Everything is ready to go. You have sitting around you people from a variety of cultural backgrounds. The topic and questions lie before you. Take a deep breath.
How will you give everyone equal opportunity to speak?
How will you keep the very talkative opinionated person from taking over?
How will you encourage the quiet person to contribute?
How will you give people the freedom to not contribute comfortably?
How will you manage your own impulses to speak when the group may need a moment of silence?
Enter Mutual Invitation
Mutual Invitation is a way of facilitating discussions that takes care of each of the previous questions. Here is how it works. The facilitator asks one of the group to read an opening paragraph from the discussion guide. After that person reads, they will invite someone else to continue the reading or answer the first question. The invited person will answer or say pass. When they are done, they will invite someone else in the group to take the next question or read the next paragraph.
The facilitator may need to remind the person speaking to invite the next person. They also need to be aware of someone in the group that has not been called on.
It is that simple. But it is genius. For the woman, the less dominant culture, for the new person in the group, every one is welcome and given a voice.
The credit for this method goes to Rev. Dr. Eric Law who wrote about the method in his book, The Wolf Shall Dwell With the Lamb, 113. Here at Bridges International, at Kansas State University, student leaders have easily picked up this system. It is easy to teach and easy to use. I have fewer worries about including everyone and keeping someone from taking over the conversation. I highly recommend this method. It works very well with the discussion guides on this website.
Have a rejuvenating summer,
Jane Fox
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International Conversation Cafe 