debate, discussion, dialogue

living here in brasil, often without words or understanding, i have been thinking alot about how people talk and listen to each other and create shared meaning... i remember during one AI transition we had a session where the facilitator told us about the differences between debate, discussion and dialogue...for some reason today while planning a meeting at the bank, i remembered his comment and just found some definitions that were similar to the ones he used:

debate: from the latin roots "de" and "battere" which means "to beat down"
discussion: from the latin root "discutere" which means "to smash together" (same root as percussion and concussion!)
dialogue: from the latin roots "dia" and "logos" which means "meaning flowing through"

hmm...what is the most common form in your workplace? family? community? unfortunately my current team meetings are debates, sometimes evolving to discussions...in some situations i can see the value of debate or discussion to take short term decisions, but i believe that in general and long term, more sustainable advancements will be made if we engage in more dialogue...but how can we learn the skills of dialogue??

i am not sure about other countries, but i know in australia we have quite a culture of debating, especially amongst private schools and law departments of universities, which have debating teams that compete against other schools...my cousin, kim little, is the former world and australasian debating champion and she is starting up an ngo to give debating skills to students from poorer public schools as a way to help engage them in economic and social issues and strengthen their voice and engagement in the society...i think her ideals and intentions are great....but i am wondering when we will also start to teach children and society to engage in true, meaningful dialogue to find sustainable, shared solutions to our common challenges