American Bar Association (ABA) Mediation week is scheduled this year for October 14-20. The topic this year is “Mediation, Civil Discourse, and ABA 2011 Resolution 108”. Now, or in the coming days, would be a good time to review the various resources provided by the ABA’s Mediation Toolkit. Events will be also held in multiple states. For a list of locations and dates, see the Mediation Week Events List.
Words are more than just emotional triggers. “Fascist” and “socialist” are not simply synonyms. When we use words simply to spark emotion without understanding or respect for their definitions, we erode civic capacity. When words are used with respect to their meanings and with the purpose of conveying a critical point of difference, we invite thinking and build comprehension and understanding. In order to bridge differences we need to be able to use the language and thinking skills required for difficult dialogues. Without these skills our attempts at dialogue will likely prove unsuccessful, possibly even degenerating into simple bickering.
If we are truly interested in building civic capacity, we need to think about the way we use words. In our American Values Are…® discussion guides we talk about definitions because words are extremely powerful and dictionaries very precise about what vocabulary they use in their definitions. Furthermore, it is important to respond when words are misused because misuse creates a flaw in the foundation needed for both trust and sound analysis.
We invite your thoughts on what we can we do to bridge the gap between the collective thinking skills we have and those we need to participate effectively, and any other thoughts you have on why words matter.
It is surprisingly important to establish a structure for citizen engagement. Without a structure, your engagement process can become easily derailed, becoming nothing more than a venting session. I recently sat through one of these sessions as an observer. While I was happy to see several different groups of people normally opposed to each other in the same space, it was disappointing to see that there was no purpose or forward movement to this “dialogue” session. It is certainly good to let people air their grievances and begin to understand each other but if the process doesn’t aim toward resolution then nothing positive can come of it and the energy to tackle the issue at hand can dissipate.
As we mentioned in the last post, we have looked at some of the specific steps that can be taken in working toward resolution and we have created this presentation for The Communications Center, Inc. This describes our addition to the two Public Agenda’s and The Harwood Institute’s tools, a list of “Ways of Working Toward Resolution”. In addition to focusing on the endpoint of a deliberative process, we include possible methods that communities can use to build the relationships they need for sustained dialogues and to reach sustainable resolutions. We invite your feedback.
If you have trouble with the powerpoint, make sure you are clicking on “Read Only” or download this pdf version without any of the nice animation. Sorry OpenOffice users, still no support for password protected ppt files so you will have to use the pdf.
