The Courageous Conversations Compass

I came across something interesting in a Professional Development event a while back: the Courageous Conversations Compass.

It was used as a method of talking about race.

Something I’ve recognized before is how people can talk past one another, and it’s a fair point that this can occur if they’re coming from a different point on the compass. If one person is emotional and another is rational, there may be some opposition. The emotional person will feel that their concerns aren’t addressed, while the intellectual will be confused about inconsistency. One person may want to be heard, while another thinks the best response is to do something, and a third is considering about first principles.

This disconnect can also explain a lot of internet arguments.

One unique problem is that the emotional arguments are really hard to communicate since the other person may have a different frame of reference. One person may be thinking about how they feel due to instances of what may have been systematic racism, while another’s emotions may be riled by the sense they’re accused of racism.

This obviously extends to other topics. You could certainly imagine these different kinds of reactions on questions to do with mask mandates, vaccine requirements, educational priorities, congressional spending, etc.