top of page

Discovery and action dialog

The purpose of Discovery and Action Dialogues (DADs) is to help groups uncover and adopt effective behaviors already present within their community—especially those used by individuals who succeed despite facing the same challenges and constraints as others. These are known as positive deviant (PD) practices. DADs:
  • Enable peer learning by surfacing successful behaviors from within the group.
  • Foster creativity and safety, allowing participants to invent and explore new practices.
  • Reduce resistance to change, since people choose which practices to try based on real, relatable examples.
  • Promote ownership and accountability, as solutions come from the frontline, not top-down directives.
In essence, DADs empower people to discover what already works and scale it through shared insight and voluntary action.

  • Time needed

    25-70 minutes

  • Preparation

    1. Online
      1. Prepare Miro Board
      2. Prepare split into groups (5-15 people)
    2. Offline
      1. Flip chart, paper or record the meeting to capture insights and actions
      2. Prepare split into groups (5-15 people)

  • How to start

    1. Invite people to uncover tacit or latent solutions to a shared challenge. Ask anybody interested to join a small group and participate.
    2. In the group, ask seven progressive questions (in following order):
      1. How do you know when problem X is present?
      2. How do you contribute effectively to solving problem X?
      3. What prevents you from doing this or taking these actions all the time?
      4. Do you know anybody who is able to frequently solve problem X and overcome barriers? What behaviors or practices made their success possible?
      5. Do you have any ideas?
      6. What needs to be done to make it happen? Any volunteers?
      7. Who else needs to be involved?

  • Step-by-step and timing

    1. State the purpose of the initiative being discussed and assign one person that will record ideas and actions (5 min)
    2. Ask the 7 questions one by one in the order given in the Invitation. Address them to the whole group and give everyone the opportunity to speak to each question. Make sure your recorder captures insights and action ideas as they emerge—big ones may emerge when you least expect it (15–60 min)
    3. Ask your recorder to recap insights, action ideas, and who else needs to be included. 5 min.

  • Hints

    1. Be sure you talk much less than participants, encouraging everyone to share stories
    2. Avoid statements like “that’s a good idea” and leave space for participants to make their own assessments
    3. Demonstrate genuine curiosity in everyone’s contributions without answering the questions yourself: study at the feet of the people who do the work
    4. Do not give or take assignments!

  • Examples of use

    1. Spark the emergence of new solutions
    2. Solve local problems locally and spread momentum across units
    3. Build relationships between people in diverse functions and levels that otherwise don’t work together to solve problems

  • Link with other Liberating Structures

    1. Use TRIZ questions instead of first three:
      1. What can you do to make sure that problem X becomes much worse?
      2. Is there anything you are doing that in any way, shape, or form looks like any of the practices you just listed?
      3. What is preventing you from stopping these practices?
    2. Use results as input for: Improv prototyping

  • Link to Liberating Structures page

    Discovery and action dialog

bottom of page