Facilitating Meaningful Dialogue On Sensitive Topics

Conducting a respectful and meaningful conversation with team members with different backgrounds, personalities, styles, and interests can be tricky and challenging, even with relatively neutral topics. Facilitating transparent and respectful conversations on topics such as racial bias, gender inequality, or LGBTQ discrimination much more so as they easily become emotionally charged and perilous. Conducting conversations on sensitive topics can seem daunting because they often elicit strong thoughts and emotions and they can expose (sometimes previously unknown) values, assumptions, and lenses of our coworkers that may clash with ours. You may fear not being able to facilitate such a conversation yet shying away from having them and shutting down certain exchanges and topics is not an option. These are necessary and urgent conversations to have with team members and between departments. They matter for employees and for your organization as they are one of the ingredients for team effectiveness and for improving inclusion and equity in the workplace.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss mindset and preparation

2. Ask the right questions for the right reasons

3. Review general and specific facilitation techniques and skills

4. Handle in-the-moment delicate situations and dynamics

5. Evaluate and improve conversations about sensitive topics