Newsprint Dialogue

This is a silent way of debriefing small-group conversations that enables every individual to engage equally with every finding from the small groups.

Purposes

• To eliminate small-group reports that provide spoken summaries of their responses
• To give all participants an equal opportunity to comment on group findings
• To provide a silent approach that accommodates introverts and ESL speakers
• To allow people time to think through responses they wish to make to small-group reports
• To democratize a conversation so no one group or individual exerts disproportionate influence on a discussion
• To create a visual display of the discussion's highlights that can be photographed and preserved

How It Works

• In a large class, workshop, or community meeting small groups discuss a common topic, problem, or question.
• Each small group records all the comments, questions, and solutions posed during the discussion on large newsprint sheets. Groups are told everyone will read all comments carefully so they should be as concrete and descriptive as possible.
• Groups post their newsprint sheets around the walls of the room and hang a blank sheet of newsprint next to their posting.
• Each participant is given a marker and told to wander around all the postings and write down on the blank sheet any questions, reactions, agreements, or challenges the postings prompt.
• Often a silence quickly falls on the room as people individually study the postings and react to them.
• After ten minutes or so small groups are told to reconvene at their original postings and talk about the comments people left there. They discuss if they wish to respond to any of the observations made or questions raised.
• The whole group reconvenes and small groups are offered the chance to say anything they wish about the comments added to their original posting. Sometimes nobody has anything to add, in which case the facilitator points out that every person has interacted in a personal way with every item on the original postings and that a thorough debriefing has occurred.
• Before leaving the class or meeting, people are encouraged to take out their phones or tablets and photograph all the postings so these can be the basis of future discussions and agenda building.

Where and When It Works Well

This is a very adaptable exercise that we have used in multiple settings.

1. Staff and professional development workshops. We have conducted this in workshops with nonprofits, corporations, hospitals and HMOs, the military, community groups, in churches, schools, colleges, and universities.
2. Organizational retreats. This is suited to one- or two-day retreats in off-site settings.
3. Academic classes. It shakes up the humdrum familiarity of the small-group report format.
4. Community meetings. This technique is especially helpful when citizens are responding to a crisis, such as what to do about hurricane damage, reduce drive-by shootings, control speeding, or stop the closure of a factory or medical facility.

What Users Appreciate

1. Silence. Introverts appreciate the silence that typically falls on the room when people get their individual markers and start to tour the room reading the postings.
2. Time to process. For those who need it, there is time to make sense of information and think through how best to post a question or provide a response.
3. How it equalizes participation. No group's findings have any more prominence than any other group. No one can “speak” louder than anyone else in Newsprint Dialogue. Theoretically, the CEO's written postings carry no more weight than the administrative assistant's; the student's has equal weight with the dean's.
4. No performance anxiety. Because groups are told early on that there will be no conventional small-group reports, they can take the weight of performance anxiety off their shoulders. No one has to worry about sounding smart or choosing a reporter because report-backs to the whole group have been eliminated.
5. Movement. It gets people out of their chairs and moving around the room. We love to use this as an after-lunch activity!
6. It creates a permanent record. When a permanent record of the conversation is desired, the newsprint dialogue can be an excellent substitute for minutes.
7. “We feel heard.” Participants love to see their point responded to in print because it confirms that people are interested in what they have to say.

What to Watch Out For

1. Lack of clarity. Sometimes original comments are so brief their meaning is unclear and readers have no sense of the discussion informing them. Despite the instructions to make comments as concrete, specific, and detailed as possible, groups often post just headings with little elaboration and few examples.
2. Poor sight lines. If the group is too large some people feel crowded out from the process. They can't see the board or get through the crowd to post.
3. Hostile postings. People reading a posting may ask questions or give reactions that are interpreted by members of the original group as hostile or disrespectful.
4. Extrovert frustration. Those who like to talk out loud as their way of interpreting data and creating meaning may find it constraining to be in a mostly silent room.
5. Split verdicts. Be prepared for a split verdict on Newsprint Dialogue. Quieter, introverted types tend to love it. Extraverts are often frustrated by what they see as an overreliance on the written word. They want to talk! Just keep in mind that at least a third of the gathering is likely to find it worthwhile.

Questions Suited to This Technique

• Questions to capture a group's reaction to a report, class reading, or case study
• Questions that ask the members of a group to reflect on a common experience: “What's the best way to respond to resistance?” “When is pushback justified?”
• Questions that focus on good practice: “What are examples of authentic leadership?” “When have we come closest to working democratically?”