In this Café, I look at our increasing polarization. I then initiate a conversation on how we might stop seeing each other as enemies but as friends.
Theme: We are not enemies but friends
Format; Knowledge Café
Location: Face-to-face, Zoom or Microsoft Teams
Duration: 120, 90 or 60 minutes
Introduction
This Café is one in a series of Knowledge Cafés on Conversational Leadership that I run face-to-face, on Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
Each Café is themed on material from my online blook on Conversational Leadership.
If you are unfamiliar with the Knowledge Café concept, this event is participatory, though I can run it as a webinar.
Theme
For some of our most important beliefs, we have no evidence at all, except that people we love and trust hold these beliefs.
Considering how little we know, the confidence we have in our beliefs is preposterous – and it is also essential.
This Knowledge Café is in two parts, with a short break separating each segment.
In the first part, I talk about what I consider to be one of the most pressing issues in the world today: the increasing polarization of society across political, religious, moral, racial and class divides and how we treat people with conflicting beliefs as being stupid or worse still as our enemies.
I explain why I think the root cause of our polarization is the nature of our beliefs and I share some psychological research that shows our personal opinions are based on mostly no evidence whatsoever. As individuals, we know almost nothing compared to what we think we know. Our personal knowledge is mostly an illusion.
I make the point that we need to stop seeing each other as enemies and see each other as friends and that, crucially, we need to start to talk with each other.
We then engage in a couple of rounds of Café style conversation in break-out rooms, with 3 or 4 people per group to discuss this viewpoint.
After the break, I describe the seven or so preconditions that I feel we need to accept to move forward and engage in constructive conversation across our divides (so-called impossible conversations).
I take a look at the concept of a conversation covenant – a set of rules to which we need to agree to create a more physiologically safe space for impossible conversations.
We then again hold a couple of rounds of Café style conversation in break-out rooms.
Finally, we come together as a whole group to share our thoughts and insights to make a better sense of this vital issue and discuss the actions that might flow from it.
Format
In this Café, I talk about the theme for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the participants and the time available, and then pose the Café question
How do we stop seeing each other as enemies but as friends?
We then go into Café mode.
Reading Material
This post in my blook is optional reading material for the participants before or after the Café.