Folks,
I admire the work done by the Public Conversations Project:
http://publicconversations.org/
Their purpose is to facilitate conversations about hotly contested
issues, training leaders and participants to avoid position-taking
and recitation of talking-points and focus instead on building
relationships among people whose views differ widely.
Their first FAQ covers it nicely:
Are dialogue participants expected to change their minds?
No, and participants' core beliefs rarely change. Dialogue
surfaces new information that softens stereotypes and leads to
more accurate understanding of participants' hopes, fears, life
experiences, and values. Participants often say their views have
been deepened and enriched through dialogues with those who
think differently. Without changing their core beliefs,
participants' views of one another do typically change.
I think it is their focus on transforming how participants —- who
usually come in with opposing views on some of the most intractable
issues in the world —- view each other (rather than getting them to
change their positions) that is their greatest contribution to
civil dialog.
Dave
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