APROPOS x Michelin | Dialogue as a Diagnostic Tool: Our Session with Michelin's Executive Committee

This summer, we were invited to spend some time with Michelin's Executive Committee for their week-long Learning Expedition, exploring how dialogue can serve as a diagnostic tool in times of uncertainty.

Drawing from a decade of work with the Open European Dialogue, facilitating dialogue among 600+ European policymakers across the political spectrum, we explored:

→ Why genuine dialogue differs from discussion, debate, and negotiation - and why it requires intentional design,

 → How diagnostic doubt can activate collective intelligence,

 → The neuroscience of System 1 vs. System 2 thinking and what it means for how we design group decision-making, especially in contexts dominated by ‘moral tribes’,

 → Design elements that can help shift conversations from adversarial to agonistic

Some Insights we explored together:

Affective Polarisation | While 56% of French citizens feel we can no longer make progress together, research reveals people consistently overestimate their opponents' extremism by 2-3x. This perception gap, which researchers call "affective polarisation"— can shape how we collaborate with others more than actual value differences.

Harnessing Dialogue as a Strategic Advantage | Dialogue spaces require intentional architecture. Rather than rushing to eliminate uncertainty, well-designed dialogue harnesses it as a strategic advantage — creating conditions where not knowing becomes productive, where multiple perspectives reveal blind spots, and where collective sense-making generates insights no individual could reach alone.

What resonated:

By the end of the week, the group identified the practice of dialogue as a key takeaway of their learning expedition, recognising it as different from negotiation or problem-solving, and something that requires active design.

Our working hypothesis:

Organisations that deploy dialogue as a diagnostic tool will be better positioned to navigate complexity, spot dissonant signals earlier, and activate trust capital to navigate crises or enable quick decision-making when when formal channels become strained.

A question that we'd like to leave you with:

Where might intentional dialogue help your organisation navigate uncertainty more effectively?

If you're curious about how intentional dialogue design could support your work, we'd be glad to explore what this might look like in your context. 

Reach out for a chat at: team@aproposgroup.org