Switch to dialogue when the same argument comes back a third time
When: The team keeps returning to the same disagreement. Each round, people restate their positions more firmly and nobody learns anything new.
The action: Name the pattern. Stop trying to win the point, and ask each side to explain the assumptions behind their position until the others can state them back.
Forces: Discussion feels productive because it aims at a decision. Dialogue feels slow and can frustrate people who want closure. It risks surfacing tension the team has been avoiding.
Signals: People restate each other's assumptions accurately. The argument stops recurring, or comes back in a different form that shows something new was learned.
When not to: A decision is genuinely due and someone has the authority to make it. Dialogue then becomes a way of avoiding the call.
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