IDP Resources
Strategies for Implementing Community Agreements in Meetings & Group Settings
Dialogue is a specific form of communication that promotes connection and understanding, especially across differences. It can be a powerful way to promote inclusion in academic and professional spaces. This resource includes strategies that the IDP team has found helpful for encouraging dialogue. These strategies are particularly useful for navigating complex group-level conversations and creating an inclusive learning and working environment. They also offer practical ways to implement Community Agreements, some of which we have highlighted here.
| Strategy | What it looks like in practice | Community Agreement(s) and other goals supported |
| Collect group input before a meeting | Ask participants to share agenda items or questions before a meeting or a series of meetings. |
Other goal(s) supported:
- Practice active and empathetic listening
- Be here now
Other goal(s) supported:
- Model the impact of sharing intentional, engaged time
- What energizes or excites you about this conversation?
- What about it makes you feel uncomfortable or challenged?
- Embrace discomfort
- Acknowledge judgments and assumptions, including our own
Other goal(s) supported:
- Highlight discomfort as essential for learning, creating shared meaning, and affecting change
- Take space, make space
- Be both teachers and learners
Other goal(s) supported:
- Make space for those who need time to process
- Prioritize voices with new and/or key perspectives
- One microphone
- Practice active and empathetic listening
Other goal(s) supported:
- Promote constructive communication, connection, and the development of trust and mutual understanding
- Take space, make space
- Be both teachers and learners
- Acknowledge judgments and assumptions, including our own
Other goal(s) supported:
- Highlight that all voices are welcome and needed, especially voices who are or feel less empowered and/or have alternative perspectives
- Be here now
- Acknowledge judgments and assumptions, including our own
- Practice active and empathetic listening
Using small groups and think-pair-shares before building to a large group conversation gives all participants the space to reflect on and share their perspectives.
- Take space, make space
- Be both teachers and learners
Other goal(s) supported:
Be generous in assuming intentions (and say this) but be courageous about sharing impact in a way that allows for dialogue.
- Practice active and empathetic listening
- Be both teachers and learners
- Trust intent, name impact
- What did we plan to do and why?
- What did we end up actually doing (and, if relevant, why did we shift our plan)?
- What happened when we implemented this plan? Why?
- What have we learned from this about what we’d like to do next time?
- Stories stay, lessons leave
- Acknowledge judgments and assumptions, including our own
- “Challenge the idea, not the person”
- “Trust intent, name impact”
Other goal(s) supported:
- Focus the group’s attention on the importance of group processes for setting and implementing goals
- Encourage individuals to reflect on their personal contributions to the group climate and its patterns
- “Stories stay, lessons leave”
- “Challenge the idea, not the person”
- “Trust intent, name impact”
Other goal(s) supported:
- “I’ve noticed that we are struggling to make and take space, as we keep hearing from a few of the same voices. What do we need as a group to work on this?” or
- “I see our group working hard to actively listen to one another. Though we had moments of challenge, this focus on listening helped us to have a constructive and respectful dialogue today.”
- Any Community Agreement that could to be named to support clear feedback to the group
Other goal(s) supported:
- Redirecting discussions and debates toward dialogue
- Model that leaders are watching for and expecting all to engage in constructive, respectful dialogue
A Note About IDP Resources
Members of the Cornell community are welcome and encouraged to use IDP Resources for educational purposes. This representation of IDP intellectual property is provided for noncommercial, educational use by the Cornell community only. Permission is required from IDP to reproduce or reuse in another form, any of our materials for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please contact idp@cornell.edu.
Cite this IDP Resource:
- APA: Intergroup Dialogue Project. (2022, October). IDP Resource: Strategies for Implementing Community Agreements in Meetings & Group Settings. Intergroup Dialogue Project – Dialogue Across Difference. https://idp.cornell.edu/idp-resources/idp-resources-community-agreements-in-meetings-and-group-settings/
- MLA: Intergroup Dialogue Project. “IDP Resource: Strategies for Implementing Community Agreements in Meetings & Group Settings.” Intergroup Dialogue Project – Dialogue Across Difference, Cornell University, October 2022, https://idp.cornell.edu/idp-resources/idp-resources-community-agreements-in-meetings-and-group-settings/
- Chicago: Intergroup Dialogue Project, “IDP Resource: Strategies for Implementing Community Agreements in Meetings & Group Settings,” Intergroup Dialogue Project – Dialogue Across Difference, Cornell University, October 2022, https://idp.cornell.edu/idp-resources/idp-resources-community-agreements-in-meetings-and-group-settings/
