We’re suffering a crisis of disconnection: loneliness has doubled in the last 20 years, social isolation afflicts more than 60% of Americans, and 43% of us feel more anxious than we did last year. Loneliness and isolation easily lead to depression, resentment, anger, and violence at the extreme.

Meanwhile, 77% of us report having significant fear about the future of our country. Hyper-individualism and -partisanship add to a sense of fear and disconnection.  “Taking sides” has supplanted “having opinions.” We know from social psychology that the more distressed we are, the more susceptible we are to “conflict entrepreneurs,” who profit economically and politically from division. 

Concerned about divisiveness and rancor, in 2015 we took stock of what we had learned from more than a decade of Courageous Leadership programs with corporate, nonprofit, and government clients. We knew that our programs helped people (re)build trust and a shared sense of purpose in organizations. We collaborated with people and groups successfully reaching across differences to help us learn and strategize the unique contributions that we and our clients could make to community-building efforts.

Because at precisely the moment when people of goodwill need practical opportunities to reduce enmity and strengthen community, most Americans report feeling woefully ill-equipped to engage across our differences and lack trustworthy places and tools to do so. 

The vast majority of Americans:

• Want to work it out despite our differences. 

• Believe it’s our responsibility to bridge divides. 

• Want less partisan, more practical, civil leaders.

More in Common calls this group “The Exhausted Majority,” who are not nearly as visible as the much smaller but much louder groups of embattled activists. As numerous reports make painfully clear, most Americans yearn for ways to channel concerns into positive action, as outlined in our TEDxTalk on “Bridging Divides.”

When people realize we’re not as divided or as extreme as it may seem, fear declines and engagement becomes more possible. However, if the perception gap goes unchallenged, it easily becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Courageous Democracy provides evidence-based tools for bridging divides and creating a more caring, innovative, and sustainable society. Our participants report:

• decreased distress 

• increased capacity, skill, and motivation to bridge divides 

• enhanced ability to collaborate more effectively.

Jonathan Haidt’s Civil Politics, our third-party evaluators, report that our programs delivered “some of the–if not the strongest results–of any group we’ve assessed,” including statistically significant increases in:

• sense of belonging

• willingness to work to achieve common goals

• motivation to bridge political differences.

• positive views about people in different political parties.

Building on our successful iterations in business, Rotary, local government, and education, we leverage our connections to existing networks to scale up with trusted groups.

We offer our basic Courageous Democracy toolkit through facilitated sessions (online and in person), an upcoming series of videos, and online resources to apply our proven techniques. 

Project Director Bios:

Brooke Deterline is the Founder & CEO of Courageous Leadership. Brooke and her colleagues use evidence-based tools to help teams act with ethical courage and ingenuity under pressure. Building on her work with Phil Zimbardo, PhD at the Heroic Imagination Project, Brooke combines social and cognitive behavioral psychology tools with neuroscience to access our natural capacity for courage, compassion and wisdom. (See: TEDx: Ethical Courage)

Brooke has worked across all sectors of industry from nonprofits and governmental agencies to Fortune 500 companies, all with human-centered approaches grounded in evidence-based practices. 

Concerned about the polarized political climate, Brooke, colleagues and advisors from across the political landscape formed Courageous Democracy. (See: TEDxBridging Divides, The United States of Anxiety, and These Kids Are Learning to Have Bipartisan Conversations.) Brooke’s work has been featured in the New York Times and Oprah Magazine.

Previously, Brooke co-founded Street Smart IR, a San Francisco-based investor relations firm focusing on leadership candor and credibility. A former journalist at SmartMoney magazine and trained mediator, she has certifications in corporate board training at Berkeley’s Haas School, mediation training at the Justice Center of Atlanta, and executive finance at Stanford. Brooke lives in Richmond, California with her husband, Ken. They are profoundly blessed with beloved community.