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InfoQ Homepage Podcasts Linda Rising on Values, Morality and the Impact of Politics

Linda Rising on Values, Morality and the Impact of Politics

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In this podcast Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke Linda Rising about her talk at Agile 2017 in which she explores her own reaction to the politics in the USA and how it triggered her to research morality and values.   

Key Takeaways

  • The inclusiveness, openness, learning and joy that characterises the agile community
  • Exploring her own reactions to people with different political viewpoints and finding research into morality which helps explain them
  • There are values which are commonly held, but different groups empathise some over others
  • Experiments that show that even when people understand the differences in viewpoint individuals are largely unable to argue from the “other” perspective
  • Seek to come to an understanding of other people’s values, even if you don’t share them

Show Notes

  • 00:20 Introductions
  • 01:25 The inclusiveness, openness, learning and joy that characterises the agile community
  • 02:25 The Chinese edition of More Fearless Change published
  • 02:55 The pattern language of fearless change
  • 03:35 Trying to make sense of the reactions to Donald Trump’s election
  • 04:00 Labelling others based on their political persuasion
  • 04:40 Actively looking to understand her own reaction and that of others
  • 05:05 Research in Morality
  • 02:15 TED talk by Johathan Haidt on morality and his book
  • 05:35 Philosophers do experiments
  • 06:05 The common set of values shared by Americans:
    • Taking care of others
    • Fairness and social justice
    • Patriotism & loyalty
    • Respect for authority
    • There are some things that are sacred (not necessarily religion)
  • 06:35 Describing some of the experiments
  • 07:30 There is a clear division between the weight that different groups (in the USA Liberals and Conservatives) put on the different values. 
  • 07:40 Liberals put more weight on the first two – care for others and social justice
  • 07:50 Conservatives put more weight on loyalty, authority and sacredness
  • 08:30 Experiments that show that even when people understand the differences in viewpoint individuals are largely unable to argue from the “other” perspective
  • 09:40 This results in blinkered discussions – we are unable to see the other’s perspective and want to argue not just based on the facts but on our own set of values
  • 10:05 Example of arguing for increased military spending from the two different value perspectives
  • 12:00 The realization of Linda’s own viewpoint and referencing that to Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits – Seek first to understand, then to be understood
  • 12:35 The pattern in Fearless Change:  fear less – listen to what others have to say first
  • 13:05 This goes beyond politics and has implications for teams and organisational cultures – the formation of tribes and entrenched viewpoints vs listening to each other and seeking to truly understand
  • 14:01 The personal challenges of actively working to understand and Linda’s own story of change
  • 16:00 These are hard changes for people to make
  • 16:35 Seek to come to an understanding of other people’s values, even if you don’t share them

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