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Try This!
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Find Common Ground, Create Trust, Lean in Curiously...
Think of how you can tell the other person you hear them and that their feelings are understandable. You can understand how people can get to the conclusions they have without accepting the conclusion.
Overcoming barriers in background and finding shared understanding can be difficult. Can you try a new approach to a conversation that you struggle to have? Maybe you have tried to explain yourself but you need new or more words to describe the issue?
It can be easy to lash out on Social Media about the things we feel passionate about. Can you try to open a conversation with listening and curiosity in an effort to build trust and a sense of safety with someone with a different perspective?
Think of how you can tell the other person you hear them and that their feelings are understandable. You can understand how people can get to the conclusions they have without accepting the conclusion.
Overcoming barriers in background and finding shared understanding can be difficult. Can you try a new approach to a conversation that you struggle to have? Maybe you have tried to explain yourself but you need new or more words to describe the issue?
It can be easy to lash out on Social Media about the things we feel passionate about. Can you try to open a conversation with listening and curiosity in an effort to build trust and a sense of safety with someone with a different perspective?
Archive
“Let’s change civil discord into civil discourse.”
– Paul Courteau
“We are stuck in our tribe mentalities, terrified of compromising our cookie-cutter identities, so we stand on opposite sides of harsh lines and dismiss each other… but we forget we are all human… We can’t shut down those we see as close-minded, because then we are the worst kind of hypocrites. We won’t make any progress as single-minded crusaders who deny the truth present in both opinions… Our differing opinions are legitimate… We need to have a conversation, not an argument, to acknowledge that everyone holds a grain of valid truth. We are only divided by imaginary lines…”
– Kari Hustad (2017 South Whidbey High School Senior – excerpts from Echo Chamber)
Civility Stories
“Island Life – Stories of Civility” Archive
10/19 – Driving into Oak Harbor on Route 525 there was a young man with dreadlocks and a beat-up, but colorful van with lots of bumper stickers who had pulled over and was helping an older woman in a suit whose car had developed a flat tire. The young man had the older woman’s expensive car up on a car-jack and was changing her tire by himself. He did not appear to be from a service station, but was just someone who pulled over to be helpful.
10/19 – Driving into Oak Harbor on Route 525 there was a young man with dreadlocks and a beat-up, but colorful van with lots of bumper stickers who had pulled over and was helping an older woman in a suit whose car had developed a flat tire. The young man had the older woman’s expensive car up on a car-jack and was changing her tire by himself. He did not appear to be from a service station, but was just someone who pulled over to be helpful.