Thread by @ThyConsigliori

21 July 2020 #BetweenTheLines

Collecting Data and Learning the JOY of Truly Listening

There is tremendous power for good in just these 5 questions.

1) Will you vote?
2) Who for?
3) Who should win?
4) Who will win?
5) How do you identify: D, I, or R?

2) I have already started with both business colleagues and family members, and I can't tell you the shocked amazement they have shown me. They all know where I stand, and are all afraid to talk to me about politics, well, those who disagree with me fear it.

3) While we're working on our website every day, even in just its current state, the site helps transform fear into fun, and wides eyes, and more. If you haven't been there yet, do check it out!

BetweenTheLines.vote

4) Once you're there - or when you bring your disagreeing family members and friends there - its important to go into FAST action! All you do is click here for the Anonymous Poll, and the questions and easy answers pop right up.

betweenthelines.vote/anonymous-poll

5) You can be very gentle, the more so, the better. Please do NOT tell them to answer the poll. Just offer it, letting them know you're own interest if they're willing to discuss it. And of course, if they wish to answer the poll questions, that would be great too. That's data.

6) One thing we do not have, yet, is the method of transparently reporting the data we've started to collect. That's in the works, I promise. But, just a quick glance through the simple form indicates exactly what our objective is, and people find it interesting.

7) If you've been following here at Twitter, then you already know that our great challenge is reaching across the line so that Democrats will start speaking to us. What I've found is that a single phone call, often with a text message first, begins the conversation.

8) So far, I have not succeeded in collecting much data from these calls, or inspired many to answer the poll questions online. But, each call has been an absolute blast for me. Yes, they're tentative calls, as there is almost no trust on this topic.

9) I suspect I'm going to have many such conversations in coming days and weeks, and it's important to keep they light and short. I am challenging an area of such vast antagonism that my ability to simply listen and not challenge is quite surprising to them.

10) Once I have them at the site, and explain what I hope to learn from them, maybe about a 5 minute call so far, I offer to let them think about all this further, and hope we may speak on topic again. Every time so far they have said, that's it? You're not going to preach at me?

11) I laugh and say, no, I'm not, believe it or not. The only thing I'm interested is in learning where you stand, and most especially, if we can get there, I hope to learn your real reasons why. A short silence follows, and I say, hey, mind if I call again next week?

12) The responses have been mixed. That is, one short conversation does not a bridge of trust build. But in every case I have been thanked, and while we utterly disagree about polities, we completely agree about the truth, the search for it, and in mutual respect.

13) I've had a couple of my most liberal granddaughters say to me, Papa, I didn't know you could listen like that. I confess, there is some sadness in my heart that I have allowed such division within our own family, but I am 100% dedicated to building that bridge.

14) In a couple of conversations we actually got all the way to the first - still light and short, mind you - chance to ask the question: Why? Still tentative, I say it like this, I don't know if you're ready to talk about this yet but I'd sure love to know why you feel that way.

15) Once even slightly engaged, the answers kind of flooded out, but were not satisfying to the person sharing. They'd say something, yeah, well, those are my reasons, right now, but I really do need to think about this more. Thanks for asking.

Thread ends at #15.

Please do consider finding someone you know and love, and working through the questions with NO ARGUING ALLOWED!

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