Mónica Guzmán, Author of “I Never Thought of It That Way”, came to Idea Works on May 13th to host a workshop which left quite an impression on attendees.
Guzmán is a journalist and expert on political polarization, having studied political division as a Henry M Jackson leadership fellow. She works with Together Washington, a group trying to create collaborative relationships among leaders in Washington state, and Braver Angels, a national organization with the goal of depolarizing America.
Guzmán’s book, which is recommended by The New York Times, is about how people divide themselves into groups, how these groups warp our perceptions of reality and how curiosity can help overcome this warped perception of the world. Her workshop trains participants on how to overcome this warped perception through asking questions and talking to those with a different perspective of the world.
“We believe it’s our responsibility to create opportunities for meaningful community conversations,” president of Source Media Properties Jay Allred said. “The best conversations are rooted in genuine curiosity, so when we had an opportunity to bring Mónica to Mansfield to teach us, we jumped at the chance.”
The workshop brought about 50 local leaders together, including Philip Mazzocco, a psychology professor at OSU and owner of Two Cousins Pizza Company, and Kelly Blankenship, the executive director of Harmony House.
Mazzocco also works for Unlimited Potential for Achievement (U.P.A), an organization which offers communications and sensitivity training to local businesses.
“I’m part of a company that provides workshops on controversial topics like racism, implicit bias, diversity,” Mazzocco said. “At a lot of these talks we encounter a lot of resistance and people become very defensive. My primary motivation for attending was to learn some techniques to overcome that resistance.”
Blankenship was partially motivated to attend the workshop to sharpen her communication skills.
“Everything that we do in our daily lives involves some sort of communication,” Blankenship said. “We don’t often think about the actual act of communication as the communicator vs the receiver, how our communication might be received by the other party. If you don’t take the time to slow down and study those things then oftentimes you might not be as effective with your communication.”
The event was split into three different participation sections with each section exploring a different aspect of communication. These sections helped teach participants about active listening, what makes up a good question, and when to insert oneself into conversation.
Through talking with others belonging to different groups and asking questions, one can find the “path” that leads to their opinions, according to Guzmán.
“I loved the practical nature of the workshop,” Mazzocco said. “There was a basic underlying philosophy regarding communication.”
Mazzocco added that he plans to incorporate some of the conversation tactics into his coursework and workshops for U.P.A.
“We have a particular approach to going out and buying a car, we do the research, we shop around,” Mazzocco said. “Why not approach conversations in the same manner? Let’s have a very strategic approach, let’s have goals, let’s have techniques.”
Blankenship also plans on bringing the communication tactics learned from the event into her work stating:
“Once you know better, you’re responsible for doing better.”
Blankenship mentioned that she would like to see the workshop grow larger and believes that all people would benefit from going through the training.
Mazzocco also believes that this workshop was valuable and noted that many community leaders were there.
“I was very pleased to see how many people from different cross-sections of Mansfield showed up and participated,” Mazzocco said. “That gave me some hope for inter-group communication which can sometimes be lacking in this town”
Richland source would like to thank Relax It’s Just Coffee, NECIC, and the Richland County Foundation for sponsoring the curiosity workshop.
