Summer Mondays: Virtual Sustained Dialogue Training (1-5p EDT/10-2p PDT)

Learn to use Sustained Dialogue to create more unified communities.

Each 4 hour session begins at 1pm (Eastern US time) and ends at 5pm. Please mark your own calendar.

Monday, June 9th, 2025 - Part 1

Monday, June 16th, 2025 - Part 2

Monday, June 23, 2025 - Part 3

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE GROUP WILL NOT MEET ON June 30, 2025.

Monday, July 7th, 2025 - Part 4

Content includes:

What is Dialogue? When does it work?; Turning Groups Into Coalitions: Using a Relational Lens for Facilitation and Understanding Conflict; How to do Stage 1 (how to recruit people and build space for successful dialogue); Stage 2 Skills: Active Listening Pyramid of Success; Exploring Lenses for Background and Identity for Facilitators; Asking Strong Questions in Sustained Dialogue® Facilitation Part 1; Asking Strong Questions Part 2: Debunking Skills/ Emotional Regulation; Dealing with Power in the Room: Equitable Facilitation in hostile, invasive, or invalidating moments; How to Lead a Community Root Cause Analysis (Stage 3 of SD)/ How to do Stage 4's action planning; Group 5 Stages Simulation and Closing

Are you and a co-facilitator looking for training to structure change in a deeply divided campus, workplace, or community? Are you a leader looking for expertise to convene and skillfully facilitate a circle process that allows others to participate in conflicts productively?

The Sustained Dialogue process is a 5-stage peace process developed in the Camp David Peace Accords and published in texts such as A Public Peace Process: Sustained Dialogue to Transform Racial and Ethnic Conflicts. This circle process is designed to be organized and led by everyday people who want an alternative to intergroup divides. This series details how to effectively use and facilitate this process, which was designed by former diplomat Dr. Harold Saunders to be used by willing participants to build relationships and come to action in entrenched conflicts. This civic peace process centers on bringing together in systematic dialogue--not negotiation--individuals from conflicting groups to probe the dynamics of their conflictual relationship, to think together about obstacles to changing it, and to design a sequence of interactive steps that might remove those obstacles. It is led on 60 campuses, in at least 12 communities, and in workplaces by people who have received this training. Learn more about the network at sustaineddialogue.org

This series of workshops is a full training in this methodology. We encourage you to register with a potential co-facilitator who shares different backgrounds than you, but who is similarly passionate about removing barriers to productive dialogue. Participants will learn to convene, apply, and facilitate this circle process. The series is also designed for facilitator pairs to join a network of Sustained Dialogue practitioners, a supportive community, and receive coaching from experienced staff from the Sustained Dialogue Institute, a nonprofit based in Washington, DC that builds capacity for groups around the world navigating divides around race, ethnicity, power, tribe, belief, religion, title and rank, water resources, land disputes in conflict zones, misperceptions, and more.

No experience is necessary, though we ask that each registrant consider their ability and interest in the following:

• Listening far more than speaking while co-leading a dialogue group
• Regulating one's own emotional responses around a conflict
• Listening deeply to those you disagree with (rather than using facilitation as a chance to teach others how to think),
• Working collaboratively with a peer co-moderator
• Practicing listening and questioning-asking skills
• Receiving feedback from participants
• Using a facilitation model that is different from many other facilitation/teaching processes.

Space is limited to 46 participants, so please sign up only if you can attend all sessions.

More About Logistics

• We take attendance to support the process of getting each set of co-moderators trained fully.
• You'll receive session handouts by email before each session.
• All sessions are hosted via Zoom. We welcome you to join each session in whichever Zoom format (computer, phone only, etc.) works best for you.
• You also are welcome to join by phone if that works better for you. Dial-in information for joining by phone is included in the Zoom access information.
• The series is meant to be a low-pressure learning environment. We welcome you to join from whatever physical space works for you to learn in, and pets, colleagues, and kids are fully welcome to wander in and out while you participate. This is also a very snack-friendly space. For longer sessions, there are breaks.

Do you tend to struggle to focus or participate in group settings?

For those who prefer active groups, you may be surprised others have their cameras off and do not interact with the full group. Group facilitators encourage both active and silent learning in this cohort, which may be strange for those who want a large group community experience. We encourage you to pay attention to the quieter and more subtle dynamics of the group, as those who tend to speak and be on camera are a fraction of the full learning group.

