Courageous Democracy Pilot With Rotary Clubs A Success!
We conducted our first 4-hour Courageous Democracy workshop for Rotary Clubs on January 27th, 2018. The pilot was attended by nearly 3 times as many participants as we were expecting - some driving the distance of 4 hours to attend. According to the survey data:
• 94% of participants want Rotary to continue to develop these sessions
• 92% learned important information
• 86% will behave differently in the future because of the training
Participants reported increasing their concern for people in another political party and their sense of skillfulness at bridging and leveraging differences. People also reported greater motivation to experiment with different approaches to achieve or get closer to shared societal goals (even when different ideas come from people of another persuasion).
The Courageous Democracy Program for Rotary International provides Americans with evidence-based tools for building the awareness, skills and social support needed for effective “Courageous Conversations” and more courageous actions (open-hearted and open-minded collaboration) across differences for a more civil, caring and sustainable culture and democracy. The goal of the trainings for Rotarians and people from their communities is to learn the social and moral psychology of hyper-partisanship and how social influences affect human perspectives, behavior and effectiveness in all areas of our lives, including civic, business and personal. Rotary is an ideal network to scale and impact thousands of clubs and communities around the country. The ultimate aim of the Courageous Democracy Initiative is to enhance the quality of the political culture and conversations, the empathy people feel for “others” (perceived as unlike themselves politically), the ability to build a shared sense of identity and belonging, and the capacity and practice to find productive, shared solutions across differences.
Contact us for more information about our Courageous Leadership for Courageous Democracy programs in your organization or community.
