Delilah has lived in her community for more than 15 years. While she has been aware of immigration as a heated political issue at a national level, rarely have conversations about immigration been broached among her friends and colleagues in town. In recent months, the discourse has changed dramatically. Delilah finds herself in multiple conversations a week where her colleagues, friends and acquaintances are openly discussing the impacts of national immigration policy on their lives and in the happenings of their town.
Delilah is at a loss of words in these conversations. She has not felt a personal stake in issues of immigration in the past, nor does she have quality information about the issues and the policies at the center of the conversations. She decides she needs to become more informed. She recognizes that people she cares about are feeling deeply, and she wants to participate in their dialogues in a more meaningful way. In addition to growing her knowledge, Delilah resolves to grow her abilities to broach difficult conversations, manage difficult conversations and care for others in the process.
Delilah begins by organizing her own self-study and attending workshops in her hometown about the design and facilitation of difficult dialogue. Delilah is surprised that she feels more confident and skilled in the conversation relatively quickly and finds herself in numerous rich and challenging conversations. It is in these conversations that Delilah begins to realize her personal stake in issues of immigration and subsequently the urgency for her to engage in similarly challenging conversations on a number of other topics.
- The Issue: Delilah feels unprepared to engage in difficult conversations about immigration policy. She does not feel she has adequate knowledge or skill and wants to show up in conversations that are having sincere impact on people she cares about.
- The Deliberation: Delilah pushes through her feelings of inadequacy and initiates her own self-study on political issues and seeks resources to broach, manage and sustain difficult dialogues.
- The Growth: Delilah finds she has capacity to initiate and facilitate difficult dialogues, and through these conversations, she finds more meaningful connections to immigration issues. Her growth inspires her to further engage in difficult dialogues on other topics.