Doubt and Dissent A critical task of leadership is to protect space for the expression of peoples doubts. The act of surfacing doubts and dissent does not deflect the communal intention to create something new. What is critical, and hard to live with, is that leaders do not have to respond to each persons doubts. None of us do. Authentic dissent is complete simply in its expression. When we think we have to answer peoples doubts and defend ourselves, then the space of dissent closes down. When people have doubts, and we attempt to answer them, we are colluding with their reluctance to be accountable for their own future. All we have to do with the doubts of others is get interested in them. We do not have to take them on or let them resonate with our own doubts. We just get interested. One place where this is least understood is in the relationship between police and citizens. Few civil servants put themselves at such risk or are more vulnerable than the police. No civil servants are literally more physically present in a community than police. Police are constantly in community conversations talking about public safety. Police get into a problem when they think they are responsible for public safety. They are not. Citizens are responsible for public safety; citizens commit crimes, prevent crimes, and create conditions where crime is high or low. As long as police take responsibility for safety, they are going to stay in a defensive stance, which moves nothing forward. Police are responsible for enforcing the law, apprehending the criminals, and mediating or stopping violence. Police are not suppliers of safety to a passive citizenry. Safety is not a product purchased from the police. When citizens want to place responsibility for safety on the police, and police defend themselves, they collude with citizen unwillingness to claim their sidewalks and community as their own. Listening is the action step that replaces defending ourselves. Listening, understanding at a deeper level than is being expressed, is the action that creates a restorative community. This does not mean that police, in this case, do not need to change or be involved in later problem solving; of course they do, as do the rest of us. It does mean that instead of answering every question, defending their actions, they can ask questions to find out more about the concerns, doubts, and even the lives of citizens. Compiled From: Community: The Structure of Belonging — Peter Block, pp.131, 132
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 04:29:18 +0000
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