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NVC Dialogue Practice
Also known as: Nonviolent Communication practice, OFNR practice
Practicing Marshall Rosenberg's core sequence on a real tension, in pairs or triads: state the observation without evaluation, name the feeling, connect it to the underlying need, and make a doable request — then switch to empathic listening, guessing the other's feelings and needs instead of defending. Built on NVC's working assumption that all behaviour, including anger and reproach, is an expression of needs.
Prerequisites
- Participants choose their own situation and its charge level — practice on mild tensions before live conflicts
- Formula misuse is the classic failure: 'NVC-speak' recited AT someone becomes subtle aggression; the form serves connection, not compliance
- Real conflict between people in the room needs explicit consent from both and a facilitator ready to slow things down
Practical
- Time
- 30-90 min + 15 landing
- Group
- 2–24 · pairs, triads, small-group
- Settings
- in-person, online
- Materials
- Feelings and needs lists (free from CNVC); real situations to work on
- Mechanisms
- dialogic-encounter, emotional-processing, cognitive-reframing
- Change scope
- state → skill · recurring-practice (regular practice groups are the standard learning form)
Origin & where it lives
Marshall B. Rosenberg — Nonviolent Communication (Center for Nonviolent Communication)
Instructions: open online
In this directory via IDG Phase 2 Research Report & Toolkit (2022) · Center for Nonviolent Communication · HostingTransformation Methods ToolBox · CLARITY Toolbox and Teacher's Guide
The Phase 2 Toolkit's entry point to Collaborating ("reducing violence and unnecessary conflicts" as the starting point of collective work). The needs-vocabulary is the hidden mechanism: it gives people words for what was previously only pressure.
status: checked · added 2026-08-25