Dialogue

Between and across people and interests and fears: anger can be useful, just like awful jokes, or shared grief, because they can fuel mutual understanding. Dialogue is conversation flowing between competing agendas. Silence is often very useful: what kind of silence do we have here? Peaceful, noisy, terrified, or angry silence that is too enraged to speak? The silence of love, understanding, or hatred. High contexts, and low (Britain is low context: people are brief, to the point, unlike a high context environment where explanations are more nuanced and take time): always keep your pulse on the powerful individuals, who might just be the quietest in the room. Dialogue with powerful leaders (mainly men) can be like pulling my own teeth out. But it’s taught me so much about how to really challenge power, when anger can work. And when I need to shut up and listen.