I think employees could use some training on how liberals and conservatives think very differently. When I became familiar with Jonathan Haidt and his moral fou

I think employees could use some training on how liberals and conservatives think very differently. When I became familiar with Jonathan Haidt and his moral foundations theory, I was able to better understand where conservatives are coming from, and even became a lot better at persuading. For example, when talking about confederate statues coming down, a conservative will respond to arguments around why it's traditional and patriotic to remove those statues (along with why it's fair) whereas a liberal will concentrate only on why it's fair. Make an argument that focuses only on the fairness aspect and the conservative will remain unconvinced and the liberal will think the conservative is a horrible person, because the liberal heavily values fairness. Liberals are most sensitive to the Care and Fairness moral foundations and conservatives are equally sensitive to all the first five foundations. I think the sixth foundation was added for libertarians. - Care: cherishing and protecting others; opposite of harm. - Fairness or proportionality: rendering justice according to shared rules; opposite of cheating. - Loyalty or ingroup: standing with your group, family, nation; opposite of betrayal. - Authority or respect: submitting to tradition and legitimate authority; opposite of subversion. - Sanctity or purity: abhorrence for disgusting things, foods, actions; opposite of degradation. A sixth foundation, Liberty or oppression, was theorized by Jonathan Haidt in The Righteous Mind chapter 8. Once you understand that the other person is thinking about the problem in a very different way than you, you can stop talking past each other and start getting to a sort of understanding. Haidt's TED talk is a fun introduction to the subject. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs41JrnGaxc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs41JrnGaxc As a final note, I wonder if conservatives could use their own experiences to develop some much needed empathy for minorities and women in STEM? These groups seem to be at odds right now, but they actually have a lot in common when it comes to feeling like an outsider who will never fully be accepted. Likewise, minorities and women might be missing an opportunity for diversity allies because they are writing off conservatives as being against their cause without ever trying to look for common ground.