Article: Pre-pandemic prediction: Dialogue Gap is the Healthcare Crisis of our Era
Dialogue Gap - the Healthcare Crisis of the 2020’s
By Peter Nixon
22 December 2019
Hoi An, Viet Nam
Background
I start the new decade shouting that Dialogue Gap (when peoples’ skill and willingness to dialogue falls short of what the situation requires), has become so bad it is now the global healthcare crisis of the 1920’s and possibly our last if we fail to dialogue and sort out our problems sooner rather than later. While dialogue enables leaders to realise opportunities, in this article I focus on dialogue to resolve conflict and solve problems. Not all situations require dialogue, e.g. open conflict requires force, and dialogue takes time e.g. some societal conflicts take generations to resolve, but any way you slice it, the solution is in the dialogue.
Healthcare problems caused by dialogue gap affect us at several levels.
At the individual level dialogue gap is fueling an alarming rise in anxiety and depression worldwide contributing to unhealthy diets, anxiety, depression, alienation, substance abuse, loss and separation, addiction, disability, unemployment, suicide and death.
At the family level dialogue gap is causing break-ups and significant inter-generational feuding unseen in the East and not seen in the West since the 1960’s.
At work dialogue gap leads to poor decision making, a failure to innovate, a lack of competitiveness, lost profits, closure. Long established organisations are being surpassed by start-ups, bought out by foreign companies or left to go bankrupt.
At the community level dialogue gap leads to pollution, poverty, violence, homelessness, oppression, resettlement, extremism, violence. These problems lead to street protests, insurrection and government overthrow. Communities are suffering a scary rise in hate crimes and terrorism. Economies in both the rich and emerging countries are teetering on the brink of collapse caused by the ongoing dialogue gap between socialists wanting to spend money they don’t have and capitalists wanting to reinvest excess profits to produce even more profits for the few investors who themselves are already better off than most people, e.g. the 1%. The rich/poor divide as measured by the Genie Index has never been so high.
At the global level dialogue gap is delaying the necessary mobilisation of innovation and resources needed to save our environment. While politicians remain stuck in dialogue gap, countries burn and others are submerged in water. Children are screaming for our leaders to overcome dialogue gap, e.g. Greta Thunburg.
In the pages below I discuss the current situation in Hong Kong, a globally current and intensely followed example of dialogue gap. To overcome the growing health crisis caused by dialogue gap, leaders must increase their skill and willingness to dialogue and negotiate while maintaining calm in the face of opposition, volatility, fierce competition, rapid change and the growing climate crisis. The solution is in the dialogue. For more information visit: https://www.potentialdialogue.com/
Dialogue Gap is a healthcare crisis
At present we are facing unprecedented change at all levels. There are dozens of countries in open conflict today. Dialogue gap is so bad it has become a global healthcare crisis.
I recently visited Hue, the ancient capital of Vietnam and scene of some of the worst fighting during the overthrow of the Imperial family, the French, civil and American wars. In all cases leaders lost their ability to maintain equanimity, dialogue and negotiate to achieve an optimal outcome as the world around them changed.
Extreme periods of change need not end in violence or death but our history shows our difficulty achieving dialogue over violence when unhappiness arises between the haves and the have not’s. Today is different because thanks to the internet most people in the world now know our finite existence better than at any time in human history. We know the consequences of dialogue gap mean we can no longer hide away in a safe space. If war doesn’t affect us, the migrants of distant wars will. If the migrants from unrest don’t affect us then climate change will. There is no hiding over the next hill. All seven billion of us will live longer or die sooner based on our ability to overcome dialogue gap.
When dialogue suffers so too do relationships, knowledge and tolerance. Sound familiar? Welcome to the healthcare crisis of the 20’s where we communicate (i.e. exchange messages) more than at any time in human history but engage in dialogue (e.g. think together) less than ever before.
The effects of dialogue gap in the Hong Kong Protests
I explain the case of Hong Kong below to demonstrate the breadth of healthcare problems caused by dialogue gap. Before I go on, I wish to share my attachment to Hong Kong because Hong Kong’s current Chief Executive said many Hong Kongers don’t have a stake in Hong Kong. She couldn’t be more wrong (an example itself of dialogue gap). I have spent over half my life living in Hong Kong. My children were born and raised in Hong Kong. I own property in Hong Kong. My business has been based in Hong Kong since it opened over twenty years ago. I come from Quebec where many of the Royal Rifles (Canadian forces) came from to defend Hong Kong from the Japanese. Far too many of my countrymen fought and died defending Hong Kong in WWII.
