CIVIL CONVERSATIONS MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN POLARIZING TIMES

How can we lower the emotional temperature at a time when people find themselves at odds with one another about so many issues - in their communities, at work, and at home? DARYL DAVIS has an answer: Get to know those who don’t share your values. Really get to know them!

Daryl should know. A Black musician who befriended KKK leaders and other white supremacists, he built unlikely bridges with those who hate him just because of the color of his skin. And as unimaginable as that seems, many of those haters became true friends and renounced their old beliefs – some even gave Daryl their robes and hoods.

TALENT RETENTION AFFECTS OVERALL PERFORMANCE 

MIKE ABRASHOFF was just 36 years old when he took command of the near-worst performing ship in the U.S. Navy. At the time, the USS Benfold had a talent retention rate of 8% meaning there was 92% turnover each year. More important, because the jobs could not be filled fast enough, the ship found itself trying to do 100% of the work with 80% of the crew.

One week after he took command, Mike had a sailor leave the Navy. When he asked him why he was leaving, the sailor replied, “Because nobody ever asked me to stay." This prompted Mike to make talent retention a top priority.

TALKING WITH PEOPLE WHO DISAGREE WITH YOU

If a Black man can talk to and befriend KKK members, you can talk to co-workers, neighbors, family, friends who don’t share your views, too.

Nicholas Kristof offered this amazing endorsement of DARYL DAVIS’s work in his New York Times’ op-ed “How Can You Hate Me When You Don’t Even Know Me?”

Davis, a Black musician who’s made headlines as a conflict navigator, reaching out to and meeting hate with civility, tells Kristof the biggest lesson for all of his from his extraordinary work:

“If I can sit down and talk to K.K.K. members and neo-Nazis and get them to give me their robes and hoods and swastika flags and all that kind of crazy stuff, there’s no reason why somebody can’t sit down at a dinner table and talk to their family member.”