[Dialogue] John Stringham

[Richard Alton]

Ah,
John Stringham! We worked together in two great European undertakings.
Actually, I can now say they were two of the best things I have been involved
with. First, John was able to get the German government’s bi-lateral arm, GTZ,
to sponsor  conferences annually for 3
years on the role of NGOs in Global Development. John, obviously, did all the
heavy lifting with the government in designing a project proposal and reporting.
We would gather together about 50 people from around the world each year (I
remember one year we had the Prime Minister of Zambia as well as the World Bank
present). John was a giant in getting all these things lined up. 

 

The
second big project that I worked on with John grew out of a very successful
facilitation job the ICA
had done with the Dutch Royal Tropical Institute (KIT)’s 50th year
celebration. KIT had been very impressed. The best of our European ICA
facilitators came and were scribes for each session. Then each morning the
scribes would present what they heard and what it told us about the future. The
dialogue following the scribe’s reports then became the highlight of the
Conference. In fact, the scribe dialogues became the Conference. KIT asked ICA to take a contract to
help design and consult with all their future conferences. John and I were the
two people who worked with the Dutch Institute. We would spend a week each
quarter in Amsterdam
to help plan upcoming conferences. We designed facilitated dialogue within a
context of having people of stature give lectures. Again John was brilliant in
arguing the fine points of facilitated dialogue and how that could be mixed
with expert panels. John’s law background as applied to facilitation was
amazing to behold.

 

 From there, John went on to collaborate with a
group of Dutch Nobel Prize Winners focusing on developing youth dialogues. 

 

If
one thing stands out about John for me, it was his ability to go head to head
with some of the best thinkers of the world on how to engage people in serious
dialogue. How do we turn conferences into real learning experiences?



Richard H.T. Alton
International Consultants and Associates
'building global bridges'
166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N
Oak Park, IL 60302
T:1.773.344.7172
richard.alton at gmail.com

Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back 
   Babe Ruth

 		 	   		  
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