Bridging the Political Divide

01/22/2019

I want to thank everyone who participated in the Nelson, Domestic Violence, and Good Government: A Mediated Dialogue program last Saturday. I hope that you found this opportunity for safe and meaningful dialogue to be useful.

01/13/2019

Current Status: A number of people have signed up for the Nelson, Domestic Violence, and Good Government: A Mediated Dialogue program. Interest has been especially strong with those advocating for Mr. Nelson’s removal. For the program to be meaningful, we need more participants on the advocating for retention and the neutral/undecided positions.

If you have an interest in improving the quality of political dialogue in our City, please join us for this important event. This program is designed to move us one step closer to civil political dialogue. If would like to see more of that, please get involved by dedicating an afternoon to better government and stronger community.

Enrollment is limited to 30: 10 for removal, 10 against removal, and 10 undecided/neutral. To apply: eMail: [email protected] - Text: (719) 221-2864. Please send your email address and phone number (I promise to protect your privacy).

Also, please tell your friends!

Date: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 12:30 PM to 4:30 PM.
Location: First Presbyterian Church, 7 Poncha Boulevard, Salida, Colorado
Mediators: Patty LaTaille and Hugh Young.
Sponsor: aikiCommunication, LLC (an independent local organization dedicated to promoting collaborative dialogue)
Cost: Free

01/06/2019

Nelson, Domestic Violence, and Good Government: A Mediated Dialogue - 1/19/19

WANTED: local residents to participate in a mediated dialogue concerning the hiring of Drew Nelson as the Salida City Administrator.

On 10/3/18 the Salida City Council voted to hire Drew Nelson as the new City Administrator. The Mountain Mail subsequently reported that in early 2018 Mr. Nelson was involved in an incident that led to his admitting guilt to prohibited use of a weapon. Nelson’s hiring set off a painful controversy with a number of people strongly advocating for his removal. The purpose of this program is to promote healing and understanding by providing a safe forum where the issues arising from Nelson’s hiring can be discussed in a fair, open, and productive manner.

Participation is by application and limited to 30. Anyone with significant ties to the Salida community is encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to obtaining a balanced group of participants: 10 residents advocating for removal, 10 residents advocating for retention, and 10 residents who are undecided. Several members of the Salida City Council have already agreed to participate in the dialogue.

Date: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 12:30 PM to 4:30 PM.
Location: First Presbyterian Church, 7 Poncha Boulevard, Salida, Colorado
eMail: [email protected]
Text: (719) 221-2864.
Mediators: Patty LaTaille and Hugh Young.
Sponsor: aikiCommunication, LLC (an independent local organization dedicated to promoting collaborative dialogue)
Cost: Free

11/20/2017

Here is an interesting article on the way that social identity shapes our perceptions and thinking. An identity is your inner sense of who and what your are. Identity is established primarily in relation to others; you are like or not like another person. Or, you are or are not a member of a group.

It is easy think that our perceptions and thinking results in our choices concerning affiliation; that we choose to affiliate with people who think like us. The situation is not that simple and the reverse is equally true. Our choice of affiliation actually has a great impact on our thinking and the opinions we form.

Humans are subject to in-group favoritism and out-group derogation. Two people can view the same event or situation and perceive it entirely differently. For example, whether we take a position in favor of or against a person following a political scandal is dependent on whether that person is deemed to be on one’s “team” or not.

People will reject or discount information that conflicts with his or her social identity, while accepting or magnifying information that is in harmony. The result is that excuses are made for the bad behavior of those on our team, while condemning similar behavior by those who are not.

How a partisan lens leads people to different interpretations of the same facts.

11/09/2017

Wow! Please go to 48:25 to 54:18. Arthur Brooks, head of the conservative AEI, answers the following question: “We are in a moment right now that feels like intense and increased polarization and partisanship. How do conservatives, how do liberals, how do progressives, everything in between, right, How do we find common ground? And perhaps more importantly, common solutions to these very big pressing problems particularly around issues of inequality and poverty?”

Arthur Brooks President, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Beth and Ravenel Curry Scholar in Free Enterprise, AEI Leah Wright Rigueur (Moderator) Assistant...

10/26/2017

Thanks to a friend for forwarding this TED talk by neuroscientist Uri Hasson. Hasson shares his research into neural entrainment during communication. Neural entrainment is the way our brain waves come into synch when engaged in dialogue with another person. An interesting, albeit wonkish view of human communication.

He describes how changing one sentence of a communication before listening to a story can sway the way we hear the story and the conclusions that we draw. His thesis is that this phenomena is a part of why we are so divided.

