a relationship that is grounded in the authenticity of the person and accepts his "otherness" as a basis for meaningful communication
2.Dialogue presumes a relation in which thinking, moral judgement, feeling, and empathy are fused in authentic acts of being
3.Dialogue presumes a relation in which conflict is accepted
4.Dialogue presumes a relationship of total communication in which gestures and other modes of expression are as to meaning as the substance of what is being said.
5.Dialogue presumes a relation of shared interests and commitments
6.Dialogue presumes a relationship of reciprocity and mutual obligation
7.Dialogue presumes a relationship that unfolds in real time

These are the rules of thumb for working dialogue. As we can see from the previous descriptions the life of dialogue suggests an intimacy that most people associate with the relationship between husband an wife, parents and children or close friends. This kind of approach was born when the impersonal, professional style of communication was proved unsuccesfull in joining knowledge to action in planning processes. One question remains: do we still need the formal roles? According to Friedmann the key element in transactive planning is mutual learning. "The planner's special skill, therefore, lies in his ability to be a rapid learner"

Reference: John Friedmann: Retracking America - a Theory of Transactive Planning, Garden City N.Y, Anchor Press 1975