How to Discuss Your Differences with Others

In today’s hyper-partisan environment, it seems impossible to avoid people who voice opinions very different from our own. But what if we stopped looking that as a bad thing, and started seeing it as a good one?

Social media trains us to see them as adversaries, either intellectually challenged or ethically deficient. But what if there were another way to look at them, though, one that could help us better understand and respect them, and maybe even more effectively persuade them?

Join us for a discussion of the research and logic underlying our moral and political beliefs, and how to effectively understand and communicate with people no matter how different their views may be.

James Lemoine is an assistant professor of organization and human resources in the University at Buffalo School of Management, and a researcher with the school's Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (CLOE). His research focuses on leadership, ethics and creativity, and has been published in the Harvard Business Review and Business Horizons, as well as prestigious academic journals like the Academy of Management Annals and Journal of Applied Psychology. His work also frequently appears in magazines such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company and Entrepreneur. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, an international organization dedicated to sharing and promoting the servant leadership philosophy. Prior to obtaining his PhD at Georgia Tech, he was an entrepreneur, consultant and manager at companies such as AT&T.