People who are skilled at dialog do their best to make it safe for everyone to add their meaning to the shared pool -- even ideas tht at first glance appear controversial, wrong, or at odds with their own beliefs. Now, obviously they don't agree with every idea; they simply do their best to ensure that all ideas find their way into the open.
As the pool of shared meaning grows, it helps people in two ways. First, as individuals are exposed to more accurate and relevant informtion, they make better choices. In a very rel sense, the Pool of Shared Meaning is a measure of a group's IQ. The larger the shared pool, the smarter the decisions. And even though many people may be involved in a choice, when people openly and freely share ideas, the increased time investment is more than offset by the quality of the decision.
On the other hand, we've all seen what happens when the share pool is dangerously shallow. When people purposefully withhold meaning from one another, individually smart people can do collectively stupid things.
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