Learning to communicate effectively

The DialogueLab is a social enterprise dedicated to promoting dialogue as the gold standard of interpersonal communication in all the key settings of life. Dialogue creates mutual understanding through open-minded two-way communication. Mutual understanding is essential for all forms of effective collaboration.

We work in two areas: research and training. The main thrust of our research is investigating the communication profiles of organisations and individuals to identify skills deficits and their impact on corporate and personal effectiveness.

We have two core training programmes.

How To Listen So Clients Will Talk and Talk So Clients Will Listen is aimed at anyone whose job requires them to provide expertise to people seeking specialist help. This includes lawyers, business consultants, social workers, HR management and doctors.

The Progress Course provides a foundation in the skills of everyday counselling and has been developed mainly for teachers and others who want to help young people in danger of failing in their education because of troubles elsewhere in their lives. The course equips teachers with an extra set of skills, drawn from the world of counselling but adapted for the needs of the school community.

DialogueLab is also a member of the Communication Trust, a group of over 40 charities and social enterprises working to improve outcomes for children with speech, language and communication difficulties.

We also support the national year of communication, Hello.