Who will we be on November 6th?

If everything goes as expected, we will know who the 47th president of the United States is when we wake up on the morning of November 6th. Regardless of the outcome, there will be a need to forge meaningful connections across difference and work together for the common good. This has always been the case, but even more so in what is one of the most divisive and contentious political cycles in modern history. And we must approach this election cycle with a commitment to civility and respect for every individual.

Civility does not mean that we avoid difficult conversations or that we don’t fight fiercely for our most cherished values or our most cherished future. Instead, a commitment to civility is deeply rooted in our most fundamental values of dignity and respect for the person. A commitment to civil discourse requires ?that we attack problems, not people. As we model civil and inclusive behavior, we recognize the power of difference in getting to a better outcome and we uphold the fundamental dignity and worth of every individual. In the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world we all live in, surrounding ourselves with a diversity of perspectives becomes a necessity and creating a psychologically safe culture of belonging around shared values becomes the fertile ground for everything great that is possible in our institutions, both public and private.

On a more fundamental level, I have been reflecting on the following thought originally attributed to Mother Teresa: “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other”. ?On November 6th, and every day after that, may we remember that, regardless of the election outcome, we belong to each other. May our every conversation and action reflect that truth and, in so doing, may we forge a future that is worthy of our collective action and hopeful imagination for a better tomorrow.