I don’t usually weigh in on politics because I consult with
public and nonprofit managers. When I
heard Kellyanne Conway use the words, alternative facts, it brought up and old
paper a professor of mine, Robert Sahr, had written on sources of disagreement in
public policy making. Usually we think
about the dynamics of staff meetings from a psychological perspective, but you
can apply the language of policy making to your staff meetings as well.
Ms Conway wasn’t so wrong when she said there were
alternative facts. I’m not talking about
incorrect, inaccurate, or confusing facts.
If your organization uses performance measures, you’ve surly disagreed
about whether you have the right measure, whether you can include or exclude
certain data, what outside factors affect your measurement. Say, you train people for jobs. You can disagree on what number characterizes
the economic situation your client faces, the unemployment rate, people who are
not working but are looking for a job; the number collecting unemployment, a
portion of those looking for a job; or the number of discouraged workers who
have given up looking for a job. None
are wrong.
Related to that disagreement is a disagreement over the
interpretation or consequences of the fact.
Do any of these ways to measure unemployment have consequences for your
ability to find your clients jobs. Do
you think it matters how many are collecting unemployment, nationally, in your
state, in your area?
Another source of disagreement is based upon your ideology,
your belief system. If you train prospective
workers, you are probably pretty sympathetic to the difficulty of your clients
finding jobs. You may have a cynic
amongst you who is a naysayer about any new ideas for training and employment. Those outside of your program may say there
are plenty of jobs available. This
program is not necessary.
As you sit around the table, you may disagree based upon your
professional backgrounds. Admittedly, this is more likely to happen at your
board meeting or town council meeting. When
you received your degree, particularly a professional degree, you began to see the
world through that lens. A minister
seeks to solve problems through the church and god while a social worker seeks
to solve problems within the family and community and if that doesn’t work
through government intervention. I sit
on my town’s budget committee, a citizen review committee. Those who have been in detail oriented
careers, engineering and architecture, keep saying that the increases in the
cost for our schools are unsustainable. They
look rationally at the increases each year.
Yet the voters keep approving the increases to the school budget.
Finally, your self-interest affects how you react in your
staff meeting. You want the program to
succeed; you want to keep your job. You
agree with one person rather than another. We even use the word, you act politically. It makes political sense to agree with that
person versus another person.
Before I started writing this, I googled sources of
disagreement and certainly there are others who have found ways to describe disagreement,
but do any these hit home?
