community

by John McShane, Community Programs Director I worked recently with the senior staff at an Indianapolis hospital on a team building and renewal workshop series. There were about 50 participants. This was our second meeting. In our first, we discussed assumptions and how they might feed into misunderstandings and even conflict. Session one also reviewed conflict styles and communication strategies. Something about session two was very different. We began the session with a concentric circle exercise. People are assigned dialogue partners and are tasked, alternately, with only speaking or listening roles.  The three questions for the short conversations (about 90 second each) were: Tell me about a time you felt left out, unwelcome, or even discriminated against. Tell me about a time you saw someone left out, unwelcome, or even discriminated against. Tell me about a time you saw someone left out, unwelcome, or even discriminated against and it worked out well or was a success story. The questions follow a pattern we typically use in our professional development workshops. We begin with reflection and an examination of self, our stance. We then follow with work and dialogue considering our impact on and with others. Finally, after discussing self and others, we move to community. Specifically, we discuss what impact participants can have on their own communities. In this context a community can be a workplace, a family, a neighborhood, a professional association, a place of worship, etc. The