Honest conversation in organisations: a Delta7 visual dialogue

How does honest conversation sit with business? The Delta 7 team sat down to discuss…

A regular feature of life in the Delta 7 office is the monthly Visual Dialogue where we get together to discuss something that interests us. We do this because it’s fun – but also because it’s an opportunity to experience and practice the process we create for our clients.

Our pictures are tools to engage people in organisations in conversations about difficult issues. These facilitated dialogues enable people to gain powerful insights about the changes and challenges they face – and come up with responsible and creative solutions.

The starting point for our dialogue was familiar to everyone in the team. “How do I look?”

To begin with, the conversation focused on that uncomfortable conundrum: when is ‘honest’ too honest? Is the truth always the right thing in all situations? We all recognised the experience of holding back on what we said based on what we thought another person wanted to hear. We also all agreed that even though it made things easier at the time, it left us feeling uneasy.

In the end, we concluded that what really mattered to us was for there to be alignment between what we think on the inside and what we say (or do) on the outside. It was clear that congruence was more important a quality than protecting our, or someone else’s feelings.

What do you think? Is the honesty important in your organisation?

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