ALLiance Event: Dialogue Across Differences

On March 25 and 26, 2025, the Grinnell ALLiance offered a Dialogue Across Differences to the Grinnell Community.  More than eighty area residents attended the event at Iowa Valley Community College, which was facilitated by staff from the nationally recognized Posse Foundation. 

The day-and-a-half-long Dialogue offered a variety of structured activities that allowed participants to get to know other community members and to learn and use a set of tools to enhance their communication skills. These tools for Dialogue include the following advice:

• Ask questions

• Listen without offering rebuttal or advice

• Consider the possibility that you might be wrong

• Know when to take a stand

• Reach out, showing care and concern for others

• Think of people as experts of their own experience

A favorite activity among participants was “The Story of My Life,” which included three rounds of personal storytelling, each three minutes long. One person talked for three minutes while a partner listened without asking questions or interrupting. Then they traded roles. For the second round, the facilitator told the participants to “keep talking about yourself without repeating anything you said the first time around.” Again, three minutes of personal storytelling and active listening. Then came a third round with the same instructions: as you continue telling your personal story, don’t repeat topics from the first and second rounds.

Participants found this activity helped them get to know their partners quickly. It also reminded them how powerful listening without trying to direct a conversation can be. Not all the activities were easy for everyone. Reflecting on his experience of the weekend, one participant said, “As a Dialogue participant, there were times I was uncomfortable, but that’s what we want, right? To get together and be uncomfortable.”

80% of the participants who completed the evaluation survey would recommend that their friends and colleagues attend a Dialogue Across Differences in the future. Those attending appreciated the chance to meet new people in the community, allow themselves and others to have a conversation that went beyond social chatting, and to listen and be listened to. 

100% of the attendees thought that the quality of interaction with the other participants was highly valuable. And they are ready for more! The participants want to put into practice the tools they gained during the weekend, and use that as momentum to build a more welcoming community for ALL.