exercise · all tools
Dialogue Interview
Depth · what it can open●●○○2 — reflective
Holding · facilitation2 — facilitator
Trust · group readiness★any
Disclosure · what is sharedoptional
A prepared but generative one-to-one conversation (30–90 minutes) designed to open reflection rather than extract answers: the interviewer sets an inner container in silence beforehand, asks biographical and meaning-oriented questions, suspends judgment throughout, and closes the loop afterwards. Used to begin change initiatives by meeting people, not collecting data.
Hold with care
- Generative interviews wander into personal territory by design — the interviewee steers depth, the interviewer only opens doors
Practical
- Time
- 30-90 min + 15 landing
- Group
- 2–2 · pairs
- Settings
- in-person, online
- Materials
- Prepared questionnaire; quiet setting
- Mechanisms
- dialogic-encounter, narrative-identity, stillness-silence
- Change scope
- state → skill · repeatable
Origin & where it lives
Otto Scharmer / Presencing Institute — Theory U (co-initiating phase)
Instructions: open online · CC BY (Presencing Institute)
In this directory via u-school for Transformation — Theory U tools · HostingTransformation Methods ToolBox
status: checked · added 2026-08-25