Assistant Professor of Practice teaching leadership and communication, conflict resolution, and facilitation at UT Austin. Practicing mediator, facilitator, and consultant working with local, state, and federal government agencies and nonproft organizations. Expert in dialogue across different, de-escalation, consensus building, and public engagement in policymaking.
While the “town meeting” (often mischaracterized as “town hall meeting”) has prevailed in many communities for centuries, the last three to four decades have brought dramatic innovations in how democracies “listen” – migrating away from a perfunctory public “hearing” to an interactive, two-way conversational deliberation. In this chapter, I examine the often controversial and discontinuous journey that our democracy has taken from traditional forms of public comment to newer evolutions of dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement. I explore the limitations of prior and prevailing methods of listening to the public and examine how newer listening methods have – and have not – helped improve the ties between the governing and the governed. This chapter ends by examining potential future questions to explore in this space.
“One way to change our thinking and belief system is to reframe the way we think about ‘wins’ in interactions,” says Larry Schooler, PhD, an assistant professor of practice who teaches conflict resolution and leadership and communication courses at the University of Texas at Austin. "Recognize that my ‘winning’ could mean the other person's losing, which can jeopardize the relationship we have. The harder I try to convince someone else I am right, the more likely that person will either fight by pushing back or flee by withdrawing, feeling defeated.”