Amy Lazarusis the Executive Director of the International Institute for Sustained Dialoguewhere she previously served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Networkto develop everyday leaders who engage differences as strengths to improve their campuses, workplaces, and communities. Amy was a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs, earned an M.S. in Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz School, and founded Common Ground at Duke University. She is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, serves on the board of Operation Understanding DC, and is a recipient of USA Network’s Characters Unite Award, Facing History’s Upstander Award, and the American Express NGen Leadership Fellowship. The programs Amy develops are cited as best practices in Barrett Seaman’s Binge: What Your College Student Won’t Tell You, and The Washington Post. Amy practices tai chi and has sung back up for Aretha Franklin.
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A Jew and a Mormon Find Common Ground Midair
Airline seating, Thorsten Nieder / Shutterstock.com
During a layover in the Phoenix airport on Friday, I caught the tail end of President Barack Obama’s remarks about the Trayvon Martin case. Struck by Obama’s words, I said to no one in particular, “It’s about time he said something about this.” The man next to me looked in my direction as I walked to get a snack, and I considered for a second going back and asking his impression of the president’s remarks. I kept walking toward the green licorice, but fate had other plans.
Who ended up being in seat 18B next to me? Yep. We smiled as we made eye contact, a mutual recognition that we had an overdue conversation coming and the time to have it.
For a living, I teach and facilitate dialogue. I train others how to — and why to — have challenging conversations that transform relationships and design community change. I have facilitated more than 10,000 hours of dialogue in the past 15 years.
I was feeling confident and curious. We got right into it.
“Well, looks like we are supposed to talk about it,” I said as he laughed. “What did you think of the president’s remarks?”
“I think I thought differently than you did,” John said