How Curiosity Deepens Our Connections & Helps Us Heal

September 22, 2023, 1 pm ET, Friday ONLINE

It’s no secret that division, loneliness, and polarization are on the rise—to catastrophic impact on our personal lives. While we often think of curiosity as a personality trait, internationally-recognized curiosity expert Scott Shigeoka knows that it’s actually the most potent tool we have to bridge our differences and heal relationships: From political blow-ups to age divides at work; religious differences to languishing friendships; gun rights to gender rights. In his book Seek, Shigeoka blends cutting edge research on curiosity with wisdom from years of grassroots community work and the stories of people living at the threshold of deep curiosity as he takes people on a journey to understand the power of deep curiosity. With electric vulnerability, thoughtful storytelling, and actionable tools, I call upon each of us to stop turning away from what is unfamiliar, uncomfortable or unknown and, instead, embrace our power to seek.

“He’s stupid.”

When we disagree with people, we sometimes find ourselves wanting to discard the whole person. With so much in our daily lives that we can’t control, showing disdain is a concrete action we can take to offer temporary relief. After those five seconds where our negative judgment feels like a tidying up of the world, does it ever really help?

How do we bridge our differences and move beyond “winning” an argument or just being "polite" to creating spaces for collaboration? How can we disagree and still move forward?

In this workshop, we’ll go beyond discussions of increasing global polarization and conflict to exploring what showing up for one another in the present moment can look like, even when it’s uncomfortable. Together we will identify the common threads that unite us and learn how to use them to have constructive dialogue with people who seem like they are on the opposing side

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