I was not expecting my business to move in this direction. But there was no avoiding it. Perhaps it was lockdown 2.0 in Sydney and all the madness that entailed which saw me pivot my business offerings completely to focus on providing conversational spaces.
Where were the safe spaces for people to test their conversational muscles and be heard for their best intentions? Where could people go to explore the unknown questions in finding the right coherence without fearing other people’s reactions to buzz words, news feeds and kaleidoscopic data?
It’s no secret. 2021 is a weird, complex time to be alive; the information landscape is fractured, culture is polarised and our institutions seem increasingly unable to help us make sense of what's going on. Everywhere we turn there are critical issues we face in our day-to-day life; COVID-19 and the public health crisis, violence against women, climate change, loss of our native species and the rising toll of mental health everywhere we turn.
The space between the personal and the public used to be held together by trust for authority, access to reliable information sources and our tribal or familial sources of meaning, be they religious or philosophical.
This tapestry of cultural fabric provided an invisible sense of community unity.
Not saying it was perfect but over the last ten years or so, fear of conflict increasingly infuses us with a sense of 'us' and 'them' before we even speak.
This tension seems to live just below the surface, amorphous, intangible and ever-present.
People working with me are in these types of situations.
They are interested in topics like climate change or vaccinations but have friends and colleagues who overwhelm them with intensity, righteousness or information overload.
They work in organisations that have worthy social causes but people working in them are burned out, ineffective and unable to work in a way that sustains them and the community they (want to) serve.
They feel like we have to have an opinion on issues that we don't really care much about (because there is so much to care about and so little time).
They get caught in closed conversations based on cloudy reasoning and polarised choices. If you question mandatory vaccinations, are you really a conspiracy theorist? If you question foreign investment, do you really not care about keeping people employed?
We can get baffled by people that seem completely apathetic about topics deeply important to us.
Alternatively, they relate to others primarily from a desire not to offend, which devolves into a habit of saying nothing that matters. Are we so afraid of getting burned that we avoid the heat altogether?
Gatherings of groups that can hold spaces for these conversations are more important than ever before. If you are interested in exploring these themes and building networks of solutions for better conversations, you can get involved by subscribing to my newsletter or checking out my services here. Or contact me at kate@katemcneill.com
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