The author reads her weekly message from the Rogue Tulips Consulting newsletter "Rogue Speak."
This week's message: Cognitive Dissidents

Our contentious world of emotional arguments and baseless data and emotionally charged accusations makes it seem impossible to get back to the world of civil discourse and debate. Remember when two intelligent people could disagree about an issue, share their positions, ask each other questions, and then go out for a drink? While those days may seem long gone, I saw a glimmer of hope this week that all is not lost.

In online communities for our nonprofit management profession, I often see our colleagues request samples of other people’s work, from member surveys to HR policies to travel processes. There are many reasons people request “other people’s work” such as seeking varied approaches and data, validating a proposed approach, or showing volunteer leadership that something is a common approach or best practice.

We hear many voices in our lives and the ones that shake our worldview are the ones we tend to dismiss first. If a voice doesn’t fit with the story we have designed for ourselves or our organization, we decide it must be of little or no consequence. If I had a wrong answer buzzer, I would be pressing it now.

We all talk about it. We say we believe in it. We claim to practice it. But in reality, a majority of people do not participate in conversations as active listeners.