"Asking questions is fundamental to the practice of dropping knowledge. There is no better way to initiate a dialog than with a question, no better way to challenge conventional thinking, discover new viewpoints and stimulate fresh ideas…"

I have been meaning to post on this ever since a kindly reader of this blog whom I have never met, Michael, noting my penchant and passion for dialogue in my writing, alerted me to it: Dropping Knowledge - ’the global dialog[ue] platform’. [And thanks to Sara for re-reminding me!]

Yesterday, Sept 9th, in Berlin Germany, Dropping Knowledge held its first major event: bringing together 112 thinkers from around the world to Berlin to participate in The Table of Free Voices - answering questions posed by readers from around the world. You may well be interested in reading their responses / joining in the dialog.

While I was still learning more about what they do I was already in sync with their idea that asking questions is fundamental to sharing knowledge and making it accessible, and opening up conversations and dialogue. Indeed since September 2005 Dropping knowledge has been running a whole advertising campaign called "Ask Questions"

One of my challenges, or perhaps shall I say, disappointment, particuarly of late, is my feeling that there is not enough dissemination of what works. That our world could be better than it is. Importantly, not enough people are encouraged to ask questions, rewarded for asking questions, have positive experiences with asking questions, nor being taught to ask questions…such critical thinking skills are essential to living and fully participating in our world, rather than our world operating on us…

Or in a more positive spin: Everyone can ask questions and the more experience we have with questions the better we can develop our skills in them. Being given a space/environment (physical or virtual) to ask questions is amazing!

At the heart of dialogue means being able to speak up. Being able to ask…Feeling one has a voice and something of value to share. Being listened too is also crucial.

I look forward to learning more, and feel great to see that dialogue is growing in the world. A personal challenge of late has been the late of access and dissemination of knowledge that already exists. Powerful processes, like dialogue, like asking questions - things that work and are in us

…seeing this happen makes me smile. Things are changing, perhaps not as fast as I like, but they are. And I look forward to playing a part!

PS I have been meaning to write on the power of physical context in impacting/creating healthy dialogue - you will note that the Table of 112 happened around a circle. Circles are a powerful shape in dalogue as everyone more naturally has a voice and listeners…

PPS My current question, as I focus back down to myself and my responsibilities as well as the world: what is the smallest change I can make today that will have a big (positive) impact?". Am playing with my new tag line: small change –> big impact.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 11th, 2006 at 8:20 am and is filed under change, dialogue, knowledge & wisdom, questions, talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.