Experiment No. 3 Bipartisan Dialogue on Health Care Reform (2009)

http://americantownhalls.wordpress.com (leadership in action)

Need: Leading through conflict.

Facilitated Dialogue: Our Role.

Lessons for Leading Change Through Conflict   Protesters need to understand up front who's behind the discussion event.   Anger needs to be the first thing you talk about, not values or policy. "Why did

you come to protest today?”   From grievances talk about differences of philosophy.   Phrases appreciated: People seemed to appreciate the motive of 'digging deeper',

rather than simply saying we are here to be heard. Although, when I emphasized that a chance to be heard is a reason to listen to each other and see how opposing viewpoints would see it, many thought I was being didactic.

  Easy to lose focus: It was more difficult to stay focused because of the way seats would rotate new participants and because different people had sometimes really different explanations of the problem of health care.

  Reduce the number of stages to two. Reduce the paperwork, perhaps use keypad polling instead (obviously more expensive). Paperwork was seen by some as bureaucratic. 

  Keeping the conversation in an inquiry mode or approach helped to channel everyone's anger and suspicion constructively. 

  Facilitator, as in any forum, should never take notes.