What a difference a year makes.
Last September I was honored to receive the Page Society’s Distinguished Service Award for contributions to our profession. Page is the association for the communications industry’s senior executives. I focused my acceptance speech on the declining state of civil discourse and increase in polarization in our society.
In my remarks, I announced the launch of The Dialogue Project — a year-long global research effort to explore what role business should play to solve these twin problems. USC Annenberg is one of the program’s title sponsors.
Well, if discourse and polarization were problems a year ago, they’ve grown exponentially since. COVID-19, a shattered economy and racial injustice have magnified our divide.
Today, one year since that speech, I can share with you some of the insight we’ve gleaned in the research for Dialogue Project, which is being made public this fall.
First, based on research done for the Dialogue Project by Morning Consult among 5000 adults in five countries (Brazil, Germany, India, U.K., and the U.S; 1,000 per country), we now know:
- Having a respectful conversation with someone we disagree with is a major problem across the world.
- The problem is seen as especially acute by respondents in the United States (57%), Brazil (64%), and India (49%).
- Americans, even more than the citizens of European countries like the United Kingdom (28%) and Germany (26%), think the polarization is a major problem.
- Women see the inability to engage in respectful dialogue as a bigger problem than men especially in the U.S (63% to 51%) and India (54% to 45%).
- In the U.S., rural residents (72%) said they were more comfortable having conversations with other people who have different perspectives than urbanites (58%) and suburbanites (61%).
- Eight-in-10 respondents said people need to be more respectful when talking with those who hold opposing views, but only half were said they should spend more time doing so.
- Despite the hope expressed by some pundits that COVID-19 would help people recognize their common humanity, survey respondents across countries were evenly divided on whether the pandemic is making people more able, less able, or having no impact on their ability to engage in respectful dialogue. However, in the U.S., 46% of respondents said they were less able.
- Similarly, the eruption of issues surrounding race, police brutality, and Black Lives Matter has had a mixed impact on people’s ability to have respectful dialogue with those holding different beliefs. Compared to the other countries, the U.S. (57%) and the U.K. (41%) were significantly less able to have conversations about the recent racial unrest.
- To help solve the problem, respondents across countries suggested electing leaders who inspired people to be more civil (72%), encouraging family and friends to communicate with people of opposing views (70%), and reforming elections by improving transparency in the campaign reporting process (70%).
The report wasn’t all research. We also reached out to a cross-section of top business executives for their perspectives on the issue and what they thought business should do.
Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, said “The excessive focus on our own self-interest is part of what is destroying the glue that holds our society together. Companies can aggressively work to improve society. They can take positions on public policy that they think are good for the country. In the past, boards and advisors to boards advised company CEOs to keep their heads down and stay out of the line of fire. Now the opposite may be true.”
Mary Barra, chairman and chief executive of General Motors, said, “Listening is the singular first step on the path to any positive change in the world. As business leaders, we have the responsibility to start down this path. We must listen to our own teams and engage in conversations that elevate our collective
understanding and ultimately, inform our actions to make the world a better place.”
Michael Sneed, executive vice president of Johnson & Johnson, said, “Having diversity of thought, experiences and backgrounds — and sharing those things liberally — is the spark that fuels new ideas and forward progress. Corporations in particular know this. Businesses understand that being closed off to new ideas and constructive conversation will most certainly lead to failure, so we have an opportunity to lead. We must play a role in civil discourse.”
The Dialogue Project also profiled some great examples of work companies are doing to be part of the solution. Two, in particular, stand out: General Mills and Allstate.
General Mills has a four-year-running program called Courageous Conversations. Every two months, the company invites thousands of employees to regularly participate in “difficult” conversations, on issues ranging from police brutality to immigration, from social justice to LGBTQ. It’s been a great success and has earned tremendous support throughout the company.
Allstate, in partnership with The Aspen Institute, leads The Better Arguments Project, an outreach effort in a growing number of communities across America to help people learn how to have better, more productive arguments. Yes, arguments; the program embraces conflict and seeks to help people learn to how to bring those differences to a productive resolution.
The bottom line: as people become increasingly disillusioned with politicians and our civic institutions, businesses (and business leaders) need to step up to become a more active part of healing society and allowing us to move forward more productively.
For much more information on the Dialogue Project, including more research, more byliners and more case studies, visit www.dialogueproject.study.
2021 Relevance Report Results
Bob Feldman is Vice-Chair of ICF Next. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Arthur W. Page Society, and is a member of the USC Annenberg Center for PR Board of Advisors.