Touro Communication Club Notes #66

Tourocommunicationclub.blogspot.com

New feature: Communication Quote of the Week:
“We will never have peace in the world until we learn how to communicate with people with whom we disagree.” Pete Seeger, American folksinger and civil rights activist.

Word is Getting Around: The Touro Communication Blog and our weekly discussions have been noticed by Halifax University and at least three Touro faculty members.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Room 223 - Midtown SPAR Debate IV - Thinking on your feet

Is is possible that we’ve not scheduled a SPAR Debate session since before the election? Now let’s see if we can move from aphorisms to public policy issues. Spouting your beliefs is easy compared to taking the opposite position and arguing something you do believe in. This kind of exercise allows you to anticipate people who have different ideas from yours. We are going to raise the bar on the content of the arguments, the reasoning and the evidence we use.

Dear Communicators:

Theme: Finding the Universal in the Particular.

An interesting article in the Friday, March 13th of The New York Times, buried on page 6, led me to reflect on another aspect of communication: What happens to communication when a person or a group of people are isolated from the larger society?

The headline, “Pope Admits online News Can Provide Infallible Aid,” described the situation that Pope Benedict XVI found himself in when an Internet posting proved him wrong. The Pope had “not known” that a Bishop, excommunicated by Pope John Paul II for making Holocaust-denying statements, had made these statements and had revoked the excommunication.

Despite “an avalanche of protests” from around the world, the Pope indicated that he would not back down from his reinstatement of the Bishop. The NY Times article reports the Pope as saying, “Was it, and is it, truly wrong in this case to meet halfway the brother who ‘has something against you’ and to seek reconciliation?”

Clearly, that gesture might be debatable in many quarters. But the incident marks at least two startling comments in the 2000 year history of the Roman Catholic Church, according to the Times. The first is that the Pope “admitted that the Vatican had made ‘mistakes’ in handling the case of a Holocaust denying bishop.” The letter was “unprecedented in its directness, its humanity and its acknowledgment of paper fallibility,” The Times wrote.

The second comment was “unique” in Vatican history. The Pope wrote, “I have been told that consulting the information on the internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on.” The Times quipped, “Note to the Roman Curia; try Google.” With the Pope’s statement, The Time editorialized, “The Vatican, a 2000-year-old monarchy…and run by octogenarians, has officially acknowledged the 24-hour news cycle, not a 24-century one.”

From our Communication purposes, the article acknowledges the isolation the Vatican – or any organization, group or individual, has from the larger world. The Pope disputes this view, saying in the article, “We don’t live on the moon.”

In our increasingly fast-moving world of communication technologies, isolation from changes is a mixed bag, but the quality of our communication is affected regardless of our position. The more skilled we become at communicating, the more we are forced at climbing out of the “ghettos” of our minds.

Since the world of information has been exploding exponentially in the last 25 years, we cannot hope to know everything. However we can look for patterns – finding the universal in the particular is one – which will give us continuing insight into the information chaos around us. [Some people might call this ‘Critical Thinking.”]

UPCOMING CONVERSATIONS:

Wednesday March 25, 2009

Theatre IV – Using Your Voice Effectively
Thus far, we have focused on basic acting tools- breathing, sense memory, emotional recall and improvisation. Although we are far from finished in identifying more basic acting tools, we need to introduce working with your voice. Like the body, the voice is a major part of the actor’s instrument. Being aware of the capabilities of the speaking voice, very different from the singing voice, can give the Communicator another range of options in delivering the message.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

What’s Happening to Communication II – Pressures & Technology –

Led by James Millner
As always in our Communication Club meetings, everyone has so much to say that often we barely scratch the surface of the topic. The process is important: everyone gets a chance to be heard – hopefully. With a second discussion we need to focus on some of the factors that affect how we communicate. We’ll try to nail down a few influences.

What happened on Wednesday, Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - “Politics and Communication”
The enthusiastic group included Richard Green, Carlisle Yearwood, Brian Brown, Charles Mason, Lorinda Moore, James Millner, Drani Gabu, Anna Indelicato and Hal Wicke.

Hal asked for a definition of “politics.” The group concluded that the word had something to do with interactions between and among people from its Greek root “polis” meaning city or state. They agreed that since people are involved in every communication situation – intimate, personal interpersonal, at work, and, of course, at City Hall, Albany and Washington DC.

Hal suggested three premises that are fundamental to all politics:

• All people are different.
• Most people want the same or similar things/ goals.
• People have different ways of achieving their goals.

There are many factors create conflict in communication, such as

• Space
• Money
• Power
• Status/Pride/Privilege
• Time
• Respect
• Affections

Emotions begin to dominate an interchange when people dig into their positions.

It was at this point that the discussions expanded into the many political situations which have or are going out of control:

• The global economy
• The desperate political situations in many African countries (Zimbabwe, Sudan, Congo, etc), the Middle East (Israel, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Syria) and East Asian countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India)
• The 2000 U.S. Election
  

A scene in the film, "Recount," highlighted two tactics of the 2000 election. The Democratic/Warren Christopher tactic was a high-minded academic rules-oriented approach. The Republican/James Baker tactic was to wage a street fight.

Carlisle commented on the power of the street vs. the power of the police. When you win in the street, you win in the police precinct. When you don’t win in the street, you don’t win in the precinct.

The exciting discussion continued with the details of the specifics of many anecdotal experiences. All stories were fascinating and kept attention at a peak.

Hal tried, unsuccessfully, to observe that the group was lost in specifics. The only thing, he said to himself, that was different about the discussion in Room 223 and a bar room was beer. [Hal promised to himself to inject a communication principle of “Finding the universal in the specific.” More later.]

Hal mention the 1975 book ‘Getting to Yes” from the founders of the Harvard Negotiation Project. The book was influential in guiding President Jimmy Carter’s Middle East negotiations with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin. The book lists three positions that conflicting opponents can take:

• Win/Win
• Win/Lose
• Lose/Lose

We will revisit these ideas when we next return to Negotiation .Part II

We also need to explore ways to identify emotions and guide them productively when in the midst of a difficult situation.

Another source for analysis: Brian mentioned an HBO film, “Right America: Feeling Wronged – Some Voices from the campaign trail” by filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi [Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s daughter].

Each one of these sessions just further confirms, at least for me, the wide-ranging impact of Communication on virtually every aspect of our lives.

Let’s not forget Carlisle Yearwood’s IDEA several weeks ago. He suggested we develop a 3x4 index card with basic Touro information on it. We’ll talk more about this in the future.

As always, these sessions are open for everyone to attend. Bring a friend and join the excitement. See you next time.

Hal Wicke