I have a stake in Hong Kong and as a specialist in dialogue and negotiation because I have trained, taught or consulted leaders on all sides of the protest including: the HK Civil Service, HK Police, HK Poly U and Chinese U amongst others. I am regularly asked to offer my services to help resolve the Hong Kong crisis. I have been blogging, speaking and training stakeholders to find a way forward. When asked which side I am on, I reply:
“I love China, I love Hong Kong, I side with dialogue”
At a recent peace conference in Hong Kong, roughly two dozen experts in societal conflicts around the world shared their expertise with nearly 500 residents of Hong Kong. It is clear from other conflicts globally that Hong Kong government leaders have a responsibility to engage in dialogue with the stakeholders to begin to repair trust and enact changes to resolve the conflict. However due to either an unwillingness or a lack of skill, dialogue has been absent and problems have escalated for 6 months. During that time hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers have had their physical, mental or spiritual well being negatively affected either through violence (police or protester), repression (e.g. teargas, rubber bullets, etc) or by being ignored by the local government who have avoided dealing with the underlying causes of discontent.
How to solve the healthcare crises caused by Dialogue Gap
My approach to dialogue, see Dialogue Gap (Wiley 2012), is simple. It is encapsulated in the Dialogue Puzzle (below) and includes the Dialogue Skills and Dialogue Methods all needed to achieve optimal outcomes. The dialogue puzzle reminds us that to achieve optimal outcomes we must get the right people (key stakeholders) to dialogue on the right issues, in the right way, at the right time, and in the right space.
In Hong Kong, apart from one brief attempt at Wanchai Stadium, we have not seen HK government leaders attempt to bring together the conflicting parties to dialogue and achieve an optimal outcome. Government delay in sponsoring dialogue has caused the original problem (the extradition bill) to transform into a much bigger problem involving greater China and the rest of the world.
Initially we thought Hong Kong leaders were resisting dialogue for political reasons but now that they have ruined their political futures and the economy at the same time I it obvious they have hesitate do dialogue because they don’t know how, they lack knowledge and ability of dialogue skills and methods. Dialogue and communication are not the same thing. I discovered this difference and dialogue gap when I worked with companies improving their communication. We taught employees how to talk and how to listen but after that we found they still had problems, something else was missing. As a result, I found dialogue required more than just communication. Dialogue consists of five categories of skills required to be effective dialogue leaders, including: presence, respect, expression, suspending and absorbing.
Effective dialogue leaders must be 100% present physically and mentally when in dialogue with key stakeholders. They must demonstrate full respect for others because anything less will create conflict and sub-optimal outcomes if any at all. In addition to presence and respect, dialogue leaders from all stakeholder groups need to express their thoughts fully. It is also very important that all parties suspend their assumptions of right and wrong to create mental space to see things in a new way from others’ perspectives and possibly from a new perspective altogether created by combining everyone’s’ perspectives. Finally dialogue leaders must also absorb or listen deeply to others and themselves.
Apart from the dialogue puzzle and dialogue skills, the third element of success that Hong Kong is missing is using the right dialogue method to engage the key stakeholders in the right way, the right time and the right space to achieve an optimal outcome.
At present, it appears Hong Kong’s government leaders are confused by the dialogue puzzle, they lack the necessary dialogue skills the situation requires, and they seem unaware of the dialogue methods which exist to de-escalate the conflict and achieve an optimal outcome for Hong Kong. Their incompetency explains why Hong Kong has experienced a year of police repression instead of a year of dialogue. I ask my groups to have compassion for Hong Kong’s government leaders. They are doing their best but don’t know a better way to lead. They have not benefited from the international leadership development typical of many of the world’s top companies that currently populate Hong Kong’s expensive commercial real estate. If I am wrong about their incompetence then Hong Kong’s government leaders are hiding the reasons for their dialogue gap. Some say the real reason is the CCP Communist Party of China is the real ruler of Hong Kong now. If true then this message is for them. Only dialogue leadership development and consulting can bring Hong Kong and China through its current turmoil to a better future. I have wanted to train the leaders of the Communist Party of China, since my days teaching survivors of the Tienanmen Square massacre.
Where is Hong Kong today?
The world has witnessed Hong Kong’s year of protests and violence. Most people I speak to expect Beijing to start killing people opposed to their leadership. While Hong Kong’s government leaders remain stuck in dialogue gap, I have stepped up my engagement with Hong Kong corporate, professional, NGO, education and membership groups to answer the following question:
“How Might We remake HK into Asia’s #1 city to live, work, and play?”
It appears Hong Kong’s government leaders don’t know how to solve the problems we pay them to handle on our behalf so I hope they are reading this.
Dear HK Government Leaders, I wish to help you understand the prioritised issues related to the above question. It is my hope that once you understand the issues underlying the unrest you will act to make amends. Having problems is normal but avoiding solving problems is not normal. Together we can do this. Compassionately yours, Peter Nixon
The answers to the above question that Hong Kongers gave me do not repeat the five demands of the protesters. Their answers aim at solving the underlying problems facing HK at this point in history. The dialogue puzzle started with the right people (a representative sample of Hong Kongers wanting change), the right issues (I asked them to list all their issues and then prioritise the most important ones), in the right way (see skills and methods below), at the right time and space (I chose a time and space when they wanted to share and felt safe doing so).
The dialogue skills I used to engage their views included presence (I was face to face with them for days and nights on end in offices, in the street and in some of Hong Kong’s famous food stalls), respect (I never challenged their thoughts or feelings), expression (I encouraged them to share), suspending (I never assumed I knew what they would say and in fact I was often surprised and impressed) and absorbing (deep listening not just to the words spoken but also to the intent underlying the words).
The dialogue method I chose to surface the issues listed below is called Challenge Mapping. It is particularly useful for getting conflicting parties to work together to solve and problem. Conflicting parties don’t trust each other and don’t really want to talk to each other but they are prepared to do things together if it will lead to resolution. Challenge Mapping begins by asking stakeholders to identify all the important reasons why a challenge should be solved. The method then continues by asking the stakeholders to identify all the reasons for what’s stopping them from solving it.
Why do we want to remake HK into Asia’s #1 city to live, work, and play?
What’s stopping us from remaking HK into Asia’s #1 city to live, work, and play?
Challenge Mapping doesn’t pretend to find answers, it helps define the problem by getting stakeholders to work together to identify the key issues through dialogue. Hong Kong, like other parts of the world, faces many challenges. Below is a representative list of what Hong Kongers tell me are the top challenges facing the territory. The challenges are prioritised and the order of the challenges might change depending who I ask and when, but the list itself is complete and provides plenty of scope for Hong Kong government leaders to get to work right away. Each problem identified is written starting with How Might We to recognise it is possible to solve and as such is only a challenge, not an insurmountable impossibility like so many think of Hong Kong’s current predicament.
“How Might We remake HK into Asia’s #1 city to live, work, and play?”
How Might We (HMW) retain opportunity for the next generation in HK?
HMW restore free speech and legal independence in HK?
HMW trust each other?
HMW maintain HK’s core values?
HMW improve the competence of HK government leaders?
HMW maintain HK’s legal independence?
HMW stay here where we were born?
HMW eliminate pollution?
HMW increase our salaries?
HMW communicate better between stakeholder groups?
HMW be a role model for the PRC?
HMW afford a flat in HK?
HMW manage foreign influence better?
HMW engage HK youth to build our future?
HMW we work with the PRC/CCP?
What can you do?
Like many parts of the world mired in dialogue gap, Hong Kong is at a crossroads. If government leaders continue to ignore the protests of the people, conflict will continue and personal, economic and societal health will continue to deteriorate.
People who have lived through genocide tell me to warn the government leaders in Hong Kong to stop the slide into the abyss. The ultimate outcome of dialogue gap is self-destruction. We must choose dialogue to repair and remake Hong Kong better than before.
If you wish to help sponsor dialogue training or introduce senior government leaders to equip them with the dialogue skills and methods needed to resolve their dialogue puzzle, please contact me.
We cannot sit idly by while we watch people, organisations and societies we love descend into chaos while people remain stuck in dialogue gap. It is time to act and we have many trained dialogue leaders ready to help.
Peter Nixon FCPA, is an author, speaker, trainer and advisor to leaders in hundreds of organisations around the world. Since his bestseller Dialogue Gap went viral several years ago, governments have also engaged Peter for help with their increasingly difficult social conflicts spreading globally.
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