Community Care

How might you start healing conversations with a community by using deep listening and deep learning to creatively co-create a new future?

Lisa

Ben

Thompson

David

David was wondering in our international DIG meetup earlier this week if the DIG framework might help a community walk into difficult, complex issues such as climate change. Later, when we were reflecting on this meetup, Lisa began to wonder if such conversation might help heal the wounds of increasingly divisive political arguments in our communities.

This dialog emerged from an earlier one, Fostering Resilience.

David and I had an interesting conversation this afternoon where we began to push this concept of theme-based DIGs – something called Truth DIGs – that might allow communities to tap previously hidden creative potential. Along the way, we would also be able to introduce the learning experience of the DIG framework in a way that it might inspire others to learn more.

We also explored bring some with deeper expertise into these DIGs as co-learners. Their participation might allow these conversations to go deeper, faster.

I deeply appreciate Lisa's desire to find a way to have authentic conversations in their community to try to heal deep chasms that are appearing. I wonder how the practice of Deep Listening such as we find in the DIG experience, might help us be with others differently and to rebuild trust.

This question is resonating with me as I struggle with the anger of families around the presence of the BLM logo at Ogden. I want to both honor their concerns while showing up for social justice. If I honor their concern, am I erasing the experience of black people? How can two people engage in dialogue when their positions are understood as mutually threatening?

I wonder if there's something to learn from peace studies here. For decades, attempts have been to bring together, for example, Israelis and Palestinians. What kind of listening occurred in those spaces? How can that be brought into the work that schools do with their communities? A few years ago I would have considered this an extreme example but the fissures are now so deep that it's possible the only way to bridge them is through listening that is just as deep.

What would it look like to DIG for truth with people on opposite sides of the fissure?

We sit on either side of the chasm because of our ego – an ego that we cling to in order to give us a sense of certainty as we try to manage our anxieties and make sense of the world.

Let us acknowledge, then, that it is our egos that are in conflict.

We must listen to ourselves beyond the ego, that from where our spirit flows. For in listening to our spirits, we begin to recognize that we are not separate at a fundamental level, a knowing that is as deep as our human story.

We must go beyond, then, the falsehood that is driving us apart and find the truth that brings us together.

These are not simply platitudes, for this is what we seek when we guide DIGs. An intention is defined, a space is created and stories are told – stories that hold meaning for the singular self and the communal self.

Through that experience, something profound happens within each participant – a new, deep truth is found. A truth that can't be unseen, can't be unfelt.

We see this experience happening time and time again, a mystery that can't be denied.

Yes, we must go deep, for the wounds we have are deep. But so is the potential for healing, from a wellspring beyond knowing.

In order to remove ego from the conversation, we have to find some common space, value, or need, that is inclusive and yet valuable to each individual; like believing at everyone in your community is valuable. As well as a community can engage in deep conversation, with the intent to truly understand the other and become richer because of it.

As I was wondering about how this might work, hosting a Truth DIG, and restorative practices came to mind. How might we turn to restorative justice/practices to help facilitate this work?

The three main pillars of RJ are (1) repair: harm is caused and requires repairing (2) encounter: the best way to determine how to do that is to have the parties decide together; and (3) transformation: changes in people, relationships and communities. The Truth DIG could help us facilitate this kind of work. Another important aspect of RJ is a willingness to participate.

A Truth DIG, or DIGs in general, do not assume that harm was caused. How might you navigate issues around harm with a DIG, or is the healing that begins by really being heard enough?

Some of the most beautiful components of the DIG are the way individuals are enriched by participating, you cannot help but appreciate the people you have just learned from and with; and the process of the DIG is non-threatening and yet asks participants to embrace vulnerability.

I wonder about the role that creating plays in building trust. And the role that trust plays in healing wounds.

If we learn to egolessly create together where there is deep listening, might we begin to trust each other more? If we trust each other more, might we be more willing to shine light and to share hurt that is within us? If we are to wholeheartedly listen to the pain in these stories, might we be able to compassionately understand in a way that the grip of pain can be released?

When I've created things with others - whether it was music, events, systems, presentations - I think our mutual trust grew. I think the people I've built something with are the people I am closest to.

I wonder how we might apply that understanding to a teaching staff and to our families and community. The DIG that we run with staff helps them build a learning pod. I wonder if we could begin to offer a second level DIG in which teams build a learning artifact together. Would that deepen their mutual trust?

I also wonder how we can open ourselves up to co-constructing our school with our community while not allowing our values to be diluted. Is there authenticity in the act of creation if we're on guard against our collaborators' values? Can we find something to create together on which we are sufficiently aligned to experience authentic collaboration?

I’m keen to explore the potential of the DIG to make meaningful connections and bring a shared truth. It seems to me the DIG builds trust within the pod and the experience delivers the delight of learning, and creating together. I reflect on the importance of social capital and wonder if the DIG raises social capital. We need to raise financial capital to start an enterprise and maybe raise social capital to solve the complex problems we’ve discussed here, to reimagine schooling, better connect with community etc.

I also like the linking trust (social capital) and wellbeing or resilience. A longitudinal study in Australia demonstrates that in schools in which there are high levels of social capital there are many wellbeing benefits for the principal.

You have noticed, David, that schools that have adopted an inquiry stance have greater resilience and adaptive capacity when faced with the challenges of educating in these complex times.

And we have explore how trust is critical for resilience. I suspect that it is also critical for the inquiry stance as we entrust learners with their own journeys of discovery.

Drop the mic, Thompson. I think we have a new experiment! How will a DIG resulting in a co-created artifact increase trust and resilience in a community?

When we created the DIG framework, we envisioned three types of DIGs, what we called a Scrambler DIG, a Challenge DIG, and a Truth DIG. We understood that our primary form, that which could be used in a classroom setting, was a Scrambler DIG. But we hypothesized the potential of the other two.

A Scrambler DIG focuses on creating meaningful learning journeys. A Challenge DIG is focused on the potential for developing new creative solutions for a community. A Truth DIG is focused finding a new shared understand around a complex question.

What you are talking about, then, might be called a Challenge DIG.

What might it look like if a group of people formed a learning pod to create something that was important for the community? Might this experience build trust and through trust, personal and collective resilience?

What might that look like? Might we prepare the learning pod through a one-week Scrambler DIG together where they learn to listen deeply to each other and build a foundation of trust? Might we then launch them on a six week Challenge DIG to do something amazing together where they met once a week and even, perhaps began to use a wiki dojo? What might happen if their creative artifact or solution is then publicly celebrated, inspiring others to come together to create together.

That would be a story to tell.

What if these pods included the diverse cornucopia of Oregon City's community? Where we have those from the political right, those from the political left, those who are white and those who are BIPOC, those who are LGBTQ and those who are straight, those who are old and those who are young. Just people, wonderful people, who are each trying to make sense of the world in a time where little seems to make sense anymore.

Bring together a pod of eight or so and let them listen together, learn together, and create together – an experience the leads to trust, resilience, and new creative potential.

That would be a mic drop.

It's hard to imagine something that would contribute to achieving escape velocity more than this. The values implicit in this are so far removed from the values implied by school as we know it. It's exciting and nerve wracking.