Some group participants often become friendly over several weeks, learning each others' names, and for some more private learners, this might feel unexpected and distracting. For example, you are likely to hear examples and sharing from others. In other cases, someone may speak up in a big group in surprising ways.

Because you won't simply be interacting with lecture material, we include this note, as viewing each group's unique dynamics may not be ideal for all learners and backgrounds. Please consider reaching out and requesting alternate methods to learn the Sustained Dialogue® process more privately.

What to expect from group interaction:

This workshop works when all participants are open to casually interacting with VERY diverse backgrounds and all levels of experience, but all interaction and breakout groups are optional. Being on camera is optional, as well, though some do turn their camera on.

Are you a student worried about interacting with others in other roles? Don't worry, this process is best learned while a student!

While the primary structure is not reliant on group interaction, there may be large and small group moments that involve practicing dialogue with others:

• giving input on group norms for this training experience (for example, not attacking others' backgrounds, or referring to people by their names)
• sharing about prompts like, "What's a piece of your background that matters to you?" or "What's a recent show, book, or experience that you enjoyed?"
• practicing listening deeply to others
• discussing learning content with fellow learners
• working collaboratively with others to develop solutions to community problems

I know that I can't make a session. Should I sign up?

Please sign up only if you can make each session. Why?

• Sessions are not recorded for data privacy. Missing a session requires a live synchronous makeup with a facilitator.
• Most people will have something that comes up by surprise because this is an intensive engagement.
• We hold public workshops each spring, summer, and fall, so please plan for the next training round instead of "making it work".

Not able to join this time but want to be notified about later offerings? There are two options: "Follow" us on our organizer page on Eventbrite OR subscribe to our emails and be sure to click that you're insterested in virtual skill series.

Organizing a larger group from your school, workplace, or institution?

We highly recommend sending each member of your group this link and having them register directly, or asking them to join the waitlist linked above. This series often sells out and organizing a group can be a slower process than this registration process allows. Please email info@sustaineddialogue.org to register larger groups through one invoicing process.

Why should you learn how to facilitate the Sustained Dialogue® process?

Many recognize the need to bridge divides and to build relationships to tackle complex problems. Yet, addressing these problems can often feel overwhelming and takes time that we don't have, Sustained Dialogue® is a process that can be applied to solve community problems in a less overwhelming way. The Sustained Dialogue® process can help groups find shared interests and identify achievable group actions. Through dialogue, participants collectively develop effective solutions more quickly than individuals would on their own.

During this workshop with the Sustained Dialogue Institute, workshop participants will learn:

skills for both being in dialogue with others and facilitating dialogue

how to create conditions for dialogue

how to apply these skills to addressing complex problems within their communities

What will I be able to do after fully completing this workshop?

If you complete all sessions of the series, you will be trained to co-facilitate a dialogue group for your workplace, community, or campus using the Sustained Dialogue Institute materials provided by the Sustained Dialogue Institute.

The Sustained Dialogue Moderator Skill Series will :

• NOT train you in how to train others to facilitate dialogue or to replicate the training experience that you received from the Sustained Dialogue Institute through this course. This means that you may NOT use any of the activities, content, or materials from the Sustained Dialogue Institute workshop series to train other people in how to facilitate dialogue.
• You also may NOT distribute, reproduce, share, or upload any content from the Sustained Dialogue Institute (including Sustained Dialogue Institute Sustained Moderator Skill Series handouts) without first receiving explicit written permission from the Sustained Dialogue Institute staff to do so.

In order to participate in the Sustained Dialogue Moderator Skill Series you must commit to the terms and conditions for accessing Sustained Dialogue Institute Materials as outlined below:

Terms and Conditions for Accessing Sustained Dialogue Institute Materials

The Sustained Dialogue Institute’s materials, including the Sustained Dialogue Moderator Skill Series workshop handouts shared in connection with this workshop, are protected by U.S. copyright law. The Sustained Dialogue Institute is the exclusive owner of the copyright in the materials that the Sustained Dialogue Institute creates. You may take notes and make copies of Sustained Dialogue Moderator Skill Series materials for your own use. You may not reproduce, distribute or display (post/upload) session notes or recordings or Sustained Dialogue Moderator Skill Series workshop materials in any other way — whether or not a fee is charged — without express written consent from the Sustained Dialogue Institute. You also may not allow others to do so. Unauthorized use, disclosure, distribution or copying of any information contained in this message or accompanying materials is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful.

Looking forward to seeing you!