Spot Positive Deviance

Now is the time to locate the groups and organizations nationwide that know how to navigate tense political divisions and who can provide you with the support often necessary to do so effectively.

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Exercises

Choose Your Lift Level

What do you have capacity for today? Whether it's a light lift, or something a little heavier, taking a step is what counts.

5 minutes 20 minutes 1 hour+

5 minutes

Locate the Best Bridge-Building Organizations Working on Your Issue of Choice

Go to the Bridge Alliance website and identify organizations working on addressing divisions regarding your current issue of concern.

Visit The Website

The Science Behind It

The Bridge Alliance is an association of 103 organizations committed to revitalizing America through civic engagement, governance, policymaking, and campaign and election processes. Some of the top organizations in America are working to mend fences and identify common-ground solutions to some of our most pressing social challenges. Browse their website, join their movement, and then reach out to any organizations focused on your main issues of concern.

20 minutes

Leverage Taboos

Reflect on the most relevant taboos - the laws, norms, religious doctrines, etc. - that discourage contentious engagement over these issues. Are they shared and honored on all sides? Discuss with your political partner.

The Science Behind It

All groups and societies have social guardrails we call taboos. These are normative responses to those acts - large and small - that most community members find somewhere between wrong and hateful and are often met with shunning, condemnation, or worse. Taboos can be suffocating and a source of control and oppression, but they often serve and protect civility in communities. Give some thought to the local taboos in your community that, if honored, could help to shepherd the types of conversations over political differences that will help us all navigate them more fruitfully.

1 hour+

Familiarize Yourself With Some of the National Solutions to Polarization

Check out some of the various reports by civil society groups over the past two years that detail various actions you can take at the local, state, and national levels to stem the tide of division.

The good news here is that there are more and more academics, nonprofits, think tanks, and foundations that have been running studies and convening experts on the various activities that could help reduce the spike in polarization we have been seeing for decades. These include summaries and briefs such as:

Our Common Purpose (American Academy's Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship)

Building a Resiliency Network: Toolkit (Over Zero)

Building U.S. Resilience to Political Violence (Over Zero)

Racial Reckoning in the United States (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

Renewing American Democracy (Beyond Conflict)

Building Sustainable Peace and Preventing Political Violence in the United States (Alliance for Peacebuilding)

Do Americans Really Care for Each Other? (Making Caring Common Project)

Public Policy and Health in the Trump Era (The Lancet Commission)

Countless nonprofit organizations are doing good work on bridge-building in your area. Join them and support their efforts. (Psst, Starts With Us is a great one to join!)

Join Starts With Us

The Science Behind It

Sparking a social movement will require us all to move beyond identifying people and groups working in concert to make a difference - it will require us to join them in common cause. If you do, know that you are part of a growing movement of Americans from all political persuasions who believe in our capacities as a nation to correct course and build a better future.

Daily Reflection

End the day by noting how these groups might give rise to a renewed sense of efficacy and hope in our nation.

Set a daily reminder

Get daily exercise reminders on your phone or email throughout The Challenge to stay on track.

Better navigate politically polarizing situations

Repair strained relationships with family and friends

Become a less reactive and more effective communicator