One of the greatest challenges anyone engaged in leadership faces is establishing trust. It's even harder to restore trust when evidence indicates that we or our systems have failed.
I've been struggling for months to figure out how to restore trust in evidence-based decision making in the age of Trump. Trump isn't the only one who assails the mainstream media, accusing journalists of "fake news," or creates alternative facts. Trump and others like him have created a world in which skepticism about pretty much anything we hear or read is justified. In this context, how do we find information, people, and aspiration that we can trust?
Barbara Fister references other scholars who have begun to explore how to help university students find trustable sources of knowledge. She used William Perry's Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development (1968) to describe the early dualism and the eventual rampant relativism of the typical young adult years. Relativism is a place where many university students settle as they are bombarded with so many different perspectives in their courses and experiences. Relativism becomes a refuge characterized by a belief that "everyone has a right to their own opinion and, after all, there isn't any real authoritative or defensible agreement anyway."
Those committed to broadly fostering leadership capacity throughout education and civil society must tackle this question - How do we restore trust? Not only are many students studying in universities trapped in cognitive cages of dualism, oppositionality, or multiplicity. The challenge of cognitive frames impacts all of us as we attempt to make sense of what we see and hear. Ultimately, a response that cultivates skepticism but recognizes the value of well-considered and documented perspectives appears to be the most promising path.
Ron Heifetz addressed the question of restoring trust during a program at the 2016 meeting of the International Leadership Association. Leaders and leadership educators will have to respond to Heifetz' challenge if we are to find a way of sorting information from disinformation and if we are to reassure students that there are those who can be trusted - and become trustable themselves.
I've been struggling for months to figure out how to restore trust in evidence-based decision making in the age of Trump. Trump isn't the only one who assails the mainstream media, accusing journalists of "fake news," or creates alternative facts. Trump and others like him have created a world in which skepticism about pretty much anything we hear or read is justified. In this context, how do we find information, people, and aspiration that we can trust?
Barbara Fister references other scholars who have begun to explore how to help university students find trustable sources of knowledge. She used William Perry's Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development (1968) to describe the early dualism and the eventual rampant relativism of the typical young adult years. Relativism is a place where many university students settle as they are bombarded with so many different perspectives in their courses and experiences. Relativism becomes a refuge characterized by a belief that "everyone has a right to their own opinion and, after all, there isn't any real authoritative or defensible agreement anyway."
Those committed to broadly fostering leadership capacity throughout education and civil society must tackle this question - How do we restore trust? Not only are many students studying in universities trapped in cognitive cages of dualism, oppositionality, or multiplicity. The challenge of cognitive frames impacts all of us as we attempt to make sense of what we see and hear. Ultimately, a response that cultivates skepticism but recognizes the value of well-considered and documented perspectives appears to be the most promising path.
Ron Heifetz addressed the question of restoring trust during a program at the 2016 meeting of the International Leadership Association. Leaders and leadership educators will have to respond to Heifetz' challenge if we are to find a way of sorting information from disinformation and if we are to reassure students that there are those who can be trusted - and become trustable themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment