We have been fortunate enough to attend the IV International Congress of Talent Management in recent weeks under the motto of Talent for Dialogue, a unique opportunity on the high value of dialogue for social understanding and to perceive a fresh air of reflection on conflict resolution.
The UNED of Lanzarote, our Third University of the Canary Islands, has been successful in organizing and bringing to Lanzarote the best talents to dialogue, share ideas, projects, etc. The organizing committee has done an outstanding job in giving the society of Lanzarote a great learning opportunity.
The "top swords" from all areas have had their space to communicate and dialogue. The best team of national and international experts from all corners (Canary Islands, rest of Spain, Mexico, Chile, Venezuela...), using different communication strategies: presentations, round tables, expert panels, exchange of experiences, all exquisitely moderated and coordinated, sometimes bordering on the impertinence of temporal accuracy.
"Talent in the face of an unequal global economy"; "Intercultural dialoguers. Talents for an inclusive society and education: reflections from existence"; "Talent and professional mediation"; "Dialogue in education"; "The socio-political dialogue in Spain as a historical problem"; "Dialogue as a premise for peace"; "Why don't we understand what judges say?"; "Social dialogue: the social dialogue councils in Spain"; "Communication and emotional management"; "Dialogue between religions"; "Dialogical therapies in Psychology"; "Dialogue in the economy"; "Interpersonal dialogue"; "Cybernetic dialogue"; "Social dialogue"; "Without citizens there is no democratic dialogue. The weaknesses and hopes of citizenship in Spain"; "Collective wisdom, dialogue and power in social networks"... These are just some of the titles of this Congress with which to account for the broad spectrum of topics addressed in it around the concept of dialogue.
From the treaty of the conclusions, we extract that true dialogue requires at least two basic conditions. The first is a reflection of one's own actions, the spirit of inquiry and personal change; otherwise, there would be a risk of not reaching the purpose of addressing the root causes of a crisis (whatever its nature) and, on the contrary, merely staying with the symptoms that appear on the surface.
The second would be the need for participants to be willing to show empathy towards others, recognize both the differences and the areas of coincidence, and demonstrate the capacity and willingness to change.
From the above, it can be extracted as a corollary that dialogue is a process of genuine interaction through which human beings listen to each other with such depth and respect that they change through what they learn, and that is, inevitably, each of the participants in a dialogue must strive to incorporate the concerns of others into their own perspective, even when disagreement persists. Obviously, none of the participants has to renounce their identity, but it is convenient for each one to recognize the validity of the human claims of others and consequently act differently towards others.
Well, as said, dialogue leads us to success, its absence leads us to failure.
Juan Cruz Sepúlveda