A person who watches and listens to media with one viewpoint, is swayed in patterns of thought, and then becomes entrained in their thoughts with others who also watched that media. Of course the opposite happens to a person who watches a different source. His recommendation, partake of media outlets less and engage more in face-to-face, or should I say brain-to-brain, dialogue.

Neuroscientist Uri Hasson researches the basis of human communication, and experiments from his lab reveal that even across different languages, our brains s...

10/18/2017

Bridging the Political Divide - 10/21/2017
This Saturday I’ll be hosting a Bridging the Political Divide workshop in Salida. This workshop is for anyone who would like to improve their ability to effectively discuss difficult issues with a person holding different interests, opinions, values, and beliefs.

Learn to:
* Negotiate differences without giving in or coercing others.
* Listen to the deeper needs and values beneath the surface positions.
* Speak so a person with different positions can hear your side of the issue.
* Work with strong emotions, in others and yourself.
* Work collaboratively to develop mutual-win solutions

Although the primary focus is learning the methods and skills of collaborative dialogue and consensus building, the program will focus on local (Salida) issues in anticipation of the upcoming city council elections.

Please join me this Saturday, October 21, 2017, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, at the First Presbyterian Church, 7 Poncha Boulevard, Salida, CO. We are requesting a suggested donation of $15 to cover our costs.

Please RSVP: Hugh Young at [email protected] or call (719) 221-2864. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aikiCommunication/

Part of Conflict Resolution Month as declared by the Colorado legislature: http://conflictresolutionmonth.org/events/bridging-the-political-divide/

10/10/2017

Another piece about behavioral economics. A couple of the main points:

“…the relational nature of thinking is essential for understanding why there is so much bad thinking in political life right now.” Jonathan Haidt makes this same point. Thinking is not primarily about truth seeking. Thinking evolved to create and maintain social connections.

Brooks offers an idea about how to bridge the divide. “After all, think of how you really persuade people. Do you do it by writing thoughtful essays that carefully marshal facts? That works some of the time. But the real way to persuade people is to create an attractive community that people want to join. If you want people to be reasonable, create groups where it’s cool to be reasonable.”

That is the vision I have for our community. Please join me on October 21 for the Bridging the Political Divide workshop.

How do you persuade people? It’s not always by presenting the facts.

10/10/2017

A nice explanation about why appealing to reason and rational argumentation so ofter fails to persuade others to change their opinions and positions. Traditional economics often fails to predict the behavior of markets because human beings are not strictly rational. We are endowed with innate biases that do not follow the rules of logic and reason.

We see what we want to see, and discount what we don’t (confirmation bias). We give undue weight to what we know and understand, while discounting the importance of what we don’t (opportunity bias). We often see things in the worst possible light (negativity bias). Bridging the Political Divide requires that we understand this human side of negotiating differences with others.

People are not as rational as economists would like to believe, but there are ways to nudge people into doing what’s best for them.

10/06/2017

A view of the political divide through the eyes of a statistician using demographics. Another example of how divided our country has become. Be careful though, because although the statistics indicate a serious divide in the voting preference of the country, the use of primary colors makes the divide look greater than the statistics indicate.

If you’d like to explore ways to bring people together, please join me for the Bridging the Political Divide, October 21, 2017, 9AM to 4PM, at the Salida Presbyterian Church.

No other demographic characteristic is creating such a consistent geographic split, according to survey data.

10/04/2017

An Op-Ed from a self-described conservative about his experience and thoughts about the need to Bridge the Divide. A sampling:

“Even as the internet provides us great advances, it also segments us.”

“We can see the world only in this polarized way if we never take the time to know anyone on the other side, if we never find ways to build friendship despite our differences.”

“We may also never find that common ground with people whose politics or faith conflicts with ours. But we owe it to one another to disagree agreeably, without anger or intimidation, whether on a front porch or a page. A little more grace among us all would go a long way toward healing the nation.”

Let me know your thoughts.
Hugh

In the past year, I have come under fierce attack and my wife has come down with cancer — and I have learned the importance of real friendships.

10/04/2017

The Colorado legislature declared October to be Conflict Resolution Month. Please visit the Bridging the Political Divide listing on the state web site at: http://conflictresolutionmonth.org/events/bridging-the-political-divide/ Also, check out the other events happening around the state.

Bridging the Political Divide Loading Map.... First Presbyterian Church7 Poncha Boulevard - SalidaDetails 38.536417 -105.99664610000002 Date/Time Date(s) - 10/21/20179:00 am - 4:00 pm LocationFirst Presbyterian Church Category(ies) Seminar Description Bridging the Political Divide A workshop in coll...