Bohm Dialogue • WorkshopBank
Bohm Dialogue • WorkshopBank is a circle dialogue exercise for relationship mapping: it helps participants build useful connections and understand how people, roles, or ideas relate.
How to run it
- The group has never met before and has no reason to invest in each other. The method demands vulnerability that strangers rarely offer in a single session.
- There is a pressing crisis that needs immediate resolution. Use a more directed method first and come back to dialogue later.
- The group is smaller than about 8 people. Part of the power comes from the complexity and diversity of a larger circle. With too few people, it becomes a conversation rather than a dialogue in the Bohm sense.
- You are trying to use it as a one-off team building exercise. The real value comes from repeated sessions over weeks or months.
- Participants sit in a circle and speak when moved to, while paying close attention to their own thinking and assumptions as they surface.
- Over time, participants begin to notice the automatic reactions, fixed positions, and unexamined beliefs that shape how they communicate.
- Space: A room large enough for all participants to sit in a single circle with no tables Chairs arranged in a circle before participants arrive No flip charts, whiteboards, or projection screens visible (these signal "workshop mode" and undermine the process) Quiet, private space where the group will not be interrupted
Run this exercise live
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What participants need now
Materials:
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Prompts to use +
There is a pressing crisis that needs immediate resolution. Use a more directed method first and come back to dialogue later.
You are trying to use it as a one-off team building exercise. The real value comes from repeated sessions over weeks or months.
Participants sit in a circle and speak when moved to, while paying close attention to their own thinking and assumptions as they surface.
Over time, participants begin to notice the automatic reactions, fixed positions, and unexamined beliefs that shape how they communicate.
Space: A room large enough for all participants to sit in a single circle with no tables Chairs arranged in a circle before participants arrive No flip charts, whiteboards, or projection screens visible (these signal "workshop mode" and undermine the process) Quiet, private space where the group will not be interrupted
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Bohm Dialogue • WorkshopBank. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: There is a pressing crisis that needs immediate resolution. Use a more directed method first and come back to dialogue later.; You are trying to use it as a one-off team building exercise. The real value comes from repeated sessions over weeks or months.; Participants sit in a circle and speak when moved to, while paying close attention to their own thinking and assumptions as they surface.; Over time, participants begin to notice the automatic reactions, fixed positions, and unexamined beliefs that shape how they communicate.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from WorkshopBank; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including WorkshopBank.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Method lineage: this exercise shares its method name with work attributed to William Isaacs and David Bohm in our people index. That is a name match, not an origin claim.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.