Guidelines for Discussion

by Thomas Mejtoft, PhD

This document propose 10 general guidelines for discussion with the purpose of, for example, performing divergent or convergent creative sessions, or giving feed-forward during evaluation of others’ work. The purpose of the guidelines is to establish a creative, inclusive, and friendly atmosphere during discussions with the aim to create value-driven discussions and avoid, uncreative, confrontations.

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Guidelines for discussion

  • Be respectful towards your peers. Do not interrupt or purposely divert focus away from others.
  • Be active while listening. Be active and respectful when listening, do not focus on your own thoughts. Listening is the key to a qualitative discussion.
  • Contribute to the discussion. Be active in the conversation and contribute with your knowledge and thoughts. Do not be afraid to speak your mind.
  • Nurture the dialogue. Use terminology that everyone involved in the discussion are familiar with. Explain discipline specific expressions instead of using it as a barrier. Not everyone is discussing in the first language.
  • Discuss, challenge, and criticize ideas and statements, not individuals. Focus the discussion on the ideas and not on the person behind the idea.
  • Focus the discussion on the group’s learning. The discussion should be forward looking, avoid debating. Do not use language that creates a hostile environment. Think about the effect your words have on others.
  • Do your best and trust that others are doing their best. Everyone included should aim to do their best and contribute with their knowledge and experience. Do not demean people for differences in opinion, lack of experience, or their ability to communicate their point of view.
  • Allow mistakes. Discussing is learning. Everyone is allowed to make mistakes and change their point-of-view. Let the discussion be a safe arena.
  • Avoid assumption about your peers. Do not assume someone knows anything specific based on their gender or background; let their words speak for themselves.
  • Honor confidentiality. Information about ideas and personal information revealed during discussions should be kept confidential.

Inspired by:

Examples of Discussion Guidelines by The University of Texas at Austin

Guidelines for Interaction for Better Class Discussions by Andrea Novicki at Duke University

Discussion Guidelines by MIT

Guidelines For Classroom Interactions by University of Michigan

Brown, R., Deletic, A., & Wong, T. (2015). Interdisciplinarity: How to catalyse collaboration. Nature 525, 315–317. https://doi.org/10.1038/525315a

Ruben, B. D. (1976). Assessing Communication Competency for Intercultural Adaptation. Group & Organization Studies, 1(3), 334–354. https://doi.org/10.1177/105960117600100308

Licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Creative Commons license.

(First published by Thomas Mejtoft: 2023-10-10; Last updated: 2024-11-22)