Does what happens in DC interest you? Do you long for the day when our politicians can hold different views and still work together? Do you find yourself hopeful when there are small reported breakthroughs in DC on issues you find important?
I with others am working on that dialogue piece as part of an organization in Washington, called Convergence. Our sole mission is to foster bipartisan dialogue on issues of the day. We are interested in breakthroughs and sustainable breakthroughs, not focused solely on common ground. It’s a transformative (relational) approach to conflict. I sit on the Board of Trustees and have had such a wonderful and meaningful time helping to shape the larger process. Convergence worked on US-Muslim Engagement the last 2 years and our publication shaped new legislation (Madeleine Albright, Stephen Covey, private and foundation leaders and both Democrat and Republican senators and congress folks as part of the dialogue and Leadership Council); we have now taken on 3 other projects for Health and Wellness, K-12 Education Reform and US-Pakistan relations. So much of our progress depends on which funders we excite and who buys in to a deeply held belief that people with very different views can still forge a plan together when they are provided with a forum that fosters deep in depth discussions about that which divides them and that which motivates them. It’s often the new and wider understandings and the clarity around similar human basic values which create the breakthroughs. They are very wide scale projects each lasting 2-3 years, so I am also learning on that wider platform. The excitement is in the moment sworn enemies, after months of behind the scenes work, agree to meet and dialogue. Most people are afraid of enemies coming together, and indeed most political and business enemies are highly nervous or very skeptical as well, but for me, the amazing part is in the process of working to invite and have them decide to come together that holds the promise. That is the strength of their leadership, the willingness to talk. The dynamic is not unlike spouses who are divorcing who decide to mediate rather than fire up an adversarial litigation process. The transformative mediation/facilitation can hold our political and business leaders safely in a dialogue process by counter intuitively not working towards agreement but rather on understanding, no trickery, no reframing; but they have to have that shift to see the value. I focus on fostering the shifts. I hold my own views, shaped by what I know now, and enjoy the unfolding of them as I learn from others. It’s hard and slow but very rewarding work. I hope to go with our group on our second US-Pakistan trip in Pakistan in the fall. Do you know that Pakistan in less than 5 years will have one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, many educated and willing to work for paltry wages and well over half under the age of 25 and many jobless and restless and hopeless about their futures, and culturally, very resourceful. I feel in my gut that is a recipe for either great disaster or for potential promise. We need to engage with Pakistan and with their youth. That motivates me to do something for the world my children will live in. I feel my heart open continually to the work at Convergence of deep listening and then helping national leaders shape their message so it can be heard. I feel my heart open daily to continually offering a more humanistic hopeful process, the mediation, to the families in Baltimore and Maryland who are divorcing and leaving their kids and each other emotionally and sometimes financially destroyed. It doesn’t have to be that way. So, bipartisan, or bi-spousal dialogue is a hot button for me. As spouses or as members of congress or as business leaders, when we can be strong enough to let others know our view has changed or that we are seeing a situation differently, or that we are regretful or that we want to extend forgiveness or that we are taking personal responsibility for a change etc., that is true strength. I have seen spouses and leaders demonstrate that capacity, authentically, when they are given the authentic opportunity. Convergence is providing that opportunity to national leaders. Agreements without this kind of transformative experience are probably not sustainable. Are people willing to engage in a process to explore that type of experience? Do they desire agreements that are more than the ink and paper they are written on? I leave to conduct a training in a couple hours. I am wondering about others’ views on bipartisan dialogue and what you think a process for promoting that looks like.
by Louise Phipps Senft
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