"The most important measure of how good a game I'd played was how much better I'd made my teammates play."
Asking Questions ...
Team Learning is not "team building"!
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, pg 355, Charlotte Roberts

Don't even think of starting this work until you have thought through its implications and decided
you want to proceed.  This discipline goes well beyond "team building" skills such as creating
courteous behaviours, improving communications, becoming better able to perform everday work
tasks together or even building strong relationships.  This discipline inspires more fundamental
changes, with enduring application that will ripple out through the organisation.

Team learning is also the most challenging discipline - intellectually, emtionally, socially and spiritually.  
The process of learning how to learn collectively (as compared to individually), is unfamiliar.  It has
nothing to do wth the "school learning" of memorizing details to feed back in tests.  It starts with
mastery and self-knowledge of, and alignment with (mouse-over the picture here), others on your
team.

(pg 352) For many years, we have used the concept of alignment as distinct from agreement, to
capture the essence of team learning.  Alignment means “functioning as a whole”.  Building alignment
(you never “get there”) is about enhancing the team’s capacity to think and act in new synergistic
ways, with full coordination and a sense of unity, because team members know each other’s hearts
and minds.

Disagreement as an opportunity (pg 379)

The moment of disagreement is a cause for celebration.  It's a real opportunity to see what's really
going on below the tip of the ice-berg.  As alignment develops, people don’t have to overlook or hide
their disagreements; indeed, they develop the capacity to use their disagreements to make their
collective understanding richer.

Often, an affection develops between members of the group with the most opposing views, as if
affection itself is fueled with diversity: "Isn't that amazing," someone might say, "that you have such
a different idea?  Why do you feel that way?  How did you come to it?"

General guidelines for dialogue sessions (pg 379, William Issacs, Bryan Smith)

Allow at least two hours, or more if possible, for every session
It is helpful to have a reason to talk and learn - a situation that compels deliberation, a need to
solve a problem, the collective desire to create something new, or a drive to foster new
relationships with other parts of the organisation.
"Checking in" is one of the most powerful ways to kick-off a dialogue session.  Stress the value
of speaking from personal experience.  When everyone knows that they will have some air
time, people tend to relax.
Avoid agendas and elaborate preparations.  These inhibit the free flow of conversation.
While meeting over a meal may break the ice, we recommend that you avoid the temptation;
restaurant service and eating can be distracting.
Agree, as a group, to hold three meetings before you decide whether to continue or disband.  
Anything less may not be a fair experiment; it can take time to grow into the dialogue form of
conversation.
Speak to the centre, not to each other.  While challenging to execute, this guideline underlines
the creation of a pool of common meaning, not interpersonal dynamics.

    "At present, people create barriers between each other by their fragmentary thought. Each
    one operates separately. When these barriers have dissolved, then there arises one mind,
    where they are all one unit, but each person also retains his or her own individual awareness.
    That one mind will still exist even when they separate, and when they come together, it will be
    as if they hadn't separated. It's actually a single intelligence that works with people who are
    moving in relationship with one another. . . . If you had a number of people who really pulled
    together and worked together in this way, it would be remarkable. They would stand out so
    much that everyone would know they were different."
    - David Bohm (physicist, philosopher, & mystic)
Skillful discussion is like chamber music; dialogue is like jazz!