Parent (Previous) Guide Folders
Constructive Conflict Guide > Civic Knowledge and Skills That We Can Use to Help Ourselves and Our Society More Constructively Handle Intractable Conflict > Stripping Away "Overlay" Problems That Make Conflicts Appear More Intractable Than They Really Are > Limiting Communication Problems and the Resulting Misunderstandings
______________________
BI Article
Communication Tools for Understanding Cultural Differences
Edward T. Hall writes that for us to understand each other may mean, "reorganizing [our] thinking...and few people are willing to risk such a radical move." This essay offers strategies for improving cross-cultural communication.
BI Article
Talking with and Listening to People on the Other Side
Most of us have unrealistic images of "the other side." If we talk with, and most importantly really listen to, some of those people, we will usually find out they are not nearly as different from us as we think.
BI Article
Conversation as a Tool of Conflict Transformation
This essay examines the power of interpersonal conversation in helping people develop positive relationships and transform their conflicts. It discusses the general theory of conversation, while the companion case study on Zimbabwe explores how the ideas discussed in this essay have been applied to a real-world situation.
BI Article
Culture-Based Negotiation Styles
In Asian, Canadian, and U.S. cultures, touching outside of intimate situations is discouraged. But, Mediterranean, Arab, and Latin American cultures allow more touching. Cultural differences like this can cause problems in cross-cultural negotiations. Such differences are explored in this essay.
Colleague Activities
Hands Across the Hills
A dialogue group bringing together Dem voters from MA with Rep voters from KY to get to know and understand each other better and work to diminish political and cultural divides.
Colleague Activities
Bridging Divides & Strengthening Democracy: From Science to Practice
The conference presented the approaches that most effectively reduced anti-democratic attitudes, support for political violence, and partisan animosity. Recordings of the sessions are available here.
Colleague Activities
Speaking Out to Strengthen the Guardrails of Democracy
A new report from the Ohio State University Divided Communities Project focusing on how effective speech can encourage hope, counteract fear and hate, and strengthen democracy.
Colleague Activities
5 Ways to Build Bridging Social Capital and Develop a Sense of Common Purpose
Five ways to counter the sense of loneliness and helplessness that is driving polarization and the weakening of our community and civic ties.
Colleague Activities
Bridging America's Political and Racial Divides
Peter Coleman shared several key findings from six studies that can help mobilize citizens to heal growing divisions.
Colleague Activities
Introducing the Bridging Dictionary
Could seeing how opposite sides of the US political spectrum use the same words differently be a first step toward greater cross-political understanding?
News and Opinion
What Readers Really Think About Gender
An interesting alternative to face-to-face dialogue -- a journalist who promotes mutual understanding by soliciting and then sharing thoughtful reader views on controversial issues.
News and Opinion
The Insidious Lie That We Can't Understand Each Other
A welcome challenge to the dangerous but increasingly popular notion that, no matter what we do, we can't understand one another (and shouldn't bother trying).