"Our Minnesota" Cascading Conversations Tour 2014 Analysis: Theme 3 of 6

In honor of our sixth anniversary celebration, Minnesota Rising is excited to release the initial six findings from the "Our Minnesota" Cascading Conversations Tour! Watch the blog in the coming days to learn about how this group of emerging leaders views and does leadership in Minnesota. You can read more about the report methodology and participant profiles in the first post of this series. And as the name implies, we are looking to continue cascading these conversations across the state this summer - and invite you to join us. Let us know if you'd like to be invited to participate in a conversation and/or join our Advance Team and help host 3 to 5 conversations this summer!

Theme 3 of 6: Emerging Leaders use critical thinking and dialogue as key tools to address society’s complex and contentions public issues

Emerging leaders identified several complex issues that we will need to collectively address, including improvements in inclusion, equity, and the environment and eliminating disparities in education, employment, and income. In order to explore and tackle these challenging multi-generational issues, we will need to view them with clear eyes and seek out additional and representative voices in order to have a more expansive dialogue. One participant noted the value in “being asked to give my opinions on things. Sharing my ideas, communicating with everybody else in the group, made it feel like a shared effort because of all the different levels of positions. It's important to get people from all different levels, if it's applicable, getting an outside perspective” to solving issues. It means broadening who gets to be a part of policy discussions, being open to different frames on a topic, and working together to make it a reality. “[I]t is important to be mindful of the fact that nobody sees the whole picture, so it is vital for us to keep an open mind about strategies, goals, and the like.”

Quote Images: Created with a free account using the Piktochart.com.