In 1984 a new kind of Dialogue was conceived by David and Saral Bohm, Don and Anna Factor and Peter and Jenny Garrett with 40 other participants gathered for a weekend in the English Cotswold Hills. Further private weekend Dialogues in Israel and Europe established why Dialogue is necessary and continued a deepening participatory enquiry into proprioceptive awareness. An adaption of the approach was later popularised by Peter Senge in his book The Fifth Discipline, and became well-known in business circles in the 1990s. This was enhanced by Bill Isaacs’ book, Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together. Further books were published by Linda Ellinor and Glenna Gerard, and by Nancy Dixon.
Two decades later the whole field of Dialogue was largely fragmented and competitive, with newer practitioners learning mostly from the few books available on the subject. There were no commonly accepted standards, and anyone could call themselves a Dialogue Practitioner. Peter Garret and Jane Ball, the principals of Dialogue Associates, a long-standing and successful consulting firm, realised that their impact was limited to what could be done by two people, and they would need to help others to do the work if they were to contribute more substantially to a meaningful impact on society.