I-Thou Dialogue Guide
Congressional discord and governmental dysfunction appear to be approaching historic levels in America today. The latest partisan rhetoric emanating from Capitol Hill is paralyzing all cooperative efforts aimed at solving any number of America’s problems. In particular, Congress’s recent failure to reach bipartisan consensus on extending the Bush era tax cuts will undoubtedly result in a debilitating tax increase for millions of financially strapped Americans, unless our legislators can put aside politics and engage in a collaborative dialogue intended on solving this and other critical issues facing Americans presently.
As the newly appointed Congressional Dialogue Facilitator, I have been charged with the task of facilitating such a collaborative dialogue amongst our country’s political factions in hopes of breaking the partisan stalemate that’s crippling the American democratic process. Accordingly, I am instituting 6 rules of conduct for all inter-party communications which I am confident will help cultivate an I-Thou communication relationship amongst Democratic and Republican Party members. Proper application of the mindfulness, effective listening, confirmation, emotional intelligence, trust building, and moral argument I-Thou communication behavior rules will help foster respectful and cooperative communication efforts while increasing Congress’s consensus decision-making quotient.
Typical congressional debate presupposes that one side is always wrong; subsequently the concerns of one’s adversary are always discounted. Alternatively, mindful dialogue fosters listening, understanding, and consensus decision-making. Through listening and understanding, mindful communication makes the participants more sensitive to diversity and more open to reaching a mutually beneficial resolution; while classic political debate is chiefly concerned with winning. Mindful communication also encourages everyone to seek out new information which, in turn, allows for reexamination and revision of conclusions and predetermined biases. Mindfulness is an atypical mind-set for most legislators so it will only be achieved through the rigorous practice of mindful understanding and a mindful respect for the ideas of one’s adversary.
Mindful understanding is important to congressional dealings, but in order to foster an environment of mutual understanding legislators must first practice the art of effective listening. Competent listening is essential if one hopes to successfully process all the information one encounters during many daily transactions. By understanding and using the 6 components of the HURIER communication model (hearing, understanding, remembering, interpreting, evaluating, and responding), congressional leaders can master a listen-focused approach to dialogue. Hearing what one’s opponent is advocating is crucial to understanding what motivates our opponent’s actions. Understanding motives promotes empathy towards our rivals and increases cooperation. Remembering allows for the immediate retrieval of information which helps us form an appropriate, unbiased response. Determining the meaning of one’s message can be accomplished in the interpreting phase of the HURIER model while evaluating the message helps in determining its validity or relevancy. Finally, when all the aforementioned components are rigorously practiced, one can then draft an appropriate, empathetic response. While effective listening is an important component of dialogue, listening can only be effective if we approach dialogue with mindfulness.
Recognizing the value of others, according to philosopher Martin Buber, is essential to successful communication. Buber refers to this concept of individual importance as confirmation. Classic confirmation behaviors include personal recognition and affirmation, relationship acknowledgment, attentiveness to an individual’s value, and accepting another’s personal perspective. Confirming dialogue helps improve relationships and further consensus decision-making.
Knowing how to respond to emotions is the next step in an effective communication lesson plan. According to Craig Johnson, author of Organization Ethics, emotionally sensitive people get along better with people in most cases, they are more supportive of others, and they make better decisions because they understand how their moods manipulate their judgment. Researchers use the term emotional intelligence to describe this capacity to recognize and manipulate the emotions of others as well as our own. A highly developed emotionally intelligent individual will be able to recognize those emotions that break down communications and, in turn, control them to further dialogue and settlement.
Trust is quite possibly the most important component of effective interpersonal communication; therefore, our legislators must engage in trust building exercises on a daily basis. According to Johnson, our congressional leaders have a moral obligation to protect and champion the interests of their constituents – the American public. When our leaders fail to reach consensus on issues vital to the public well-being, they break the trust of millions of Americans that rely on them to make the tough decisions, no matter how unpopular they me be at the time. Congress can earn and maintain the trust of their voters by utilizing all six I-Thou relationship communication rules which should help foster trusting interpersonal dialogue and the interparty cooperation necessary for solving some of America’s urgent problems.
It’s important to note that all dialogue breaks down from time to time and participating in discussions during such a time is never easy. When congressional tempers flare and chaos reigns, Professor Rebecca Meisenbach offers five steps for engaging in moral argument which should help guide egos and anger to a mutually beneficial understanding of the issues at hand. Firstly, a statement needs to be made regarding actions that will make an impact on others. Secondly, identify all those that will be affected by the resolution; followed immediately by the next step of communicating to those affected. Next, a debate pertaining to the corollary affects of the proposal should ensue. And, lastly, a judgment should be made as to the morality of the decision and any subsequent consequences. Legislative disagreements are common and usually end in stalemate; but by following Meisenbach’s five steps of moral argument engagement, legislators can move past the debilitating arguments and reengage in constructive and productive dialogue.
Americans deserve solutions to the problems which ail them, and the development of I-Thou relationships amongst legislators would aid in developing the cooperative atmosphere necessary to produce solutions to societal ills. Unfortunately, I-Thou relationships are rare and extremely difficult to achieve; but with proper observance of the I-Thou dialogue components of mindfulness, effective listening, confirmation, emotional intelligence, trust building, and moral argument, congressional leaders can help guide legislators away from the ineffectual practice of debate and posturing and steer them towards an observance of problem-solving dialogue.

WORKS CITED

Johnson, Craig E., Organizational Ethics: A Practical Approach. 2nd Ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, 2012. Print.