What Is Talanoa? How Leaders Use Pacific Dialogue for Trust

What does talanoa mean?

Talanoa is a word used in Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and other Pacific Island cultures for talk, conversation and storytelling. It is commonly explained as joining tala, to talk, tell or relate, and noa, often explained as freely, openly or without concealment. Those parts carry several shades of meaning across Pacific languages, so it is wise to present the explanation as common rather than definitive, and to listen to Pacific speakers on what it means to them.

The word is not new. A Tongan word list published in London in 1817, compiled from the memories of William Mariner, who lived in Tonga from 1806 to 1810, already recorded it twice: "Conversation. Talano'a" and "Recount (to relate). Talanoa". That double meaning, talking together and telling what happened, is a good summary of the practice.

As a practice, talanoa describes people sitting together as equals, sharing their experience as stories, listening with respect and building enough trust that decisions can follow. It happens in families, villages, churches, schools and governments across the Pacific today.

What was the Talanoa Dialogue?

In 2017 Fiji held the presidency of COP23, the UN climate conference held that year in Bonn. Fiji's presidency built a year-long process for 2018, the Talanoa Dialogue, to take stock of collective progress towards the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement. According to the UNFCCC, it was organised around three questions: Where are we? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?

At the opening sessions in Bonn in May 2018, participants were invited to share short stories of about three minutes instead of reading prepared statements. The dialogue closed at COP24 in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018, when the COP23 and COP24 presidencies issued the Talanoa Call for Action.

For leaders, the lesson is practical. Talanoa was trusted to frame a conversation among governments that disagree deeply. The same three questions can frame a merger, a restructure or a strategy offsite.

What are the core principles of talanoa leadership?

Talanoa is not a checklist, and Pacific communities practise it in many ways. But leaders who want to learn from it can work with a small set of principles, each of which has a clear workplace form. The table below sets out the principles we use, in our own words, with the habit that puts each one to work.

How do you get everyone to speak in a meeting?

Most meetings are built for presenting. A leader shares a plan and asks, at the end, whether there are any concerns. Silence follows, and the real views travel afterwards, second-hand, in corridors and chat threads. By the time they reach the leader they have hardened into resistance.

Three things cause this. The most senior person speaks first, and others adjust their views to match. The format rewards confident and fluent speakers, often in the room rather than on the screen. And people have learned, from what happened to the last person who brought bad news, whether honesty is safe.

Talanoa principles answer all three: relationship before task, stories before positions, everyone speaks, and nothing important hidden.

The round is the simplest and most useful habit to borrow. It takes ten to twenty minutes for a team of six to ten, and works for one agenda item a week.

• Set one open question that people can answer from experience, such as 'What stops customers finishing the form?'
• Give a minute of quiet writing so slower thinkers and second-language speakers are ready.
• Go round in a fixed order. Everyone speaks once before anyone speaks twice. Anyone may pass and come back.
• Allow no interruptions or rebuttals, only questions to understand.
• Start with the least senior and the people online. The leader speaks last.
• Summarise the themes and ask, 'Is that fair?'
• Agree owners and dates, or say when and how the decision will be made, then check back.

How do the three questions work for change?

Most change plans begin with the third question, how do we get there, and skip the first two. The plan arrives, people resist, and leaders call it a change-management problem. Often it is a listening problem: the plan rests on a picture of now that the people doing the work do not recognise.

Asking the questions in order fixes that. Gather stories about now from every affected group. Group them into themes and note how strongly each was felt. Agree a destination in plain words that people would use at home. Only then agree actions, each with one owner, a date and a check-back, so the people who spoke hear what happened.

Why do stories work better than positions?

A position says what someone wants: 'We must launch on the 14th.' A story says why: 'Last year a bank walked away when a date slipped.' Positions leave room only to win or lose. Stories leave room to meet, because underneath most positions sit the same few concerns, such as fairness, safety, respect, keeping a promise and not being blamed.

In practice, ask each person what happened that brought them to their view, write the answer in their own words, reflect it back, and look for the concerns the stories share before discussing options. Options built on shared concerns are much easier to agree.

Old accounts from the Pacific show the same instinct. Basil Thomson's 1908 book on Fiji describes two chiefs, one Tongan and one Fijian, who began a meeting by telling the story of the ancestor who joined their families, and found their two versions matched. Starting with what connects people is good practice in any boardroom.

How can you use talanoa respectfully?

Talanoa belongs to Pacific peoples and is a living practice. Borrowing its principles for workplace leadership is reasonable; presenting yourself as an expert in it, or turning it into a branded technique, is not.

Some formal Pacific gatherings open with ceremonies such as the sharing of kava. Do not imitate them at work. Offer simple, inclusive hospitality instead, and ask about dietary and cultural needs. Do not ask Pacific colleagues to perform or explain their culture unless they want to, and avoid stereotypes such as jokes about 'island time'. Name what you are doing plainly, a round or a story session, rather than calling a meeting 'a talanoa' to sound authentic.

If you quote historical sources, remember that the oldest written accounts of Tonga and Fiji in English were made by outsiders in a colonial age. Quote their descriptions carefully and leave their judgements behind.

What mistakes do leaders make with talanoa?

The most common mistake is treating talanoa as a fashionable label. Calling a normal meeting 'a talanoa' does nothing if the leader still speaks first and decides before listening. The second is endless talk: a story session that never reaches owners and dates teaches people that talking changes nothing.

Other mistakes are quieter but just as damaging. Consulting when the answer is already fixed destroys trust faster than not consulting at all, so say what is fixed at the start. Using 'no blame' to avoid accountability confuses people; fix the system in the circle and send misconduct to the proper process. Forcing people to speak, or to share personal stories, turns an invitation into a test. And forgetting to check back, to tell people what happened to what they said, is the surest way to make the next conversation quieter than the last.

• Do not imitate ceremonies or present yourself as an expert in Pacific cultures.
• Do not let the most senior person speak first.
• Do not consult on decisions that are already made.
• Do not end a session without owners, dates or a decision date.
• Do not forget the 'you told us, we did' note.

What does talanoa look like in a leader's week?

A simple rhythm keeps the principles alive. Each morning, before the inbox, name one relationship today's work depends on and one small act that will tend it. Each week, run one agenda item as a round. For any change, run the three-question review. Each month, run a ten-minute trust check with your most important stakeholders, asking what you have given, what you have asked and which promises are still open.

Talanoa has also been taken up as a research method by Pacific scholars, an often-cited starting point being a 2006 paper by Timote Vaioleti in the Waikato Journal of Education. Researchers have used it for a reason leaders can share: a respectful conversation between people who trust each other can bring out what a questionnaire misses.

If you want an outside view of your listening habits before you start, the Workplace Listening Assessment from AssessAll gives you a baseline. To keep the habits after the first quarter, you can turn them into a development plan on Jobulary.