Sentiment Into Action DEI Series: Building Community Bridges

Perspective, experience and actions to build community bridges brought to you by Tru Pettigrew, author, speaker, workshop leader and friend of Up10 Solutions! Get to know more about Tru at tru-access.com/.

Being a Community Bridge Builder can be exhausting work. It can also be some of the most fulfilling work you’ll ever do. And it also yields tremendous benefits. Before I get into the benefits, allow me to define Community Bridge Building and why it should be a priority for every organization in the nation.

The purpose of a bridge is to enable you to cross terrain, territory, or waters, that you normally would not be able to cross without its presence. In other words, the bridge provides a means of connection from where you are to where you want or need to be. And as a society, I would suggest that we are not where we want or need to be when it comes to empathy and understanding of others. This is true across communities of all kind; neighborhood communities, social communities, faith based communities, virtual communities, and even corporate communities. According to a September 2019 article in the New York Times, America is the most divided it has been since the Civil War; particularly across racial and political lines. As a nation, we are not where we want or need to be relationally, and we need a strong collective of Community Bridge Builders to help get us there.

As a Community Bridge Builder, I am committed to helping communities and organizations build bridges of trust, empathy, and understanding across racial divides, generational divides, gender divides, and relational divides of all kind. This work involves facilitating courageous conversations on sensitive topics. It is my belief that a large part of the reason we are so divided as a nation, is because we avoid the uncomfortable conversations. Talking openly and candidly about topics such as race, makes most people uncomfortable, so we avoid the conversation altogether. And therein lies the challenge. If we never talk about the areas where we have issues, we will never be able to address and resolve those issues. I want to encourage everyone to embrace the discomfort. That is a part of the work that needs to be done in order to achieve the resolution, restoration, and healing that we all seek. And it’s never as bad as it seems. As the Roman Philosopher Seneca The Younger has taught us… “We suffer more in our imagination than we do in reality.” I’ve seen this play out time and time again in the facilitation of these Courageous Conversations.

My experience has taught me that the temporary sting of discomfort that we may experience from engaging in these uncomfortable conversations, pales in comparison to the consequences of avoiding them. 

It is important though, that when engaging in these conversations that they are facilitated dialogues. The facilitator can have no other agenda than fostering the most inclusive environment possible. There can be no left agenda, right agenda, democratic agenda, republican agenda, liberal agenda, conservative agenda, black agenda, blue agenda, or white agenda. The focus of the facilitator is to create a safe space for all to share their diverse perspectives, in an effort to empower the organization or community, to co-create and collaborate on thoughts, ideas, and solutions that serves the greater good of all. 

It is imperative that we all take greater strides to help our nation live up to the true meaning of “United” in the “United” States of America. Because as it stands now, we are the exact opposite. And if we allow the seeds of division to continue to be planted in the hearts and minds of the people who make up our great nation, those seeds will grow into dangerous weeds of destruction and despair. But I remain encouraged. I remain encouraged because I see the fruits of Community Bridge Building with every workshop, discussion, and session that I facilitate. I see the transformed hearts, and minds, I see the revelation, I see the increased levels of empathy and understating that transpires when people simply take the time to get to know each other. 

I am not here to attempt to oversimplify something that is clearly complex. Although I will contend that it is not hard. My experiences have taught me that being a Community Bridge Builder requires these three attributes… Faith, Willingness, and Compassion. And the benefits are bountiful. Your community and organization will experience a healthier overall culture, greater collaboration, higher morale, increased levels of empathy, more understanding, and your people will be happier! But there are also a host of tangible and measurable business benefits of Community Bridge Building. 

The three primary tangible benefits of building community bridges are:

Yes - Community Bridge Building does require a lot of work! But as the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has taught us; the change that we seek will not roll in on the wheels of inevitability. So roll up your sleeves and let’s get to work on building these bridges!